GEORGIA'S COURT SYSTEM: CRIMINAL JUSTICE NEEDS ALTERNATIVES

Georgia's Court System: Criminal justice needs alternatives
A lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key approach to all crimes,
including the nonviolent, is a cost-prohibitive stance the state no
longer can afford.

Georgia's courts are overburdened and underfunded. Meanwhile, paying
the bill for the state's prison system has become much tougher during
these cash-strapped times.

For the sake of public safety and fiscal prudence, there has to be a
better way.

In his inaugural address, Gov. Nathan Deal, a former prosecutor, may
have started the state down the road to cost savings and better
results when he implored Georgia to rethink its habit of locking away
many nonviolent criminals, drug addicts or the mentally ill.
Sentencing reform is not a feel-good topic for an inaugural, but it is
a necessary one in a state that spends about $3 million a day on prisons.

This month, Deal and lawmakers followed up by announcing legislation
to set up the 2011 Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgia.

The need for change is easy to understand and should be easy to
support, given that Georgia has the fourth-largest prison system in
the U.S. and spends about $18,000 a year to warehouse each inmate.

Comparing that cost to the state's $3,800 outlay for a k-12 student
makes plain that our priorities and budgeting need serious
realignment. As Deal put it, "That math does not work for Georgia.
Today costs are too high, recidivism rates are too high and
rehabilitation is too rare." Good points all.

Fixing this imbalance will save money in the short run and, hopefully,
reduce crime over the long haul. Let's get on with it.

The task force's report is due by next January on the day the
Legislature resumes session. They should beat that deadline. It's
probably not reasonable to expect a well-researched report before the
Legislature lumbers to an end this year. Even so, recommendations
should be on the street well in advance of the 2012 legislative
session. That will allow the most time for thorough discussion of
needed changes.

There's no time to waste, though. The recession's rough grind has
increased demand on the courts even as budgets have been reduced year
after year. The courts have made do with less, but signs of fiscal
strain are increasingly evident.

We have to do better. Maintaining a safe state requires a sound,
smoothly running criminal justice system.

It also doesn't take a skilled trial lawyer to make a convincing
argument that the civil courts play a strong role in our economic
health, given today's lawsuit-loving society. Having a deep backlog of
either criminal cases or business-related litigation harms both public
safety and our state's economy.

Finding alternatives to incarceration may free some money to bolster
our courts.

And as public policies go, lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key was
never cheap, even if it was doable during the good times. The
recession years have shown us that Georgia can no longer afford this
old stance. Between 1987 and 2008, corrections spending nationally
increased 137 percent.

When adjusted for inflation, spending on the state court system went
the opposite direction, dropping 8.2 percent from fiscal 2000-2010,
says a report prepared last December for the State Bar of Georgia.
This while usage of the judiciary increased. As a line-item, spending
on the courts totals less than 1 percent of the state's budget.

So it's clear that reform must come without undue delay. We'd be
remiss in not noting that substantive change doesn't mean twirling 180
degrees from tough prison sentences to a too-lenient model that
prematurely turns dangerous criminals out onto our streets.

Perpetrators of the worst crimes -- child predators, for example --
should remain behind razor-wire-topped fences until they see the
wisdom of the straight and narrow.

That said, it makes both common sense and good fiscal practice to
develop alternative ways to keep a tight lid on crime and the cost of
fighting it. It's likely cheaper over time to concentrate efforts on
reforming offenders who are willing to be rehabilitated. That requires
adequate funding for drug abuse treatment and other programs for
non-violent scofflaws.

Investing in the cure or, better yet, in prevention, should prove a
better use of taxpayer money than the current system. And it should
make us safer, which is the best bargain of all.