ATLANTA – The sponsor of legislation to require early public notice when violent criminals are being released from prison decided Thursday to halt consideration while prosecutors and state officials negotiate their own solution.
Rep. Jesse Petrea, R-Savannah, introduced House Bill 724 that would require the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to notify prosecutors, law enforcement and buy an ad in the local newspaper before releasing violent offenders. Parole Board Chairman Terry Barnard has warned that the bill would be costly and that other steps could achieve the same end.
Barnard and his staff have made two trips to Savannah to discuss the issue with District Attorney Meg Heap and Sheriff Roy Harris, and they all met with Petrea and the other Chatham County legislators Thursday while at the Capitol for Savannah Day.
“There has been a lot of discussion going on,” Barnard said. “I’ve not sure we’ve yet gotten to resolution, but we’ve been trying our best to find common ground.”
Crime was a major issue in the elections of Heap in 2012 and last year for Harris as well as the Savannah mayor and council. News stories and editorials about the early release of some criminals have added to public frustration.
“They don’t understand,” Heap said. “I met with a mother of a homicide victim whose murderer got a life sentence who said, ‘explain to me why this person isn’t in prison.'”
Heap has asked for the earlier notification so that her staff can file a formal objection with the Parole Board. Current law only requires a 72-hour notice, which is difficult to address because the files of old cases are stored across town.
Barnard said the board wants input from prosecutors before they consider parole. But he said that input should come well before the final release.
At the same time, the state has changed laws and Parole Board policies to keep violent criminals in prison longer. Someone getting a life sentence in the early 1980s would be eligible for parole after serving just seven years. That minimum has increased every decade or so, and now the earliest a lifer could be paroled is 30 years.
About 1,100 prisoners are released every month, mostly on petty crimes such as illegal drugs who have a 5-year sentence or shorter.
“Those higher-risk, higher-needs individuals, those violent offenders, they’re serving longer sentences than they ever have in the history of Georgia,” said Board Executive Director Chris Barnett. “We’ve taken the stance that those violent offenders should serve – that we should keep them in prison as long as we can and work with those low-level offenders.”
Barnett and Chuck Spahos, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council have been talking about how to create a mechanism for notices of violent crimes and sex offenses in time for that initial consideration. Spahos said the issue may have been raised by Savannah officials but it’s one of concern to prosecutors across the state.
Petrea agreed to ask the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee to delay consideration of HB 724 while the dialog continues.
“I do believe we can fix this in process,” Spahos said.
Repeat offenders are not the core of the public’s unease, Harris said.
“We’re still faced with violent criminals, not so much from ones that are coming back from the system,” he said. “We’re breeding them. They’re coming up and will hopefully go into the system soon.”
Follow Walter Jones on Twitter @MorrisNews and Facebook or contact him at walter.jones@morris.com.
