{"id":1049,"date":"2012-03-03T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-03T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/georgia-prison-population-plummetting.html"},"modified":"2012-03-03T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-03T13:00:00","slug":"georgia-prison-population-plummetting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/georgia-prison-population-plummetting.html","title":{"rendered":"Georgia prison population plummetting"},"content":{"rendered":"In two years, the legislature went from denial to doing something\nabout the unsupportable costs of Georgia’s prison system.\nThe Georgia prison population is already plumetting, and will drop more.\nThis makes a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia an even worse business deal.\nIf it ever opens, it probably will close.\n

\nTwo years ago the Georgia legislature was in denial,\nas Carrie Teegardin wrote for the AJC 4 April 2010,\n\nGeorgia prison population, costs on rise<\/a>,\n

\n\n<\/a>\nAs Georgia lawmakers desperately search for ways to slash spending,\nthey are not debating an option taken by other states: cutting the\nprison population.\n

\nGeorgia operates the fifth-largest prison system in the nation, at a\n\n<\/a>\ncost of $1 billion a year. The job of overseeing 60,000 inmates and\n150,000 felons on probation consumes 1 of every 17 state dollars.\n

\nThe state’s prison population has jumped by more than a quarter in\nthe past decade and officials expect the number of state inmates to\ncontinue to creep upward. Georgia has resorted to measures other\nthan reducing the prison population to keep corrections spending\nunder control.\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n19 months later, things had changed,\nas the Atlanta Business Chronic reported 15 December 2011,\n\nBJS: Georgia prison population drops in 2010<\/a>,\n\n\n

\nGeorgia’s prison system posted the second-largest decrease in\ninmates in the United States in 2010, according to new data from the\nU.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics\n

\nThe Peach State had 49,164 prisoners under the jurisdiction of state\nand federal correctional authorities at the end of 2010, compared\nwith 53,371 at the end of 2009. This represents a 7.9 percent drop.\n

\n\nClick here for the full report<\/a>, which breaks down prison populations\nby state, gender and race.\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\n<\/a>\n

\nOnly tiny Rhode Island managed to decrease by a larger percentage of prisoners\nfrom 2009 to 2010.\n

\nAnd less than two years after that April 2010 state of denial,\nthe legislative tune has changed.\nGloria Tatum wrote for Atlanta Progressive News 12 February 2012,\n\nGeorgia Considers Reforms to Reduce Prison Population, Costs<\/a>,\n

\nThis year, the Georgia Legislature is expected to begin considering a\npackage of reforms intended to reduce the state\u2019s prison population\nas well as the enormous costs to taxpayers that Georgia\u2019s mass\nincarceration policies have caused year after year.\n<\/blockquote>\nAnd they may even be serious about it:\n
\nThe Governor named the Pew Charitable Trust and Applied Research Services\nas its consultants.\n<\/blockquote>\nHm, those could be real consultants.\n

\nNow that Georgia has finally gotten over denial about the symptom,\nhow long until the legislature gets around to dealing with the cause?\n

\nGeorgia’s antiquated and draconian marijuana prohibition laws are\nresponsible for a large percentage of people in jail.\n

\n“The war on drugs has failed miserably. We have casualties from this\n\n<\/a>\nwar filling homeless shelters, jails, and graveyards, as victim\nafter victim is disenfranchised and denied any hope for a living\nwage,” Denise Woodall, a PhD student in Criminology at the\nUniversity of Miami who was formerly incarcerated, told Atlanta\nProgressive News.\n

\nCurrently the State spends more than one billion dollars annually on\ncorrections, and this number keeps going up each year.\n

\nThe data shows most individuals sentenced to prison are drug and\nproperty offenders and they are staying behind bars for longer\nperiods of time. These offenders represent almost sixty percent of\nall people incarcerated. Many of these people are identified as\nlower-risk and are less likely to re-offend.\n

\n“They are saying [in the report] that there is no issue of public\nsafety with these people; furthermore, they are admitting that they\nneed help not incarceration,” Woodall said.\n<\/blockquote>\nSo why are we spending our tax dollars to lock them up?\n

\nA majority of Americans\n\nnow favor legalizing marijuana use.<\/a>\nAnd even Georgia’s law-and-order legislature is actively working\non sentencing reform.\n

\nAnd remember,\n\nCCA’s 2010 SEC report warns<\/a>:\n

\nThe demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by\nthe relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole\nstandards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization\nof certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal\nlaws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled\nsubstances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons\narrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand\nfor correctional facilities to house them.\n<\/blockquote>\nSo, why should we invest in a failing business?\nA failing business funded by our tax dollars?\n

\n\n<\/a>\nIf you don’t want a private prison,\nhere’s a \npetition you can sign<\/a>\nto ask the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)\nto reject the CCA private prison from Lowndes County, Georgia.\n

\n\n<\/a>\nOr bring your car, truck, motorcycle, or bicycle to the\n\nmotorcade against CCA<\/a>\nTuesday March 6th<\/sup><\/small>, from the prison site\nto the Industrial Authority office.\n

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