By Bill Rankin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — Gov. Nathan Deal’s criminal justice reform council Monday began its work to find money-saving ways to sentence and manage the state’s criminal population.
The panel must submit recommendations in time for the 2013 General Assembly. This past session, the Legislature enacted a sentencing reform package projected to save taxpayers $264 million in prison spending over the next five years.
House Bill 1176 is designed to divert nonviolent drug and property offenders away from prison to less-expensive alternatives, such as drug, mental health and other so-called accountability courts.
“You made Georgia one of the leaders on this nationwide,” Jason Newman, of the Pew Center on the States, which assists the council, told members.
“You should be commended.”
State Court of Appeals Judge Michael Boggs, a co-chair of the council, said no issue is off the table that ensures public safety and is fiscally responsible.
Among issues to be considered, Boggs said, are decriminalization of certain traffic offenses, safety valves for some minimum mandatory prison sentences, a rewrite of the state’s juvenile justice code and ways to allow inmates to shave time off sentences if they behave well and meet goals.
The council, composed of lawmakers, judges, lawyers and law enforcement, also is co-chaired by David Werner, the governor’s deputy executive council. The governor appointed his son, Jason Deal, a Superior Court judge who oversees accountability courts in Hall and Dawson counties, to the council.
Copyright 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution