Though using state prison labor may look like a good deal, some members of the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners wonder if the work details are worth the expense. Reported in the Dalton Daily Citizen.

Commissioners on Monday approved 3-1 the county’s annual contract with the Georgia Department of Corrections for inmate labor. Four crews will cost the county $158,000. Each crew can have up to 10 workers. Commissioner Greg Jones voted against the contract, while Chairman Mike Babb only votes to break ties.

Commissioners will revisit whether inmate labor is cost effective. They can cancel or amend the contract, which begins July 1, at any point by giving seven day’s notice. One crew is used for maintenance and light construction, one is used for trash pickup and mowing, while the other two crews are on concrete detail.

Jones suggested only paying for one crew. The concrete work can be bid out cheaper than the inmate labor costs, Commissioner Harold Brooker said. He’s also concerned about the work schedule of the crews because they show up at odd times or sometimes not at all.

Commissioners Mike Cowan and Randy Waskul believe inmate labor is cost effective, referencing a county cost-benefit study several years ago.

“I think four crews is a bargain,” Waskul said.

Public Works Director Alex Barber said he has “mixed feelings” about use of the inmate crews.

jchev Georgia, Inmate Labor

The Georgia Department of Corrections will create a cooperative venture in Macon to ease convicts back into society and turn them away from lives of crime, state officials said Wednesday. News from the Macon Telegraph.

The venture should launch within 60 days, said Joe Baden, who is coordinating the effort for the state agency. Four Macon police officers will be assigned to work in the new Community Impact Program, said Macon Deputy Police Chief Mike Carswell.

“Our folks are chomping at the bits. They’re ready to go,” Carswell said after a meeting in Atlanta to discuss programs for Macon and Columbus.

Baden said the state is negotiating for about 1,500 square feet of space behind the existing Day Reporting Center at 543 Second St. in Macon. The Macon Community Impact Program could later be expanded by another 3,000 square feet in the same building.

Initial partners could include the Georgia Department of Corrections, the Macon Police Department, River Edge Behavioral Health Center, Department of Juvenile Justice and state parole officers. River Edge hopes to get a grant to have counselors on staff, Baden said. Challenges for people leaving jail or prison often include poor education and life skills and problems finding jobs or housing.

Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens said collaborative approaches ultimately can cut down on the number of crimes being committed, making people feel and be safer.

“The offenders are talking to each other. For a change, we’re talking, too,” Owens said.

But such changes require compromise. Macon police plan to shift the four officers out of the warrants division. The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office supports the concept but struggles to find enough staff for its regular duties, said Chief Deputy David Davis.

“Our issue right now is we’re just short-staffed all the way through,” Davis said.

Macon’s initial Community Impact Program will be modeled on an Atlanta program, which is modeled on a program in Savannah. A group called the Macon Re-Entry Coalition, led by state and federal probation officers with dozens of partners, has been pushing for a similar effort here.

Bibb County Commissioner Joe Allen said he would try to get more deputies. The county has offered the former Macon Baptist Association building to the Macon Re-Entry Coalition. The group initially asked for the former Virgil Powers School, which has been promised to a somewhat similar program being planned by Juvenile Court officials.

The Atlanta Community Impact Program has been running for about seven months. Atlanta police Sgt. Lamar Hester told Bibb County officials that partnerships brings deep benefits. Hester said police officers on patrol might see people lounging around houses, perhaps waiting to make drug deals, but don’t have probable cause to search the area. Probation officers can search the sleeping and common areas of people on probation but struggled to get police to follow up. Together, they’re more effective.

Hester said experience brings other benefits. Some probationers report their address as torn-down housing projects or use a trick from the “Blues Brothers” movie.

“Offenders give 755 Hank Aaron Drive,” he said. “That’s Turner Field. Our officers know that.”

The Macon area has about 5,200 people on probation. Stacy Rivera, chief probation officer for the Macon Judicial Circuit and a leader in the Macon Re-Entry Coalition, said collaboration is necessary to turn around lives of people leaving prisons.

“We know that we’ve got to address this re-entry problem, and it’s not something we can do by ourselves,” she said.

jchev Community Corrections, Georgia, Re-Entry

Clayton County has had more than its share of problems in recent years but the one that people don’t hear much about is a shortage of prisoners. News from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The county’s prison has had extra cots and warden Frank Smith has been asking the Georgia Department of Corrections to send more prisoners to use for work details — ranging from picking up rubbish to maintaining county vehicles — for a year and a half, without any luck.

Prison labor stimulates the local economy because the DOC pays the county $20 a day for each prisoner. Even if the cost of housing that inmate is factored in, the 16 extra prisoners requested by Clayton would save the county $317, 485 over the next year, compared to what it would cost to hire workers to do the same jobs, Smith said.

Clayton is one of 24 counties in Georgia with prisons that house about 5,000 prisoners, according to the DOC Web site, and Clayton isn’t the only one in metro Atlanta looking for economic relief from state prisoners.

Gwinnett County has space for about 513 prisoners and a prison population of about 400. So far, the prison hasn’t requested more state prisoners, but it is something under consideration, spokesman Lt. Gary Gordijn said.

However, Jimmy Sikes, Spalding County prison warden, said he’s not requesting more prisoners. “We’re full up,” Sikes said on Tuesday. “We’ve got 384, and I think only three extra beds.”

Clayton, which has operated a prison using convict labor since 1992, has an agreement with the state to receive a maximum of 226 prisoners. Capacity was expanded to 242 in 2008 when 16 twin bunks were installed in prison dormitories.

Since the Department of Corrections has to pay $20 a day per prisoner and its budget was decreased, it reduced the number of prisoners sent last year to some counties, including Gwinnett. Two weeks ago, Clayton County Commission Eldrin Bell and Smith met with the DOC and the state agreed to send Clayton more prisoners.

“When we first asked, the DOC said they couldn’t afford to pay us the $20 a day,” Smith said. “I think they’ve worked that out.”

Clayton prison already sends about 180 prisoners per day out on work details, saving the county roughly $2.8 million a year – after housing and other costs are factored in – that it would otherwise spend on county payroll.

“It helps offset the costs of county government,” the warden said.

About a dozen inmates work for the Clayton County Water Authority, doing everything from grounds maintenance to equipment repair and maintenance, general manager Michael Thomas said.

The authority isn’t a county department, so it pays the county prison $30 a day for each inmate. Thomas said there are additional costs to supervise the inmates (none have escaped in the last five years said Smith), but it’s still worth it.

Each inmate costs half as much as a regular employee when such things as medical benefits are considered, Thomas estimated.

“Obviously, they’re a lot cheaper than hiring somebody,” Thomas said. “We’re always trying to squeeze a nickel. So it helps.”

jchev Economic Issues, Georgia

As Georgia lawmakers desperately search for ways to slash spending, they are not debating an option taken by other states: cutting the prison population. Reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Georgia operates the fifth-largest prison system in the nation, at a cost of $1 billion a year. The job of overseeing 60,000 inmates and 150,000 felons on probation consumes 1 of every 17 state dollars.

The state’s prison population has jumped by more than a quarter in the past decade and officials expect the number of state inmates to continue to creep upward. Georgia has resorted to measures other than reducing the prison population to keep corrections spending under control.

“The adage says, ‘If you do the crime, you do the time,’ and we still have a Legislature that tends to believe in that,” said Rep. Terry Barnard (R-Glennville), who chairs a House committee that oversees prisons and other state facilities.

Georgia prisoners are serving longer sentences due to tough-on-crime laws adopted in the 1990s. Those laws ban early release through parole for many offenders. A wave of convictions related to illegal methamphetamine also pushed up prison admissions in recent years.

Enough states are experimenting with keeping fewer offenders behind bars that the total number of state prisoners held nationwide declined this year for the first time in nearly four decades, according to a new report by the Pew Center on the States.
The Pew study found that prison populations dropped in half the states. Georgia was among the states that posted an increase.

Budget problems played a role in the prison population reductions elsewhere. But so did a sense among some policy makers that continuing to put greater numbers of offenders behind bars for longer sentences would not be effective at reducing crime, especially for some non-violent offenders and those incarcerated on drug charges.

Texas and Mississippi are among the states that have cut prison populations. Texas avoided a huge prison population gain and $2 billion in expected prison costs by investing in residential and community-based treatment and diversion programs. The state spent $241 million to create the programs – a fraction of the cost of incarceration. Texas also granted parole to more prisoners and cut probation sentences.

Mississippi reduced its prison population and saved millions by allowing nonviolent offenders to be considered for parole after serving 25 percent of a sentence, instead of the 85 percent previously required. More than 3,000 offenders were released an average of 13 months earlier than they would have been under the old law. The state uses a sophisticated tool to determine which inmates pose a low risk and so far recidivism rates have been low.

“A wide mix of states across the country are reaching across the partisan aisle and finding ways to cut recidivism and corrections spending, but that doesn’t seem to be happening in Georgia,” said Adam Gelb, director of the Public Safety Performance Project at the Pew Center on the States.

States working to cut prison populations are relying on new research that helps them identify which offenders are likely to do well outside of prison and which programs work best to discourage recidivism.

“We know a tremendous amount more today than we did 30 years ago, when we started down the prison building path, about how to stop the revolving door,” Gelb said.

Cutting Georgia’s prison population hasn’t been debated this year, even as legislators have considered drastic cuts in education, health care programs and the judiciary. Given the state’s finances, some influential voices say it is time to begin a conversation about prison spending.

State Rep. Chuck Martin (R-Alpharetta), who leads a subcommittee that oversees public safety spending, said it makes sense for the Legislature to study alternatives.

Martin said sentencing some low-risk offenders to house arrest at night, while requiring them to work during the day, could be more effective than placing them behind bars for a year with hardened criminals. Such an approach could conserve resources to keep dangerous offenders locked up, he said, while also steering low-level offenders into more productive lives.

“If they are non-violent and do not pose a risk to the community or themselves,” Martin said, “let’s find a way to punish them and make them continue to work and pay restitution and support their family.”

Newt Gingrich, the former Georgia Republican congressman who served as Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, wrote recently in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “Georgia simply can’t afford for the corrections system to maintain the status quo.”

Gingrich argued that recidivism rates are unacceptably high and that churches and non-profits need to offer more resources and support to help offenders who are released from prison build productive lives in the community.

“Celebrating taking criminals off the street with little thought to their imminent return to society is foolhardy,” Gingrich wrote in the article, which was co-authored by Mark Earley, a former attorney general of Virginia.

Supervising an offender on parole costs Georgia taxpayers an average of $4.43 a day, compared with $46 a day to house someone in prison.

While it has not cut the prison population, Georgia has restrained prison spending. The Department of Corrections has reduced staffing even as the number of prison inmates rose. That’s been possible by replacing antiquated prisons with modestly-priced “fast track” additions to existing prisons that can be safely operated with fewer correctional officers.

The Department of Corrections, which today has about 13,000 employees, has eliminated more than 1,500 positions in the past year.

The state has also opened about a dozen “day reporting centers” — cost-effective facilities where offenders on probation report during the day for help with substance abuse, criminal thinking, education and employment issues. Research shows that such programs cut down on costly readmissions to prison.

The state is also experimenting with in-patient substance abuse treatment for some offenders in prison. The new program is expected to shorten the time some drug offenders spend behind bars.

“It’s a combination of things that have taken place that have helped sustain us and get us through this,” said Michael Nail, who oversees prison operations for the Department of Corrections.

The department’s approach, Nail said, emphasizes long-term changes that will save money year after year.

Georgia’s prison population continues to rise. But the increases aren’t at nearly the rate experienced between 2000 and 2005, when the number of convictions related to illegal methamphetamine use exploded.

“When we look at the prison population and the growth, it is actually leveling off,” Nail said.

Still, the state can’t yet handle all the offenders sentenced to serve time in prison. The state’s 57,000 prison beds are filled, with more than 2,000 prisoners being held in county jails until space in a state prison is available.

In spite of Georgia’s dire financial condition, Barnard said, he doesn’t think the state has reached a point where it needs to consider changes in sentencing to save money.

During his 16 years in the Legislature, he said, the number of inmates locked up and spending on prisons have both about doubled.

“I haven’t seen anyone from the streets saying that’s wasting money,” Barnard said. “Public safety is very important in Georgia.”

jchev Economic Issues, Georgia

A program designed to help ex-convicts reintegrate into the community may be on it’s way to Macon. The Macon Reentry Coalition started in 2008, to look at how to reach offenders before they go back to a life of crime. Story reported by 13WMAZ.

In 2009, the Georgia prison system released 404 inmates who call Bibb County home.

Now, more than fifteen organizations are on board to get a reentry program started in Macon, including the city, the county, and the Department of Corrections. Derrell Dean loves a good game of dominos at the Macon Rescue Mission. It’s a big change from the activities that used to occupy his life.

Dean says, “I’ve been dealing with drugs for a long time, and drugs kinda had me super messed up, and I couldn’t seem to shake it, I didn’t have any tools to work with, I had no knowledge about addiction or any of that.”

He adds, “that’s what I lived to do and what I did to live, was get high. But today I don’t have to do that anymore.”

Dean wanted a fresh start. He says, “I was tired of prisons, tired of jails, tired of living like an animal.” So he came to the River Edge Behavioral Health Care Center and enrolled in substance abuse counseling.

“I think that’s a wonderful thing because, had I not gotten involved with this place here, and the Rescue Mission and other places that help people like me, I would have been either on my way back to prison or dead.”

It’s just one part of a Community Impact Program to help people like Dean when they get out of prison. Macon’s Chief Probation Officer Stacy Rivera says her office, the police department and agencies like River Edge all see many of the same clients.

Rivera says, “we’re all kind of off doing our own thing, doing what we do best, but we need to communicate more, we need to bring it all under one roof, all to one table so we are addressing the crime problem the way it needs to be addressed. The solution is not always to just lock someone up.”

That’s why she says the Macon Reentry Coalition wants to show high risk offenders where to go to get help.

Rivera says, “if you’re releasing them and you’re not servicing them, what are they going to do? They are going to create more victims, so we just think we are being smarter about it, with reentry.”

Demetra Butler runs the Savannah Impact Program, a model for other cities like Macon. They offer services for high risk offenders on probation and parole, and others who maxed out their sentence, much like Macon hopes to do.

Butler says, “why set the person up to fail? Why set them up to go back to doing what they are accustomed to doing–selling drugs, prostitution, breaking into homes, whatever it is, that drives up our crime.”

Butler says since 2005, 409 offenders came to the program for help voluntarily. Of those 409, she says only 10 have gone back to prison on new felony convictions.

She says, “these people need to be positively reintegrated into the community, and to give them that, not hand-out but hand-up to say we have these resources that are going to be available for you.”

Butler says the people in the program are proof that it works, like Randy Brown, who joined the Savannah Impact Program three years ago after spending 17 years in and out of prison. Now Brown works at the site as a maintenance supervisor.

He says, “I told them I had a past history with drugs, and just put all my cards on the table and said I need help, will you help me? And I got all the help I needed right here at Savannah Impact, and it’s a miracle because this is the longest I’ve ever had a job or anything.”

Brown says he never wants to go back to life on the streets. Now, he drives his own car and pays his own bills. He says just years ago, he was living in an abandoned home.

He says, “this is the longest I’ve ever been out without getting into trouble, none at all, so this is an accomplishment for me.” Brown says now he lives for his children, and nothing could take him away from them.

Demetra Butler says officers with the program go and talk to offenders before they get out of prison, to tell them about the program and the resources that are available.

She says, “often times before that person gets home, we have that plan in place as to where they are going to stay, whether it’s with a family member, we have appointments and schedules set up for them, we even have the necessary social services set up, IDs, so when this person comes home, we’ve got a plan set so the anxiety is not so overwhelming.”

She says, “for those who really want the assistance, they appreciate the assistance, they appreciate the help that they have been given.”

Most people are in the program for about six to twelve months, but she says some stay for much longer, and continue to call and check in with program officials.

The program offers clients a varitey of classes on site, some of those include moral recognition therapy, anger management, and courses to help them get a GED so they can find employment, and reintegrate into everyday life.

The program also provides a savings to taxpayers. It costs $55 a day to house an inmate in the Bibb County Jail. But the cost for intensive probation supervision is only about $3.86.

Stacy Rivera says, “we’re being smarter about crime, and number one we want to keep the community safe, that’s the whole goal of this.”

Derrell Dean says he’s proud of where he is today, and hopes a program like reentry can offer assistance to others like him who need it most.

He says, “a lot of addicts, they don’t know that help is available, because I didn’t know, as many times as I’ve been in and out of jail I never really got an education about drugs, and I didn’t know why I kept doing what I was doing.”

But he says he knows now that a game of dominos is the best way to spend his time. Dean says, “I cry alot because I have real sincere feelings about where I am today.”

The Macon Reentry Coalition still has a few obstacles, the major one is funding. Stacy Rivera says the Department of Corrections fully supports Macon’s plans to establish a Community Impact Program, but have not committed funding yet.

They are also still working on which agency will lead the effort. In Savannah, it’s an extension of the police department, with funding coming from the city.

The Macon Police Department says as of now, they plan to devote a captain, sergeant and two officers to reentry.

Coalition members also continue looking into a location for the program here in Macon. They hope to have something up and running by the end of the year.

jchev GA Bibb County, Georgia, Inmate Programs, Re-Entry

Gov. Sonny Perdue is pushing to merge the state’s parole and probation functions under the Department of Corrections.

A bill that would combine the operations is being introduced by Rep. Jim Cole, the governor’s senior floor leader in the House. The bill is designed to improve community supervision of parolees and probationers and streamline administrative positions between the two agencies.

The bill could cut in half the number of offices the agencies use, double the number of field officers and increase the sentencing options for offenders.

It is not immediately known how many jobs could be affected by the proposal.

jchev Georgia, Parole

Rick Jacobs has been named warden of Hays State Prison in Trion, the Georgia Department of Corrections has announced. The appointment is effective Jan. 1.

Jacobs, a native of Rome and Floyd College graduate, has been with the Georgia Department of Corrections for 17 years.

“Rick Jacobs has worked his way through the ranks since joining the Department in 1992,” said DOC Commissioner Brian Owens. “He has done a great job with every task that has been assigned to him, and I know he will be a great leader to the staff at Hays State Prison.”

Jacobs originally joined the Georgia Department of Corrections as a probation officer. Since then, he has held positions including assistant superintendent, superintendent, warden and director of special operations. Jacobs’ most recent assignment was Macon State Prison.

In addition to an associate’s degree from Floyd College, Jacobs holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Georgia State University and a master’s degree in public administration from Columbus State University.

He is a graduate of the Georgia Law Enforcement Command College and serves as an adjunct professor in criminal justice and management at Columbus State University.

jchev Georgia, Personnel Issues

Cedric Woodcock stood at attention next to his bunk Tuesday morning at the Coastal Transitional Center, gainfully employed and optimistic about his future. Reported by the Savannah Morning News.

The 33-year-old said he entered the state Department of Corrections system in April 2007 after being convicted of robbery by intimidation, and now he’s eager to complete his sentence on parole and continue life as a free man with his children in Jesup.

“All these people want you to do is succeed,” Woodcock said. “I feel like with what I learned here, I can.”

During his seven months at the center, Woodcock said, he secured a job installing garage doors for a company in Pooler. He also has learned to stay away from the drugs that fueled the decisions that led to his arrest in May 2006.

But according to transitional center officials, Woodcock is one of the lucky residents of the facility, where the economic downturn crippled the employment ratio. As of Tuesday morning, only about 60 percent of Coastal Transitional inmates have found jobs.

“When the economy was rocking, we were up at around 90 percent,” said Richard James, outgoing superintendent of the facility near Louisville Road and Stiles Avenue. “Then the economy dropped, and none of them could find anything.”

James, who will leave his post in Savannah for a job with the Department of Homeland Security in Brunswick, said the job drought has forced center officials to suspend job searches outside the facility until Jan. 4. And when searches return, they’ll be limited to two days a week, he said.

The facility – designed to introduce inmates to productive, lawful lives outside prison walls – suffered a black eye last month after two of its participants were arrested on armed robbery charges.

The facility’s image took a hit again earlier this month, when a former inmate was convicted in the 2005 rape of a Savannah College of Art and Design student.

During a recent community meeting at the Carver Heights Community Center by state Rep. Bob Bryant to address the two November armed robberies, James told the audience of a dozen residents and elected officials the same crimes could have occurred if the two suspects were released on parole or with a completed sentence.

Tuesday, James said that of the 500 or so people transferred to the center every year, only a handful committed crimes while on release.

The majority of residents who ended up in county jail were arrested on lesser charges such as public urination or drinking in public.

“What are six to eight incidents out of 500?” he said. “It’s amazing to see how a lot of these guys change from when they roll in here off the bus.”

James said about 80 percent of his inmates were referred to the transitional setting by parole officers. The remaining 20 percent are inmates whose history meets the standards of the facility but have nowhere to go if they’re released.

Along with passing a screening process at their originating facility, inmates must pass the transitional center screening process before they’re released to the community.

Although there are a few residents convicted of murder and robbery, most were sentenced on drug and property offenses, he said.

Tuesday morning, the program’s career center – an arrangement of plastic tables and chairs in front of a row of a dozen desktop computers – sat silent. The machines aren’t equipped with Internet access, so they can’t perform online job searches. They once were used to prepare resumes.

“Like Mr. James said, if there’s one thing we need, it’s more staff,” said Carlotta Rice, who will replace James as interim superintendent of the facility. “We need someone who can do things like help an inmate build a resume or do role-playing to learn how to act out during an interview.

“A lot of these guys have never even been on an interview before,” she said.

But Woodcock, who said he is eligible for parole next month, feels prepared.

“I feel like I’m ready,” Woodcock said, adding he plans to travel from Jesup to his job in Pooler when he’s released.

jchev Community Corrections, GA Chatham County, Re-Entry

Officials with the Northwest Day Reporting Center in Dalton know they face a daunting task — finding jobs for their clients here. The program, new to Georgia, tries to help criminal offenders with substance abuse problems get their lives back on track. Story in The Daily Citizen.

“It’s going to be mighty difficult,” said Rod Weaver, the new administrator over Whitfield and Murray counties who will be working to “tackle recidivism” among probationers and parolees. “We’ll be working with the Department of Labor and with (temporary job) services, as well as beating the streets to find employment for our people.”

Weaver and around 80 other attendees from public safety, law enforcement, the court system and corrections programs attended a ribbon cutting at the suite of offices at 307 S. Hamilton St. Tuesday afternoon. The non-residential program targets “low to moderate risk” offenders and allows them to stay with their families. It has three phases: 30 to 45 days of detoxification and behavior stabilization; two to six months focusing on sobriety, job training and “mandatory” employment (including surveillance by officers); and after care including drug testing.

State Department of Corrections commissioner Brian Owens agreed that finding jobs in the two-county area — racked with double-digit unemployment — is “going to be a challenge.”

“We have probation officers and employment specialists,” he said. “If (the clients) are trying hard and there’s no jobs available, they won’t go back to jail. But they have to put in an effort.”

Roger Waldrop, a board member of the Department of Corrections, said Dalton’s facility will be one of 13 in the state after Thomasville opens its office on Monday.

“With the economy the way it is, it’s not the popular thing to do to spend money on prisons,” he said. “The main thing the public wants is to keep (parolees) out of sight … but there needs to be an alternative to hard prison.”

Waldrop said it takes $15 a day to put a person through a day reporting program, but costs taxpayers $50 a day to house a prisoner.

“One in 31 adults in Georgia is in prison or jail, or is on probation or parole — we like to overachieve in Georgia,” Owens joked, then turned serious when he said the correction system in Georgia is a $1.1 billion expense.

“There has to be a better solution,” he said, “and this is one of them.”

Along with employment and counseling, day reporting also pulls together mental health resources, the judicial system, Department of Family and Children Services and law enforcement.

“It’s one of the most effective (prison) sentencing alternatives available,” said Joe Baden, the statewide manager.

George Shirilla with the Conasauga Drug Court, a program that is open to first-time offenders in the judicial circuit, said day reporting may “inter-mesh” with his agency on a referral basis.

jchev Community Corrections, Georgia, Inmate Programs

Fulton County officials said Thursday a proposal to buy the city of Atlanta’s jail may take some time to work out. Reported by AJC News.

The county has hired a firm to study the proposal and their findings should be available in “the coming weeks,” Fulton officials said in a statement.

Atlanta officials on Wednesday unveiled a plan to lease the jail to the county for a combined $41.7 million over the next 15 years. The county would own the jail outright at the end of the lease.

Atlanta Chief Financial Officer Jim Glass and David Edwards, a senior adviser to Mayor Shirley Franklin, told city council members at a work session Thursday that the city could save up to $16.5 million a year by selling the jail and urged them to vote in favor of the deal on Monday. Council members said they liked the idea of saving that much money, but some suggested the city take more time to study the proposal.

jchev County-City Issues, GA Fulton County

Decatur County’s paid and volunteer firefighters, which have to cover nearly 600 square miles to protect life and property, could soon get some help from an unexpected place—the County Prison. Story in the Post-Searchlight.

County commissioners instructed County Administrator Tom Patton to implement an inmate firefighter program, which would train trustees and persons being held in minimum security custody to assist with firefighting in the county.

The objectives of the project, which will be managed by Prison Warden Elijah McCoy and Fire and Rescue Chief Charlie McCann, include in part: Addressing firefighting coverage gaps and response times and providing an entry-level career path for former inmates.

The program’s backers said adding inmates to the county’s firefighting manpower could provide several benefits, including lowering property insurance premiums and more adequately preventing the loss of life and/or property due to fires and associated life-threatening hazards.

According to a memo provided to county commissioners, who held a one-hour workshop on the proposed program last Tuesday, the Georgia Department of Corrections operates 18 fire stations at state-run facilities, including four county prisons and a total of 220 inmates assigned to firefighting duties.

To take part in the program, inmates chosen by McCoy would first have to pass Georgia’s Work Ready program, which measures an individuals’ aptitude at various job-related functions, including reading comprehension and mathematics. The qualifying inmates would have to meet training requirements mandated by the Georgia Fire Academy and must complete the Georgia Basic Firefighter Course.

Inmate firefighters would work 12-hour shifts under the supervision of a paid county firefighter at one of four locations: the Attapulgus, Faceville and Blackjack volunteer fire departments, and the Decatur County Industrial Air Park off U.S. 27 North.

Patton said there is also the potential for the inmate firefighters to work with Georgia Forestry Commission rangers in combating wildfires, after receiving additional training.

The county government will provide about $10,000 to $15,000 to start up the program, and will also provide uniforms and firefighting gear and equipment for the program.

Ten inmate firefighters chosen by McCoy will have to meet stringent requirements, including having no convictions for arson or sexual offenses; working toward a high school diploma or GED; undergoing a weekly drug test and being screened for the ability to work with the public and supervisors.

jchev GA Decatur County, Inmate Programs

County jails are intended to house prisoners awaiting trial. But a recent report from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs shows that the number of state-sentenced inmates being held in jails has risen from 3,278 last January to 5,277 a year later. News reported by Georgia Public Broadcasting.

Officials with the Georgia Department of Corrections told the Atlanta Journal Constitution they are working on reducing that backlog. According to the AJC, those plans include adding 2,300 beds to prisons across the state and triple-bunking inmates at some facilities.

Representative Judy Manning of Marietta told the AJC that the state relies on jails to house inmates because they simply don’t have enough space or money to build new facilities.

According to the DOC Georgia’s prison system is running at 105 percent capacity.

jchev Georgia, Overcrowding

Georgia’s Ben Hill County jail is getting a new look, and most inmates won’t be thrilled. Reported on 14 WFIE.

The Sheriff is painting the entire jail bright pink. Pure Pepto Bismol Pink will cover every wall inside the jail.

“We are also going to have pink shower shoes, pink wash clothes, pink towels, pink sheets and pink blankets,” said jail administrator Martin Hough.

But why so much pink?

The Sheriff says there are plenty of reasons.

“Our goal here is not to just have a calming effect on all of the inmates but to make them not want to come back to the Ben Hill County Jail,” said Sheriff Bobby McLemore.

Its been six years since the jail was painted so most cells are overloaded with graffiti. It can also help keep the inmates behind bars.

Just months ago two inmates escaped from the jail wearing orange jumpsuits.

“If you see a bright pink jumpsuit you know we got an inmate on the lose,” said the Sheriff.

And the girls?

They get bright lime green.

The sheriff is taking it very seriously, all the way down to bright pink handcuffs.

“This is our decor and if they don’t like our decor then they don’t have to come back to our jail,” said the Sheriff.

Officials are hoping the new colors work wonders on the inmates.

“They really need soothing in jails they are extremely difficult to manage in county jails,” said Hough.

They are hoping to have everything pink within the next month.

jchev Georgia, Jail and Prison Construction

Prisoners and workers at the Department of Corrections are about to deal with a big change. Story from WALB News.

The Department is banning tobacco use at its 37 facilities. In 1995, they banned the use inside buildings and that led to a riot by state prisoners in Lee County. This time they hope phasing it out gradually will ease inmates into the transition.

The state prison system is following the lead of facilities like the Dougherty County Jail that has been tobacco free for 15 years and Lee County Jail that went tobacco free nine months ago. Prison leaders say it’s counter productive for inmates to give up smoking in jail only to start lighting up again in a state facility.

By the end of 2010 Georgia’s state prisons will be tobacco free. The Georgia Department of Corrections says it’s a move that will improve the health of inmates and save tax money by cutting health care costs.

“With tobacco use contributing greatly to health issues and health problems, that’s something that we are always cognizant of when it come to the budget, is making sure we contain our health costs this is one of the ways to help do that as well,” said Michael Nail, Deputy Director of the Corrections Division.

The Dougherty County Jail banned tobacco products in 1995 when the new jail opened, it’s meant a cleaner facility, but created a new problem.

“It has become the largest items of contraband in the jail,” said Col. Doug McGinley, the Dougherty County Jail Administrator.

Family and friends have gone as far to leave tobacco outside the guard line for work details. The Department of Corrections says while tobacco may be the new contraband it may cut back on other dangerous substances.

“What is increased in contraband is tobacco, ironically the possession of drugs as contraband actually goes down, so in one sense of it while you still have some contraband by way of tobacco you’re minimizing the drug contraband,” said Nail.

Dougherty Jail Officials say it’s been a while since they’ve had a complaint.

“Surprisingly it’s been 10 or 12 years since we’ve had a complaint from the inmates that this is a tobacco free facility,” said McGinley.

The state’s ban of the substance will also mean a loss in the revenue, right now they can sell cigarettes in the commissary, but that will end when the ban takes affect.

Over the next two weeks, inmates will get information from the Department of Corrections explaining how the tobacco ban will take place.

The ban will start January first when tobacco use will be banned at two diagnostic facilities where inmates are evaluated before being transferred into the state system.

The Augusta State Medical Prison will be next followed by other state facilities.

jchev Georgia, Smoking

The prison community faces its own battle against rising medical costs, with the elderly constituting the fastest-growing sector of inmate population. Experts say inmate medical-care costs are about $3 billion a year and several states are allowing the early release of older, ailing inmates. Report and slideshow on CNN.

White fuzz covers his bald head. His sallow skin sags. A wheelchair and cane support limp legs.This is not the typical image of a prison inmate. But 73-year-old George Sanges is among the burgeoning elderly population behind bars, a group expected to continue to grow as baby boomers age and states implement longer sentences.Sanges, who is serving a 15-year sentence at Men’s State Prison in Georgia, has cerebral palsy and takes multiple medications twice a day. His condition has worsened since he entered prison in 2005 for aggravated assault against his wife of 48 years. Twice while in prison, he was rushed to the hospital for heart problems. “They help me here,” Sanges says. “Everybody is very nice to me.”

As health care sparks debate across the nation, the prison community faces its own battle against rising medical costs. The elderly constitute the fastest-growing sector of the inmate population, experts say. It is a group that needs more frequent and costlier treatment, which states are required to provide under the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

An analysis of Bureau of Justice Statistics data found that the male prison population over age 55 ballooned by 82 percent in eight years, from 48,800 inmates in 1999 to 89,900 in 2007. The definition of “elderly” varies by state. The National Corrections Institute, a prison research organization, calls inmates over 55 elderly, and some states place inmates over 50 in that category. An inmate’s body ages faster than the body of someone not in prison.

Georgia, one of the 10 largest prison systems in the country, spends about $8,500 on medical costs for inmates over 65, compared with about an average of $950 for those who are younger, corrections officials say. Across the county, inmate medical care costs about $3 billion a year.

Men’s State Prison holds the largest number of sickly elderly inmates in Georgia. The medium-security facility, in a quaint rural town, is enclosed by barbed wire just like any other prison. But inside, inmates play card games and checkers rather than shooting hoops or lifting weights. The oldest inmate here is 89. There are veterans who served in World War II.

Gang fights here are rare, though there is still bickering and catfights from the wheelchair seat. Diapers, breathing machines and hospital beds wrapped in plastic for easy cleanup are visible in almost every corner of the hostel-style room where prisoners sleep.

Every inmate here has a medical condition; dementia, hypertension and diabetes are the most common, the warden says. “With the elderly population, we’re beginning to run something comparable to nursing homes,” says Sharon Lewis, medical director for the Georgia Department of Corrections. “This is one of the unhealthiest populations found anywhere. They really lived life hard.”

In the last few decades, a growing number of prisons have improved their quality of medical care, says Edward Harrison, president of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, an accreditation organization based in Chicago, Illinois.

Elizabeth Alexander, director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project, says investigations revealed that inmates were often denied access to certified doctors in the 1970s. In some instances, inmates were providing medical and dental care to one another. There continues to be lawsuits filed against prisons and jails for providing poor medical care, she says, but overall, the care has vastly improved.

Some states, such as Virginia and Pennsylvania, have built geriatric prison facilities that resemble mini-hospitals, equipped with medical devices and oxygen tanks. Prisons are being licensed as acute-care settings with a crew of registered nurses, correctional health experts say.

Placing elderly prisoners into separate facilities or wings can help the state consolidate costs. Nearly 75 hospice programs exist in prisons — up from less than 10 a decade ago, says Carol McAdoo of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

“I would argue that the health care that is rendered behind bars is better than what is received in the general population,” says CEO Rich Hallworth of Prison Health Services, a private medical corrections company in Tennessee that serves 172 jails and prisons around the country.

To ease budget woes in California, one bill up for debate would allow nonviolent elderly prisoners to be released into hospice care or monitored with ankle bracelets. In the past few years, Georgia officials say, the state has released more frail and dying inmates on medical reprieve than ever before. Other states, including New York and Virginia, have also allowed early release of ailing elderly inmates.

But critics, including victims’ advocacy groups, have scrutinized this policy. Will Marling, executive director of the National Organization for Victims Assistance in Virginia, said most victims believe offenders will strike again after they are released.

“If a person is sentenced to life, we know they are naturally going to get old,” Marling said. “A life sentence should mean life.”

Most of the elderly inmates at Men’s State Prison in Georgia are serving lengthy sentences for crimes committed when they were younger, officials said. A “three strikes law” passed in the 1990s contributed to much of the growth in the state’s geriatric prison population.

But there remains a group of elderly inmates who committed violent crimes during their golden years, proving the point that many victims worry about.

Research has shown that arrests of elderly offenders have risen. Their imprisonment has also contributed to the aging inmate population, but little is known about why the elderly commit crimes.

With his sight nearly gone, George Sanges peers through thick glasses at an old photograph from his locker. After several seconds, he slowly distinguishes his wife’s face.

“That’s Betty,” he says.

Sanges cannot explain why he attacked his wife. He was 69 years old then, a grandfather without a criminal history.

“I got in trouble,” he repeats several times. “I’m really sorry.”

jchev Aging Population, Economic Issues, Georgia, Inmate Health Care

The state Department of Corrections will ban all tobacco use at its 37 facilities by the end of next year, becoming the 11th state to implement a total withdrawal of smoking at its prisons. As reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday that the agency will begin a phase-out of tobacco use beginning Jan. 1.

“It’s 2010 in a few days and it’s time to do the right thing,” Owens said.

Corrections’ decision follows a similar one announced this week by the Department of Mental Health. But Mental Health has said it will implement a total smoking ban in all seven state mental hospitals on Jan. 5. The Department of Corrections is taking a staggered approach, Owens said.

Beginning Jan. 1, smoking and tobacco use will be banned at two diagnostic facilities where inmates are evaluated after being transferred from county jails. Then, on July 1, 2010, the Augusta State Medical Prison — where the system’s sickest inmates are housed — will go tobacco free, followed by a total tobacco ban in all state prisons beginning Dec. 1.

Owens said he recently surveyed county sheriffs and jailers and found that almost all are already tobacco free. Inmates, Owens said, “were getting off tobacco in the county jails and then getting back on it when they came into the state system.”

Owens believes the phase-out of tobacco use at prisons, which will also apply to prison staff, will allow inmates to prepare and the department will offer cessation programs for those who want to participate.

It will, Owens said, allow Corrections officials to “implement this policy without many ripples.”

Smoking inside prisons has been banned in Georgia since the 1990s, but as in dozens of other states it is allowed in outdoor areas. When the state first implemented the smoking ban in prisons in 1995, about 150 inmates at the Lee Correctional Institution in Leesburg refused to work during a 90-minute protest against the policy. All but seven of the protesting inmates went to their job assignments at the prison after the warden called in the prison’s riot squad.

But if the experience in other states is any indication, the transition could go smoothly.

Jeff Eiser, a national expert on prison operations, ran a prison in Cincinnati when tobacco was banned there.

“Honestly? It was more difficult for the staff than for the inmates,” Eiser said. “Generally, the inmates adopted so much better than we thought.”

But the ban did bring another problem: Cigarettes, which once were treated as currency in prisons, suddenly became contraband.

“Cigarettes were going initally for more money than marijuana was” inside the prisons, Eiser said. “There was more of a demand for it. It was an interesting dynamic.”

And instead of cigarettes being used as currency to pay debts or level bribes among prisoners, Eiser said the inmates turned to whatever they could. As in Georgia, cigarettes at Eiser’s prison were sold at the prison commissary. With those gone, whatever was on the commissary shelves became used as currency.

“It was a transition to cookies, candies, anything they can buy,” he said. “We had a thing where you could get somebody ‘hit’ for a couple of big cookies. Chips, potato chips, candy, whatever it is becomes the currency. You could get beat up or badly hurt for not paying up in chips.”

Owens said he’s making the move for two reasons: It will save taxpayers money in health care costs for inmates and it will protect non-smoking prisoners from second-hand smoke.

The state spends more than $226 million a year on inmate health care — or about 17 percent of its total budget. While Owens said he cannot estimate how much money the state will save in decreased health care costs from the smoking ban, state officials have said tobacco-related disorders among inmates costs the state millions year.

The ban will “definitely have a positive impact on the prison population,” said Kymberle Sterling, an assistant professor at the Institute for Public Health at Georgia State University. “A smoking ban is a great idea.”

Bill Todd, president of the Georgia Cancer Coalition, said smoking bans, along with higher tobacco taxes and tougher laws enforcing minimum age requirements to purchase tobacco are effective methods of lowering smoking rates.

“They save lives,” Todd said. “We’re enthusiastic and excited about it.”

jchev Georgia, Inmate Health Care

The national recession is taking its toll on what had been one of the fastest-growing areas of state government spending: prisons. Even though state corrections budgets have ballooned in the past two decades amid a surging U.S. prison population, at least 23 states slashed funding for prisons this year, according to a new survey by the nonpartisan Vera Institute of Justice, a research organization based in New York. Thirty-three states responded to the survey, paid for by The Pew Charitable Trusts.  This story is from the Pew publication, Stateline.Org.

A $1 billion cost-cutting plan announced last week by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) will translate into layoffs for more than a thousand state prison workers. In Oregon, a voter-approved plan to hand longer prison sentences to those who commit property crimes was delayed by state lawmakers who said they could not pay for it. Tennessee’s department of corrections has sought to save money by offering inmates less milk and meat in their daily meals. And in Kansas — which has received national attention in recent years for shifting resources from locking up prisoners to rehabilitating them — the state eliminated 85 percent of the slots in its substance-abuse treatment program for inmates, citing budget constraints.

Six states — Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and Washington — cut funding for corrections by more than 10 percent from last year’s levels, according to the study. Kansas saw the biggest recorded decrease, spending 22 percent less than it did last year.

Corrections is the fifth-largest area of state spending after Medicaid, secondary education, higher education and transportation. State spending on prisons has swelled as the nation’s jail and prison population has climbed to 2.3 million people, or about one in every 100 adults. But grim budget realities are forcing state lawmakers’ hand.

According to the Vera survey, many states are wringing savings from their correctional systems by trying to reduce the huge operational costs of running prisons — including by laying off workers, freezing their wages or cutting services to inmates. They also are exploring new ways to reduce recidivism and achieve long-term savings, in some cases easing sanctions on “technical violators” who break conditions of their parole and frequently are sent back to prison. Some states, including Colorado and Oregon, are allowing more prisoners to reduce their prison sentences through “earned-time credits” for good behavior and other forms of early release.

Some of the cost-cutting moves — using videoconferencing to avoid physically transporting inmates for court appearances, for example, and cutting back on inmates’ meal offerings — have targeted the basics of daily prison life and reaped relatively modest savings. But other changes will save tens of millions of dollars and have not come without political fights.

According to Stateline.org’s annual review of states’ legislative sessions, at least seven states — Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Washington — this year decided to close prisons. In some states, those plans touched off resistance among prison unions and in hard-hit communities anxious about losing even more jobs.   New York’s prison workers’ union earlier this year accused the administration of Gov. David Paterson (D) of creating “the most dangerous conditions ever” for correctional officers by closing 10 prisons and packing inmates into other facilities. In Michigan, which has the nation’s highest unemployment rate, Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) is trying to avoid closing some prisons — and laying off prison guards — by accepting inmates from California’s teeming system. Some state officials have backed the idea of housing detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Early releases also have caused alarm, particularly in California, where a federal panel of three judges last week ordered the state to free more than 40,000 inmates — or about 27 percent of its prison population — within the next two years to ease dangerous overcrowding. Attorney General Jerry Brown (D), who is widely expected to run for governor next year, attacked the decision and could appeal it to the U.S. Supreme Court. The early release of thousands of inmates also is being considered in Illinois.   While some criminal justice advocates contend that early releases and other cost-cutting moves could endanger public safety, others say states have not gone far enough in cutting inmate numbers.

Some advocates say state lawmakers have avoided what they see as the “elephant in the room” — tough sentencing policies that have put many low-level offenders behind bars for longer and been a major factor behind the explosive growth in the nation’s prison population since the 1970s, when many of the laws were passed. The federal panel that ruled on California’s prison overcrowding cited sentencing laws as a factor behind the Golden State’s huge prison population.  While New York this year revised its drug sentencing laws to give judges more discretion to keep offenders out of jail, other high-profile sentencing changes in the states have been far more limited in their scope. Texas, for instance, eliminated life without parole for juveniles, a penalty that currently affects only seven inmates. New Mexico abolished capital punishment, but had only two men on death row when the bill was signed into law in March.

Washington state’s legislative session this year was “completely upside down in terms of criminal justice policy,” said state Rep. Roger Goodman (D), vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Goodman said lawmakers cut funding for the wrong programs — such as housing and other transitional services that can help ex-inmates stay out of trouble — and refused to make substantial changes to the sentencing policies that he said have put too many nonviolent and drug-addicted people in prison in the first place. Goodman explained lawmakers’ distaste for making sentencing changes this way: “There aren’t enough political points to be gained by taking this issue on. There are political points to be gained by attacking it.”

While broad changes to criminal sentencing laws remain a tough sell issue in many state capitols, corrections officials are pushing other, less controversial changes to reduce prison populations. Many states have made sick or dying inmates eligible for early parole. Other states, including Florida and Tennessee, have invested more heavily in drug treatment courts and community supervision programs in the hopes of keeping offenders from returning to prison.  “Changing sentences is a very difficult thing to do. And so we’ve gone around it,” Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard said during an annual summit of state legislators in Philadelphia last month.

jakking Budgets, California, Colorado, Early Release, Economic Issues, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington

Attorney David Kennedy says clients of his who have been held in immigration detention centers in South Georgia and eastern Alabama routinely are denied fundamental rights. On the eve of a new immigration detention center opening in Gainesville GA, a report issued this week by National Immigration Law Center appears to validate Kennedy’s complaints.  Reported by the Gainesville Times.

The report, based on confidential Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents obtained in litigation, alleges there are pervasive problems throughout the country’s immigration detention facilities, many of which are operated by private contractors. Detainees are routinely denied visitation with family members, access to legal materials and regular recreation, according to the report. Many never get an explanation of their rights while being detained, the report claims.  “The conditions are much more harsh than they ought to be,” said the report’s co-author, Ranjana Natarajan. “This is a civil detention, and these folks are being treated like hardened criminals.”

The Corrections Corporation of America could begin boarding immigration detainees at its new North Georgia Detention Center on Main Street as soon as next week. The site of the old county jail adjoining the Hall County Sheriff’s office underwent $4 million in renovations and is being leased from Hall County for $2 million a year. CCA operates the detention center through an agreement with ICE and the county.

This week, ICE officials did not deny the allegations contained in the report, vowing to continue to improve conditions. But Department of Homeland Security officials recently decided against creating uniform detention center standards that the National Immigration Law Center wants. ICE is supposed to conduct yearly evaluations of every detention center, but has no enforceable, binding legal rules on how inmates are treated, according to the report. It creates a lot of gray area,” Natarajan said. “Because (detention centers) are not expected to follow the rules, they’re all over the map.”

ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said agency officials “feel the NILC put together a very thoughtful report, and we will carefully review and take seriously this report, as we would any report. We are committed to continuously improving our immigration detention system.”  Gonzalez noted that within 10 days of taking office, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano ordered all immigration enforcement policies to undergo a review, “including detention.” In February, Napolitano appointed former Arizona Department of Corrections director Dora Schriro as a special advisor for detention and removal. “Her position was created to focus exclusively on the significant growth in detention and detainment in the last few years,” Gonzalez said.

On any given day, ICE holds about 33,000 immigration detainees in facilities across the country, and supervises another 17,000 people facing deportation through electronic monitoring and other means. The National Immigration Law Center estimates that in 2008 about 220,000 people were held in detention centers prior to deportation. The typical stay is 30 to 90 days.   The Gainesville facility operated by CCA is expected to hold about 500 low- and medium-security immigration detainees, many of them from North Carolina.   CCA spokeswoman Louise Grant referred questions on this week’s report to ICE officials, but noted that “CCA does adhere in every one of our ICE detention facilities to the detention standards set by our customer.” The company also has ICE officials on site for detainee access, Grant said.

This week’s report prompted two U.S. senators to call for a change to the system. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., on Thursday introduced the “Strong Standards Act,” a proposed bill that would set minimum detention standards and require the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that laws concerning the treatment of detainees are enforced.  “These legislative initiatives will help reinforce what our great country has always stood for: liberty, the rule of law and basic human rights,” Menendez said in a statement.  To Kennedy, anything would be an improvement.  “If we’re comparing these (detention centers) to their Turkish counterparts, they’re pretty good,” Kennedy said. “But by U.S. standards, they’re pretty poor.”

jakking Federal Systems, Georgia, ICE, Illegal Aliens

A combination of factors has prompted the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office to consider new alternatives to incarceration — including ankle monitors — as the number of inmates housed at the jail nears capacity. Full story on The Telegraph.

Higher bail bond amounts, an influx of people arrested in a recent federal sweep and a growing number of inmates sentenced to state prison and waiting to be transferred all have contributed to the problem, Sheriff Jerry Modena said.

“All this hit at the same time,” said Chief Deputy Russell Nelson.

In recent weeks, 953 people were housed at the jail, 13 less than the jail’s capacity of 966.

If it hadn’t been for the transfer of 104 inmates to state prison in June, the jail would have been housing more than 1,000 inmates, Nelson said.

But Modena said he doesn’t expect to need to build more jail space anytime soon. The jail opened a new wing, raising the jail’s capacity from 697 beds to 966 beds, in 2007.

“We’re nowhere near having to talk about having additional space,” he said.

Still, to ensure that the jail doesn’t become overcrowded, Modena said he’s exploring a range of alternatives to incarceration, including ankle monitors and a domestic violence pretrial diversion program.

The ankle monitors would be a less costly way to manage inmates by allowing them to go home, saving the county as much as $45 a day per prisoner, Modena said.

The domestic violence program would be patterned after the drug court and mental health court programs already running in Bibb County by providing offenders with counseling and clinical services, as opposed to incarceration.

Modena said he’s also researching an automotive education program to help provide job skills for inmates. That could help them find work upon release.

The jail now houses 92 inmates who are waiting to be transferred to state prisons, detention centers and diversion centers when space is available.

Complete story on The Telegraph.

jchev Electronic Monitoring, GA Bibb County, Georgia, Overcrowding

Prisoners in Georgia are now going without lunch three days in a row — the Department of Corrections recently eliminated midday meals on Fridays in addition to weekends.  Story from the CBC.

Prison officials in Georgia say inmates are still getting enough to eat because portions are bigger on two-meal days  … The decision to eliminate Friday lunches in Georgia is linked to another cost-cutting measure. To save on gas, the Department of Corrections changed the prisoners’ workweek from five eight-hour days to four 10-hour days. Inmates got less food on weekends because they weren’t exerting themselves working, said Calvin Brown, the deputy director of facility operations at the Georgia Department of Corrections. Now that inmates don’t work on Fridays either, it makes sense to cut lunch on that day, too, he said. About five per cent of Georgia prisoners still get three meals a day because of special dietary needs from conditions like diabetes.

Critics say the cutbacks could lead to food hoarding and violence. Gordon Crews, a professor at Marshall University in West Virginia, wrote a book on violence in correctional systems. Food has been linked to prison violence in the past, he said. He cited the example of a riot at the Reeves County Detention Centre in Texas that was partly caused by poor quality food. Data obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request show that inmate assaults in Georgia have increased substantially this fiscal year. Prison officials denied the rise in violence is linked to cuts in food.

Prison administrators have seen inmate populations go up while budgets go down. The state of Georgia cut 10 per cent from the Department of Correction’s $1.1-billion budget this fiscal year. Food has been identified as an area where they can save money.

Ohio is also considering two-meal weekend menus by serving brunch instead of breakfast … Ohio prisons director Terry Collins said replacing breakfast with brunch on weekends “could save us some real dollars when it comes to staffing and food costs.” He said he doesn’t expect prisoners will be upset because the meals will be of the same quality. “I don’t expect them to be as good as mom’s home cooking,” he said. “But the food should be cooked and presented properly.”

jakking Economic Issues, Food Services, Georgia, Ohio