As Georgia Governor Nathan Deal prepares to leave office at the end of the year, his approval ratings have never been higher. A recent poll conducted for the AJC shows him at 85% approval from Republicans, and much more surprisingly 48% from Democrats. In today’s emotionally charged and hyper-partisan political climate, such numbers are nearly unheard of.
While Deal will be remembered first and foremost as one of the great pro-business politicians in the state’s history, another major part of his legacy will be his work on criminal justice reform. When he took office in 2010, Georgia was operating at 107% of capacity, with an incarceration rate that saw 1 in 70 Georgians behind bars, good for fourth worst in the nation. With a focus on diversion and rehabilitation as opposed to jail time, the Deal administration chipped away at those numbers, bringing total prison numbers to their lowest rate since 2002 and the lowest number of black inmates since 1987.
Deal’s final achievement in this respect is Senate Bill 407, which he signed into law Monday. The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Brian Strickland, looks to reform misdemeanor bail practices, giving judges more flexibility in terms of doling out financial punishments for those who can not afford them. It also allows for more community service and even educational advancement to be used as sentencing, when applicable.
The legislation keeps in line with the governor’s priority – making sure non-violent criminals are rehabilitated into functional members of society, not keeping them locked up where they become products of the penal system.
SB 407 was written following recommendations from the Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform, a committee put together by the governor in 2013 comprised of lawmakers, district attorneys, and other experts in the field of criminal justice. The group has been the backbone of Deal’s reformation movement, and will remain as one of the lasting markers of his legacy as he leaves office.
Said Deal on the bill, “In the past eight years, Georgia has become the standard-bearer for many pressing areas of our time, but perhaps none more so than criminal justice reform. For the better part of a decade, we have implemented new reform measures, expanded initiatives of prior years and adjusted our policies where needed to create a criminal justice system that is more efficient and more equitable.”
“This legislation focuses on misdemeanor bail reform, which will make Georgia a safer place to call home for all of its citizens by recognizing that mercy and accountability are not mutually exclusive. The revisions within SB 407 require judges to consider the financial circumstances of an accused individual when determining bail, thereby furthering our efforts to incarcerate only the most serious and violent offenders, rather than individuals who simply cannot afford the costs of bail. By also giving judges additional opportunities to assign community service and educational advancement, we are truly rehabilitating non-violent offenders, not hardening them, and further diverting them from dark and dangerous paths.
