A big change could be in store for Georgia’s criminal justice system: a shift by diverting non-violent offenders away from prison and instead toward drug rehabilitation and other supervision programs such as probation.

Some of the recommendations from the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform would also shift the cost burden of incarceration to local communities by raising the thresholds on what constitutes a felony theft or deposit account fraud charge. Report by The Citizen.

Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard said last month that he favors improving the justice system, but he is wary of limiting judges’ tools to sentence offenders.

“It’s kind of like trying to play golf with just one club in the bag,” Ballard said. “You need tools suited for each individual circumstance.”

While Georgia’s laws have resulted in non-violent habitual shoplifters being sent to prison, the catch is if they remain in the community, everyone pays increased prices at stores due to the harm they commit, Ballard said.

Ballard said that he thinks drug courts such as the one here in Fayette County “can be remarkably effective” to get people off of drugs. And he also likes the idea of lifting the felony thresholds for theft offenses.

But he’s going to want some proof before getting behind the idea that probation is a more effective punishment for prison in a number of other circumstances.

“If somebody can show me the approach that puts more people on probation keeps everybody safer than what we’re doing, I’ll be willing to listen,” Ballard said. “But I haven’t seen a single suggestion about caring how safe the citizens are: it’s all about money.”

The various recommendations came from the council, a dozen state leaders including six legislators who proposed a variety of changes to Georgia laws. Those recommendations are based in large part on statistics which show that drug and property offenders represent almost 60 percent of all admissions to the state prison system.

The prison system costs taxpayers $1 billion a year, and if current policies and statutes remain in place, prison population growth is projected to grow 8 percent in five years, according to the council’s report.

The council contends that the state can spend the same amount of money and improve the recidivism rate by implementing a variety of changes, including the adoption of accountability courts such as drug courts, which offer specialized treatment with the goal of ridding an individual’s dependency on drugs.

But in some cases, the costs would be pushed onto local communities like Fayette County. For example, the council has recommended raising the thresholds on what constitutes a felony theft. By increasing the limit from $500 to $1,500 as recommended, that would push all cases under $1,500 to either Fayette County State Court or the municipal courts in Fayetteville, Peachtree City or Tyrone.

The felony threshold for deposit account fraud, also known as passing a bad check, would also be raised from $500 to $1,500, which also would push even more cases to local courts because offenses under $1,500 would be considered misdemeanors.

Those increases in thresholds would also mean that local communities would be responsible for paying jail costs for those convicted instead of the state.

The council also is recommending an increase on the theft by shoplifting threshold from $300 to $750.

Another significant change would come to Georgia’s burglary laws, with the crime being split into two degrees: burglary in the second degree being that which takes place in unoccupied structures such as sheds, barns and the like. Burglary in the first degree would be applied when a dwelling is entered, regardless of whether it is occupied or unoccupied. The council recommends that the sentencing range correspond to the degree of the offense, with a longer sentence “for serious offenses that involve residential homes.”

The council also suggests instead of imprisoning persons for drug possession charges to have them put on probation instead, but if that happens, courts and probation officers must have improved and expanded options. As such, the council is recommending additional day reporting centers, residential treatment centers and accountability courts.

Some 3,200 offenders are admitted to prison each year for a drug possession conviction, without being convicted of drug sales or trafficking, according to the council’s report. About two-thirds of those offenders are assessed as having a lower risk to re-offend, the council noted.

The council is also recommending expanded funding for the prevalence and effectiveness of probationers’ drug testing and an increase in the use of “GPS monitoring for appropriate offenders.”

Currently, probation and parole agencies don’t have the resources required to supervise offenders adequately, the council concluded in its report.

The council’s report also suggests that persons convicted of “low level” drug sale offenses also be considered for probation, but only if the offender shows the conduct was done to support his drug addiction.

The council’s work was authorized by the legislature last year, and it consists of 12 members including six legislators.

Tammy Georgia, Probation and Parole

A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday let stand Georgia’s tough burden of proof required of death-penalty defendants seeking to prove they are mentally disabled and thus ineligible for execution.

he 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 7-4 decision means Georgia is the only state in the country that sets the highest barrier for defendants raising such claims to escape execution. Dissenting judges said it will lead to mentally disabled inmates being executed. Report by ajc.

Death-penalty lawyers said the ruling means capital defendants could prove they are almost certainly mentally disabled and still face execution. The ruling will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, a lawyer involved in the case said.

Judge Frank Hull, writing for the majority, said the U.S. Supreme Court left it up to states to develop their own guidelines when it barred the execution of the mentally disabled in 2002.

The Georgia Supreme Court recently upheld the state’s standard that an inmate must prove disability beyond a reasonable doubt, Hull noted. Because there is no U.S. Supreme Court precedent to the contrary, federal law “mandates that this federal court leave the Georgia Supreme Court decision alone — even if we believe it incorrect or unwise.”

Hull also said Georgia’s death-penalty process contains substantial safeguards that help jurors accurately determine whether a defendant is mentally disabled. They include the right not to be sentenced to death except by a unanimous verdict, the right to appeal and the opportunity to present experts, cross-examine the state’s witnesses and question jurors about their biases regarding mental disability.

Even so, Hull acknowledged, the U.S. Supreme Court “may later announce that [Georgia's] reasonable doubt standard … is constitutionally impermissible.”

The U.S. government and 23 states with the death penalty require defendants claiming mental disability to prove it under the lowest threshold — a preponderance of the evidence, meaning it is more likely true than not. Five states have adopted a tougher test — clear and convincing evidence.

The court ruled in the case of twice-convicted killer Warren Hill. Brian Kammer, Hill’s lawyer, used the state’s unusually tough standard as the basis of his appeal and vowed to take the case to the nation’s highest court.

“I am sickened by the [court’s] ruling today, because it effectively allows Georgia free rein to execute people who, like Mr. Hill, have been found to be mentally retarded,” he said. “This decision is yet another legal and moral disaster involving Georgia’s death penalty jurisprudence.”

State Attorney General Sam Olens declined comment, his spokeswoman said.

Hill is on death row for bludgeoning a fellow inmate to death with a nail-studded board in 1990. At the time, he was serving a life sentence for killing his girlfriend.

Tuesday’s ruling sparked a vigorous dissent from Judge Rosemary Barkett, who said the beyond reasonable doubt threshold will “inevitably lead .. to the frequent execution” of the mentally disabled.

“This utterly one-sided risk of error is all the more intolerable when the individual right at stake is a question of life or death,” Barkett wrote.

While Georgia was the first state to bar the execution of the mentally disabled, “it is the only one to guarantee precisely the opposite result” with its tough definition of the condition, she said.

Judge Charles Wilson also dissented. He said the majority’s logic would allow Georgia to require mentally disabled defendants to prove their claims “beyond any shadow of a doubt — a standard requiring … that prisoners obtain the unanimous consent of a 100-member panel of state-appointed psychologists, ten consecutive IQ tests showing an intelligence quotient of no more than 30 and supporting affidavits from the victims’ families and the governor.”

Tammy Death Penalty, Georgia

Sure, they may save your house from burning. But will they jack your flat-screen on the way out?

In what would be a money-saving move, officials in Camden County, Ga., are considering placing inmates in fire stations alongside professional firefighters, where they would respond to house fires and other day-today emergencies, the Florida Times-Union reports. Report by Los Angeles Times.

Inmate firefighters are used in some states, such as California, the paper points out, but they are usually confined to battling wildfires, and are supervised by a guard. Camden County commissioners are thinking about having them monitored by working firefighters, who would go through a training program to supervise the inmates effectively.

Times-Union reporter Tiffany Pakkala notes that the program would be open only to low-level offenders, such as thieves and drug dealers, who have demonstrated good behavior behind bars.

Still, some firefighters are less than thrilled about the idea. One recently asked the county commissioners if they’d be comfortable having the inmates respond to a night call at their houses.

Nearby Sumter County already has inmates working alongside firefighters, though it’s unclear from the report whether they respond to house fires. Officials there love the idea: Because an inmate doesn’t get time off, one incarcerated worker can replace three wage-earning firefighters.

Camden County is considering the idea because of a change in the insurance rating system that would cause homeowners’ premiums to skyrocket unless new substations are built or more firefighters are added.

Tammy Georgia, Work Release

A law signed by Gov. Sonny Perdue on April 21 has good intentions but offers limited help, Ware County Sheriff Randy Royal and other Southeast Georgia sheriffs say.  Reported by Jacksonville Times-Union.

The Ware County jail averages 348 inmates daily. Its head nurse and six licensed practical nurses provide medical care to the inmates, many of whom suffer from chronic illnesses.  “We have 200 inmates currently getting prescription medication ranging from blood pressure to psychotropic drugs for mental health conditions,” Royal said.  Many don’t have insurance or other financial means to pay for their health care. That means, under law, taxpayers must foot the bill …

The reimbursement measure is intended to help offset medical costs for inmates able to pay. It allows state and county corrections officials to deduct money from an inmate’s account to pay for some of their medical costs.  If inmates have at least $10 in their accounts, officials have the authority to deduct money to pay for medical treatment and prescription medicine for injuries the inmates inflicts on themselves or others. Authorities can’t deduct money from inmates diagnosed with a severe mental condition at the time the injuries occurred.  The law also excludes costs related to pregnancy or chronic illnesses including cancer, kidney disease, pulmonary illness, diabetes, hepatitis C, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis or autoimmune disorders. Those expenses still will be borne by the county or state, according to the measure.

“I see no immediate benefits from this law for us,” Royal said. “The people we typically deal with have no insurance and few if any financial resources with which to pay” …

[Ware County's] medical costs totaled $781,344 last fiscal year. That cost averaged $6.39 per inmate per day, Royal said.  As of Wednesday, he said, they’ve spent $640,182 for inmate medical care this fiscal year, which began July 1.

vericatrajkova GA Ware County, Inmate Health

Prisons and jails in Georgia now have more power to charge inmates for their medical costs while behind bars.  Report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a measure into law Tuesday that allows state and county corrections officials to draw up regulations to deduct the money for some medical costs from inmates’ accounts. It excludes costs related to pregnancies and chronic illnesses, which include diabetes, cancer and renal disease.

vericatrajkova Georgia, Inmate Health

vericatrajkova GA Bibb County, Georgia, Personnel Issues

Decatur County GA Prison Warden Elijah McCoy provided The Post-Searchlight with some insight into how the prison functions and the amount of work being done by its prisoners each day.

The prison is a minimum to medium security facility that on average houses between 280 to 325 prisoners. The prison holds 225 prisoners that are brought in from other parts of the state through a contract Decatur County has with the State of Georgia. The county received $20 a day for each of the non-local prisoners, bringing in more than $1.6 million annually. Last year, the prison operated on a $3.7 million budget provided by Decatur County—the difference between the two figures brings the prison’s cost to Decatur County taxpayers to a little less than $2 million each year, according to McCoy.

He explained that the amount of work done for the county, along with funding brought in from contracts with Decatur County cities, surrounding counties and the Department of Transportation, more than covers the $2 million operational cost—making the facility virtually self sufficient.

Each day, the inmates are awakened at 5 a.m., and by 7, between 150 and 200 are loaded onto buses to go to work at the various locations in Decatur County and the surrounding counties. The majority of inmates do grass mowing and agriculture maintenance, road work, janitorial work, maintenance work and cooking (for the prison).  Locations and departments where inmates work include virtually every Bainbridge City and Decatur County facility, from the Bainbridge sewage treatment facility to Memorial Hospital and Manor … Inmates with skills in mechanics are utilized at the county and city’s mechanics shop providing upkeep on various government vehicles, including the school system’s buses …

Inmates have even built an entire building. In addition to doing maintenance and construction work on various Decatur County buildings, inmates actually constructed the entire Blackjack Volunteer Fire Station from the ground up, said McCoy.

There is more background in the Post-Searchlight article.

vericatrajkova Economic Issues, GA Decatur County, Georgia, Inmate Labor

Plans for Fulton County GA to take over Atlanta’s jail resurfaced Thursday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Attorneys involved in the ongoing effort to improve conditions inside the Fulton County Jail talked about a plan where the county would make an offer to the city to operate its jail, said Emmet Bondurant, an attorney who attended the meeting.   About 1,044 inmates are housed daily at the Atlanta jail —- two-thirds of them federal or Fulton County inmates, city auditors say. Thursday’s meeting was held in the offices of Senior U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Shoob, who is overseeing a federal court order to improve the jail …

“This appears to be a serendipitous opportunity,” said Bondurant, former chairman of a commission that pushed for the idea four years ago. “[The city] has a facility too large for its own needs and the [county] has a facility that is too small.”  Greg Giornelli, the city’s chief operating officer, said Atlanta is willing to listen to any county proposals.  “We are considering all options related to the city jail,” he said Thursday. “However, a deal with Fulton County is particularly compelling on a number of levels.”

City officials were reluctant to consider the idea in 2005 and 2006, but the concept is more compelling now, for several reasons. Atlanta, like most big cities, is suffering financially and its corrections department budget is $38.5 million. A recent internal audit of that department found it overspent its corrections budget six of the past seven years.

vericatrajkova County-City Issues, Economic Issues, GA Atlanta City, GA Fulton County, Georgia

A new corrections audit raises questions whether Atlanta GA should continue to operate a city jail, according to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The report released Friday found that the city jail was over budget six of the last seven years —- despite two revenue-generating contracts to house prisoners for Fulton County and two federal agencies. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008, the department was about $4 million over budget, the audit found.  Both deals, the audit found, actually cost Atlanta way more money than they generate.  Atlanta houses inmates for Fulton County, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office at a rate of $68 per day —- a loss of about $20 a day, the auditors found.

Leslie Ward, Atlanta’s internal auditor, said the city relies far too much on overtime because of chronic absenteeism among jailers. She also found that some space inside the jail isn’t properly used.  “I’m starting to wonder why we are in the jail business,” Ward said … About 1,044 inmates are housed in the Atlanta jail every day, two-thirds of them federal or Fulton County inmates, the audit found. “We need a holding cell, not a full-blown jail,” Councilman H. Lamar Willis said.

However,

Corrections Sgt. Ellis Williams, a leader of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees unit that represents corrections officials, criticized the audit, saying it was “willfully, deliberately and intentionally done” to encourage city leaders to close the jail.

vericatrajkova County-City Issues, Federal Payments, GA Atlanta City, ICE

Time in prison is supposed to reform inmates. Tacking on a bill for certain medications or room and board, and the reform might go further. So goes the thinking behind some draft laws winding through the Georgia State Capitol this session.

House Bill (HB) 464 proposes charging state prisoners a co-pay on every prescription from the prison dispensary that treats a passing illness, such as a cold. The bill excludes drugs for chronic conditions or pregnancy.   “It’s estimated that the cost of medication for our inmates this year will be in excess of $25 million. This is a way that they can pay a reasonable amount toward their healthcare,” bill author Rep. Barbara Massey Reece (D-Menlo) told a House State Institutions and Property Committee hearing.   She expects the fee would be $5 per prescription, though that’s ultimately up to the people in charge at each institution. Any inmate with less than $10 in their account wouldn’t be charged.

It won’t do much for the prison budget, but it may teach a “civics lesson,” according to Alan Adams, division director for health services at the department.  “The intent is for the inmates to shoulder some of the responsibility for their own healthcare, to make informed and adult decisions about when to access healthcare and when not to,” Adams testified to the committee, which approved the bill.  Most cold medicines and the like are prescribed after a prisoner initiates a sick call and is taken to the prison doctor. That call is already subject to a $5 co-pay.   “This will further discourage a malingerer or an inmate without a real problem from going to medical,” Adams said.  The co-pay could net the Department of Corrections some $1.8 million a year, according to their own calculations …

The more radical bill is House Bill 295, which would impound prisoners’ property on the outside to pay their medical bills.   It would also charge a $40 per Diem for a prison stay – $14,600 per year. The state’s average cost per prisoner per day was $46.27 as of March 2008.   Right now, the bill language excludes prisoners who are ruled unable to pay by a judge.

vericatrajkova Booking Fees, Co-Pay, Economic Issues, Georgia, Inmate Health