The criminal justice debate is often divided into two camps: “Tough on Crime” and “Soft on Crime.” What we need is “Smart on Crime” — policies that distinguish between nonviolent, low-risk offenders and violent, career criminals.
Last November, the bipartisan Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians released its recommendations . If enacted, these proposals will begin to transition the Peach State away from expensive prison-centric policies for nonviolent, low-risk offenders — a shift that conservatives in Georgia and across the country are ready to get behind.
With nearly 56,000 inmates, Georgia’s prison population has doubled in just two decades, and so have the costs. In fiscal 1990, the corrections system cost $492 million. Today, it drains $1 billion annually from the state budget. .
It is important to note that this expanding prison population is the result of a distinct set of problematic policies that have placed more and more offenders behind bars and kept them there for longer. While we can all agree that violent, career criminals need to be in prison, many of those behind bars have committed minor, nonviolent crimes that would be better addressed through rehabilitation and treatment programs, probation and other alternative sanctions.
There is also a revolving door problem. Today in Georgia, nearly one in three former inmates is reconvicted of a crime within three years of release, a rate that has remained unchanged in the last decade.
In an attempt to avoid the “soft on crime” label, policymakers have failed to enact “smart on crime” policies, but necessity breeds innovation. As budget shortfalls grow, even law-and-order states have begun to look toward reform.
In 2007, Texas faced a five-year projected shortfall of 17,000 prison beds. Rather than feeding taxpayer dollars into a broken system, Texas adopted reforms, including incentive-based funding for local communities to strengthen probation and parole systems. Two years later, Texas enhanced proven community corrections approaches, including drug courts, and invested in community treatment facilities for people with mental health and substance abuse issues. As a result, Texas avoided $2 billion in prison construction costs and saw its crime rate fall to the lowest point since 1973.
Each of the 19 states that reduced incarceration rates between 1999 and 2009 saw crime rates fall too.
The Council’s recommendations, based on proven strategies from Texas and other states, are an excellent first step toward meaningful criminal justice reform in Georgia. These recommendations will begin to control corrections costs, hold offenders and the government accountable and, most importantly, improve public safety.
David Keene is former chairman of the American Conservative Union. Randy Hicks is CEO of the Georgia Family Council.
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