The Peach State’s civil society approach to criminal justice reform

In 1733, the state of Georgia began as a grand experiment in prison reform when James Edward Oglethorpe founded a colony with the hope that the poor, the destitute, and others would be able to begin life anew. Today, 283 years later, the state is again undertaking efforts to give a group of Georgians a fresh start: adults leaving state prison.

There is no question that criminal justice reform in the United States is needed – and long overdue. Most of the 2.2 million behind bars in America today lack a high school diploma, and while they are in state custody, most receive little or no preparation for life after prison. Yet the majority of those in prison will be released at some point in time, faced with a host of challenges and barriers that make it more difficult for them to lead healthy and productive lives.

In fact, almost 600,000 men and women released from state supervision return to communities across the country every year. Almost one-third of those released from state custody will be rearrested in their first year out, over half within three years, and over three-quarters within five years.

To get a look at some of the programs helping to address our nation’s recidivism problem, my colleagues and I have had the opportunity to visit several prison education and reentry programs, including in Texas and California. Our visits have showed us some of the work and challenges of nonprofits in their effort to increase opportunity and reduce recidivism for the formerly incarcerated. Several federal bills have attempted to address the same issues. But states are leading the way, too.
The overall prison population is down, fewer Georgia youth are being incarcerated, and the number of blacks entering the prison system in 2015 was at its lowest level since 1988.

One state that has taken a front seat in criminal justice reform is Georgia. Through a series of bipartisan laws, Governor Nathan Deal and the Georgia legislature have overhauled much of the state’s criminal justice system through reforms that improve public safety, hold offenders accountable, and reduce taxpayer costs.

Since the reforms only began in 2011, it’s early to judge their effectiveness to date, but the initial results are encouraging. The overall prison population is down, fewer Georgia youth are being incarcerated, and the number of blacks entering the prison system in 2015 was at its lowest level since 1988. These reforms and many others are outlined in a 2016 report released by the Georgia Department of Corrections, the Department of Community Supervision, and the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Through our meetings with two Georgia think tanks — the Georgia Public Policy Foundation and the Georgia Center for Opportunity — the Department of Corrections, and other stakeholders, a few things stuck out:

1. An emphasis on workforce preparation

In many states, those in prison gain years of experience working in a trade while incarcerated (barber work, welding, plumbing, etc.), but due to state regulations, they are unable to receive the technical certification upon their release to use those skills in the workforce. Georgia has worked to change that, now providing returned citizens with certification so they can earn a living and use their skills to fulfill market demand. To date, the state has graduated 150 welders from its prisons, who have job offers as they exit the prison gates and return home.  In 2016, 4,298 on-the-job training and technical certifications were awarded to Georgia prisoners. Additionally, there were 1,886 career technical completions in Georgia prisons in 2016 – a 127% increase from 2015.

2. An emphasis on education and self-advancement

Georgia has also ramped up its efforts around in-prison education programming. Our team visited a charter school on-site at Burruss Correctional Training Center – a program that allows inmates to earn their high school diploma. The students receive a competency-based education in which they must earn an 80% or higher to pass a course – and their test scores are included in the county-wide results.

3. Family reunification

The state has also made changes so that those in prison have more regular contact with their family members on the outside. This includes “Family Days” where family members visit their loved ones in prison, and the use of video conference so inmates can communicate with their children even from behind bars.

4. Technology

In our meetings, Georgia stakeholders also described the rollout of iPad-like “tablets” that are being made available to the incarcerated – which allows them to access online learning content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. Using already-existing inmate benefit funds (paid by the inmates through things like prison vending machines), the tablets allow inmates to continue their education outside of education programs that exist within the prison, making their learning process continual and self-paced. As of this year, over 25,000 of the devices were given to Georgia inmates to advance their learning.

These things are all possible through the support of Georgia communities and public-private partnerships that ease the burden for the state and involve local actors in preparing the incarcerated for life after prison. The reforms are changing the culture in Georgia prisons, even affecting the way corrections staff interact with those behind bars so that prison is rehabilitative and punitive.

People should be held accountable for their crimes, and the government must invest our tax dollars in programs that work.

Crime is a local issue – and communities are the ones affected most. People should be held accountable for their crimes, and the government must invest our tax dollars in programs that work. Why? When those released from prison are unprepared to do so, it only makes communities more unsafe, and families less stable, in the process. It will take a civil society approach — the participation of nonprofits, the faith community, businesses, families, and local, state, and federal government—to ensure Georgia remains a state of opportunity for all of its citizens.