The governor’s criminal justice reform council will meet Tuesday in Forsyth to discuss policy changes that it may recommend to the state Legislature in a few months.

The council, whose membership the governor expanded from 13 to 21 after the 2012 legislative session and the passage of House Bill 1176, is now focused on reducing youth recidivism in hopes that it will stem the number of adult offenders and decrease the state’s corrections costs. HB 1176 created a statewide system of accountability courts, increased the felony threshold for certain non-violent crimes such as shoplifting and reduced penalties for non-violent, drug-related crimes.

Previous meetings of the council focused on examining the problems of the juvenile justice system, namely that Georgia spends more than $90,000 per bed annually for secure youth residential facilities and that the three-year recidivism rate for youth at these facilities is 65 percent.

Meanwhile, the public interest law firm Southern Center for Human Rights is urging the criminal justice reform council to steer away from policies that may bolster private prison and probation industries.

In a report released Monday, the Southern Center contends that for-profit prison and probation companies actually cost taxpayers more per inmate than prisons and probation run by the government, present more dangerous conditions because they hire lower-paid, less-experienced guards and operate without public oversight because their records are exempt from open government laws.

The center also is urging the council to consider revising mandatory minimum sentences to give judges more discretion, enhancing rehabilitation programs, creating penalties for poor performing private prisons and establishing standards for how indigent probationers are handled by private probation programs so that they won’t be incarcerated for failure to pay fines
unless the court determines the failure is willful.

Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Michael Boggs told the Atlanta Bar Association’s Litigation Section this morning that the governor’s expanded criminal justice reform council is now focusing on lowering recidivism among youth offenders and should have a report of suggested policy changes ready by December.

This summer, Governor Nathan Deal renewed the council’s charter and increased  its membership from 13 to 21. He also directed the council to study juvenile justice reforms.

Boggs, co-chairman of the reform council and  a former Waycross Circuit Superior Court judge, said among the strategies being considered by the council are establishing ways to incorporate youth offenders back into their communities, revising the designated felony act to give judges more sentencing options and studying school referrals of delinquent youth into the juvenile court system.

“The earlier in the continuum that we can address criminal justice reform to keep people out of the adult criminal justice system, I think the better off this state will be,” Boggs said.
Housing youth offenders in youth detention centers costs the state roughly $91,000 a year per offender, Boggs said. The bulk of the cost is due to mandate on the juvenile justice system to provide a certified education to juveniles in custody.

The state currently has 619 offenders in youth detention centers, he said.

“By the time they get out, 65 percent will be back within three years,” said Boggs. “They don’t graduate from high school, but they sure do from juvenile court to superior court.”

Last year, the council recommended policy changes aimed at adult offenders which led to omnibus overhaul legislation known as House Bill 1176, which included establishing a statewide system of accountability courts, increasing some non-violent felony thresholds and lowering the penalties for some non-violent, drug-related crimes.

Boggs also said one of his goals is to build consensus among the 21-member panel, which includes judges, lawyers and lawmakers, for the restoration of judicial discretion in sentencing. The council last year failed to reach unanimous agreement on the issue. Some reduced minimum sentences were suggested to the state Legislature, but not all were included in the omnibus overhaul legislation known as House Bill 1176.

“Mandatory minimums take away discretion from that very judge who is in the courtroom who can see witnesses and who can judge the evidence and who can determine best aggravating and mitigating circumstances and who can decide best in that setting what is an appropriate sentence,” Boggs said.

The executive order signed by Governor Nathan Deal reassembling the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform adds several new members, including more prosecutors, a sheriff and his son—Northeastern Judicial Circuit Judge Jason Deal.

The order also mandates the now 21-member board to submit a report to the governor’s office, speaker of the House, lieutenant governor, chief justice of the state Supreme Court and chief judge of the state Court of Appeals by Dec. 31.

The criminal justice reform efforts began in the winter of 2011, shortly after Deal took office. He and other state leaders were motivated by the state’s growing incarceration rate and related cost.

The original council, which was legislatively created in the 2011 session, had 13 members, who were appointed by the governor, speaker, lieutenant governor and chief justice. The council met frequently last year and released the first report in November,
which yielded overhaul legislation known as House Bill 1176 in the 2012 session of the General Assembly that included the creation of a statewide system of accountability courts, a weight-based scheme for drug possession prosecution and more sentencing options for nonviolent offenders.

The complete membership of the reassembled council is:

- Fulton County Superior Court Judge Todd Markle*, who is also former executive counsel to Gov. Deal

- Douglas County District Attorney David McDade*

- State Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein*

- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bill Hamrick*, R-Carrollton

- Rep. Jay Powell*, R-Camilla, who is also a former mayor of Camilla

- State Bar of Georgia President Ken Shigley*

- State Court of Appeals Judge Mike Boggs*

- Senate Ethics Committee Chairman John Crosby*, R-Tifton

- Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver*, D-Decatur

- Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville*

- Sen. Ronald Ramsey*, D-Decatur

- Rep. Willie Talton*, R-Warner Robins

- Judicial Qualifications Commission member Linda Evans*

- Clayton County Juvenile Court Judge Steven Teske

- Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter

- Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry

- Northeastern Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Jason Deal

- Lowndes County Solicitor-General Justo Cabral

- House Judiciary Committee Chairman Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs

- Governor’s Deputy Executive Counsel David Werner

- House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta

(*= original members)

The order names Werner and Boggs as co-chairmen of the council. Markle was chairman last year.

Georgia could see its incarceration rate and costs lowered over the next five years as recently signed legislation kicks in, channeling low-level, nonviolent offenders away from prison and toward treatment and rehabilitation programs.

Gov. Nathan Deal signed the criminal justice reform bill (House Bill 1176) this afternoon in the north wing of the Capitol. Among the bill’s provisions are the creation of statewide drug and mental health court programs, increased felony thresholds for property crimes such as theft and shoplifting and a weight-based system of drug possession prosecution that allows for lower sentences for smaller amounts.

Estimates released in late March pegged the state’s cost savings at $264 million over the next five years.Later, in front of a smaller audience, Deal signed Senate Bill 383, which creates specific provisions for conducting international commercial arbitration in Georgia. Prior to the bill’s passage by the 2012 Georgia General Assembly, Deal voiced support for a multi-law firm coalition seeking to make Atlanta a premier venue for alternative dispute resolution among international companies.

The various provisions of the criminal justice overhaul legislation will go into effect at different times. The statewide accountability court systems and the new felony thresholds will start this July. The weight-based drug possession scheme will start on July 1, 2013, for Schedule I and II drugs and on July 1, 2014, for Schedule III through V drugs.

The international commercial arbitration bill goes into effect on July 1.

State Bar of Georgia President Ken Shigley attended both bill signings. Both measures found support from the bar.

Read more »

A Georgia criminal justice overhaul bill could be submitted to the General Assembly as early as today, according to House Judiciary Chairman Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs.

Willard told the Daily Report Monday morning that he’d just signed the bill as a sponsor. He described the legislation as a 100-plus-page omnibus bill that tackles sentencing options in Georgia courts, restoring some judicial discretion and reducing minor traffic offenses from misdemeanors to violations so that offenders are subject to civil penalties but do not have to appear in court.

Willard is one of 18 members of a joint House and Senate committee tasked with reviewing and voting on legislation and resolutions that incorporate the recent recommendations of the state’s Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform.

The special council is composed of judges, lawyers and legislators. Their recommendations, which were released in November, included creating a statewide system of accountability courts and giving judges more sentencing options for non-violent offenders.

Willard said he was the third sponsor signed on to the bill, which is expected to be filed by House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee Chairman Rich Golick, R-Smyrna.

Willard  told participants of Saturday’s Georgia Bar Media and Judiciary Conference that the bill will take an alternate path than most bills filed earlier in the session.

The joint committee “will work it as a document out of that one committee, which will then go to the House for consideration,” Willard said. “Passing the House, it will go directly to the Senate floor. So, it will not be going through the normal committee process.”

As a result of this process, the bill does not need to cross from the Senate to the House by the end of the 30^th legislative day of the session to stay alive. Most other bills have to move from one chamber to the other by that day.

The effort to reduce recidivism and the amount of money the state spends annually to house offenders began last year when the governor announced legislation creating the special council and tasking it with studying the problems and finding legislative solutions.

Read related Daily Report articles on criminal justice reform in Georgia:

• Survey: DAs divided on justice reform
• Criminal justice report issued
• Georgia prisons will see 4 percent population rise, researchers say