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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:15 am
Time: 12:15 am
Results for risk assessment (georgia)
1 results foundAuthor: Levin, Marc A. Title: Peach State Criminal Justice: Controlling Costs, Protecting the Public Summary: Georgia has struggled to identify polices that properly differentiate between high-risk, violent offenders and lower-risk, nonviolent offenders. Though Georgia’s response to a nonviolent crime has often been to incarcerate, increasing prison populations and costs have led many to question whether probation or diversion to drug or mental health treatment may be better for public safety, better for taxpayers and even better for the offender. That was the conclusion reached in November 2011 by the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians (“the Council”), a bipartisan council of prominent judges, legislators and attorneys in Georgia that was authorized by the Legislature in 2011 to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the state’s criminal justice system. Government often grows far beyond its necessary scope and traditional core functions. The fact that public safety is a core function of government, however, does not mean that it should be excused from scrutiny about its size and scope. It is important that policy-makers hold criminal justice agencies accountable for their performance. From an accountability perspective, the Council’s report is encouraging because rather than simply asking how many people are in prison, it asks whether public safety is being served. Prisons are certainly a vital part of an overall crime-fighting strategy, but “thinking outside the cell” when it comes to those offenders who are less likely to pose a violent threat to the public can make Georgians safer and save them money. At the end of 2007, one out of every 70 Georgia adults was incarcerated compared with one out of every 100 nationally, and Georgia had the fourth highest incarceration rate in the country.3 However, the state’s recidivism rate – the proportion of inmates who are reconvicted within three years of release – has remained unchanged, hovering just shy of 30 percent throughout the past decade. Moreover, the Council estimated that if no policy changes are made, the Georgia prison population will grow by 8 percent from 2012-2016, and this will cost the state an extra $264 million in corrections spending. Fortunately, there are solutions consistent with the principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility and public safety that have proven successful in states such as Texas. The Council explored several of these measures, such as diverting nonviolent drug possession offenders away from prison and into treatment programs and implementing evidence-based practices in community supervision to hold offenders accountable and reduce recidivism. The Council also recommended expanding accountability courts and developing clear criteria so that existing community-based residential corrections beds are used for diverting appropriate offenders from prison rather than as an add-on for offenders who can be safely supervised on basic probation. This paper will review the most prominent recommendations that were made by the Council and discuss how these recommendations have assisted other states in ensuring public safety, holding offenders accountable and controlling corrections costs. Details: Georgia Public Policy Foundation, 2012. 8p. Source: Issue Analysis: Internet Resource: Accessed March 4, 2012 at http://www.georgiapolicy.org/pub/Crime/IACriminalJustice.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.georgiapolicy.org/pub/Crime/IACriminalJustice.pdf Shelf Number: 124382 Keywords: Corrections (Georgia)Cost-Benefit AnalysisCriminal Justice Administration (Georgia)Risk Assessment (Georgia) |