JUDGES MAY GET SENTENCING GUIDELINES

Throughout Georgia, the length of prison time a defendant gets often
depends not only on what he did but where he did it.

In Fulton County, for instance, a person charged with cocaine possession on
average gets just over two years in prison, while someone charged with the
same thing in Augusta on average receives almost six years, Department of
Corrections records show. Shoplifters in the Griffin Judicial Circuit south
of Atlanta receive about 5 1/2 years in prison, almost double the average
handed down in DeKalb.

A state commission studying sentencing disparities and prison overcrowding
has endorsed new sentencing guidelines that would help eliminate unlevel
treatment of defendants who commit similar crimes.

The guidelines would also make room for more violent, sex and career
criminals behind bars without taxing Georgia's skyrocketing prison budget,
because fewer people committing relatively minor offenses would go to prison.

On Tuesday, the state's judiciary has the opportunity to take the first
step toward making the guidelines part of Georgia's criminal justice
system. But few issues evoke more impassioned debate among judges.

Many strongly resist surrendering the wide discretion they have in
sentencing convicted felons for crimes, ranging from those forging a check
to dealing cocaine, from those shoplifting in a store to burglarizing a home.

Still other judges say it's not their job to worry about the prison
spending, only what sentence a criminal before them rightly deserves.

"Judges should not be in the prison population business," said Superior
Court Judge Johnnie Caldwell Jr. of the Griffin circuit. "That's up to the
governor, and it's not up to me to be concerned about it."

Over the past few decades, a succession of tough-on-crime laws has led to
steady increases in the state's prison population and an annual Corrections
Department budget of more than $1 billion. Georgia has led the nation in
prison growth in two out of the last four years, and its incarceration rate
is now sixth-highest in the country.

The new guidelines allow a variety of sentencing options for nonviolent and
first-time offenders, such as boot camps, detention centers, home
confinement and probation. The guidelines also are expected to potentially
reduce the number of incarcerated African-Americans, now about 64 percent
of the inmate population, because fewer drug possession offenses and other
nonviolent crimes would bring prison time.

Shortage of beds

The guidelines come under consideration at a time when state corrections
and budget projections indicate Georgia will have a shortage of 5,000 to
10,000 prison beds in the next five years. Unless the rate of inmate growth
is stemmed, lawmakers will have to find sources of revenue to build more
prisons or state officials may have to allow the early release of hundreds
of inmates.

Other states are facing similar issues. Over the past month, the state of
Kentucky, mired in a deficit crisis, has allowed the early release of more
than 800 inmates with mass commutations of sentences. In Oklahoma, the
names of more than 150 inmates have been forwarded to the governor for
early release to save money, and similar proposals are percolating in
Washington, Connecticut, Oregon and Nevada.

Atlanta defense lawyer Jack Martin, a member of the state sentencing
commission, said if the new guidelines are adopted and used, they will not
eliminate Georgia's prison population boom but will help keep it from
getting out of control.

"Over the long term, if we don't do something about it, it's going to be so
outrageous it's going to bankrupt the state," Martin said. "What we're
doing with our prison resources is just nonsense. And how can you argue
with a system that at least attempts to make people who commit the same
crimes get the same sentence?"

On Tuesday, the important rules committee of the Council of Superior Court
Judges is expected to vote on whether to study the proposed guidelines for
the next six months.

Vote by judges

This will set up a vote in the summer by all the state's Superior Court
judges to adopt or reject them.

"I think this is something that is good and important and something we
ought to consider," said Superior Court Judge Walter Matthews of the Rome
Judicial Circuit and co-chairmn of the state guidelines commission. But
Matthews added that the state's judges are also well aware that his
commission was the idea of a governor who was voted out of office in November.

"Many judges are wondering why we should take this up right now," he said.
"It's not Gov. Perdue's proposal. It's Gov. Barnes' proposal. The election
has put a lot of things up in the air, so we shall see."

Perdue spokeswoman Erin O'Brien said the governor has read the sentencing
commission's report with "great interest" but has yet to take a position on
it. He hopes to meet with the Superior Court judges about it this week, she
said.

Under the guidelines, judges would be provided a grid where they would work
within a range of sentences for particular crimes. Repeat offenders would
be treated more harshly.

The most lenient sentences are allowed for minor crimes, such as thefts of
less than $500 and breaking into a car. Residential burglars get stiffer
treatment than a nonresidential burglars. A drug dealer arrested with a gun
would get more time than one who didn't use a weapon.

University of Georgia law professor Susette Talarico noted that the roughly
25 other states that have enacted sentencing guidelines generally have had
success with them.

"In the interest of equity and the interest of systemwide consistency,
judges need some direction and even some limitation," she said. "We need
some refinement to help ensure there's more consistency in the interest of
justice and then more predictability in sentencing in the interest of more
efficient use of limited resources, especially incarceration facilities."