Pubdate: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA) Copyright: 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Contact: http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28 Author: Jim Tharpe Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) CRIMINAL JUSTICE MUST BE REFORMED, GROUP SAYS Georgia's indigent defense system should be fully funded and mandatory sentencing laws reconsidered when the state Legislature convenes next month, a group of lawmakers, judges and civil rights advocates said Monday. Presenting the findings of a Clark Atlanta University symposium on criminal justice reform, the group called on state leaders to look at alternative sentencing and drug treatment for nonviolent offenders, who make up about 65 percent of Georgia's growing prison population. The group also wanted legislators to review the "two strikes" law, which sends all twice-convicted violent felons to prison for life. The call to action was outlined at a state Capitol news conference, where a dozen members of the group stood before a portrait of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that hangs outside the governor's office. State Reps. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) and Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta) attended the briefing and vowed to pursue the reforms when lawmakers return to Atlanta on Jan. 12. Key state officials have already thrown their support behind a new public defender system, which is supposed to be in place by 2005. However, lingering state budget problems could endanger funding for the program. Few state officials have been willing to back away from mandatory sentencing, and there is little indication that will change this year, when all state lawmakers are up for re-election. Georgia's current "two strikes" law was passed during an election cycle in part because its get-tough message played well with voters. "I don't think that's going to go very far right now," state Rep. Alan Powell (D-Hartwell) said of any proposal to do away with mandatory sentencing. Powell, who chairs a criminal justice budget committee, said during a phone interview that he had not seen the group's report. Atlanta civil rights veteran Joseph Lowery told reporters the state should invest more money in programs that treat inmates' drug problems and provide them with marketable skills. "It's much less expensive to make productive, taxpaying citizens out of those who have been incarcerated than to do otherwise," he said. The prison system is costing taxpayers more than $900 million per year, one of the state's largest expenditures. The number of inmates in Georgia prisons has more than doubled since 1992, to 47,000. But the state's proposed budget for 2005 is equivalent to the budget of 1999, when the department housed 11,000 fewer inmates. Some lawmakers have expressed concern that Georgia's tough sentencing laws will continue to pack prisons and further drive up costs. The Joseph Lowery Institute for Justice and Human Rights held an October symposium at Clark Atlanta University that examined problems in the criminal justice system and outlined proposed solutions. Lowery said Monday that the current system often fails both taxpayers and inmates. "And if costs continue to escalate at the present rate, we'll be bankrupt in a decade or so," he said. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore, who chaired the Clark Atlanta symposium, said the findings call for community drug and mental health courts, transitional housing and job placement for inmates and a moratorium on the death penalty. ''What we found is that there is a tremendous waste of human capital in the state of Georgia as a result of criminal justice policy,'' the judge said. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin