Strapped for cash and facing rising criminal justice costs, Fulton County officials say they will study alternative sentencing and other ways to cut the whopping cost of prosecuting and jailing criminals.
County Commission Chairman John Eaves said he will convene a Smart Justice Advisory Council that will spend more than a year investigating alternatives to the lock ‘em up approach that now consumes 44 percent of the county’s $536 million general fund budget – up from a third of the budget just six years ago. Money from the general fund also pays for libraries, social services and other countywide programs that some worry are getting short shrift with the escalating cost of justice.
Fulton’s work to cut the cost of its justice system matches that of other counties and cities nationwide. Tough, but expensive, criminal justice policies are being reconsidered as governments work to balance budgets hit hard by recession. Fulton County is facing a $114 million deficit.
Legislators in Georgia and other states have passed laws that allow nonviolent offenders to be steered toward alternative sentencing programs and give judges more discretion to depart from mandatory minimum sentences. Attorney General Eric Holder recently directed federal prosecutors to change the way they charge some drug offenses to avoid mandatory minimum sentences.
This year, Fulton County has budgeted about $237 million for courts, the jail, the district attorney, the public defender’s office and other criminal justice costs. Most of that money comes from the general fund, but some also comes from various other funds.
Dean Dabney, a professor of criminal justice at Georgia State University who was named to the new advisory council, said, “People are being forced to think differently (about punishing criminals) because they can’t afford to think the way they were.”
via Fulton seeks to cut justice costs | www.myajc.com.
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