A Senate Study committee of seven Georgia lawmakers will examine the ‘safety and welfare’ of individuals inside the Georgia Department of Corrections facilities.
The appointment of the seven members to the committee came from Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones’ office last week, but stems from the passage of Senate Resolution 570 during the most recent legislative session. That resolution pointed out the following:
- in 2023, more than 50,000 people each day were in the custody of the Department of Corrections across all facility types
- from Fiscal Year 2020 through Fiscal Year 2022, the total number of Department of Corrections employees (by Full-Time Equivalent) shrank from 8,158 to 6,169, and the number of employees in the facilities division shrank from 7,527 to 5,546
- a study would be beneficial to examine current issues impacting the ability of 15 the Department of Corrections to operate secure and safe facilities and to ensure the welfare 16 of both its staff and those in its custody.
The committee will be charged with studying needs, conditions, issues, and problems and then make recommendations, if it sees fit, for legislative reforms. A report will also be produced at the conclusion of the study committee, which will dissolve on December 1, 2024.
The following members will serve on the seven-member committee:
- Senator Randy Robertson (R – Cataula) – Chairman of the Study Committee
- Senator John Albers (R – Roswell)
- Senator Tonya Anderson (D – Lithonia)
- Senator Brandon Beach (R – Alpharetta)
- Senator Timothy Bearden (R – Carrollton)
- Senator Steve Gooch, Senate Majority Leader, (R – Dahlonega)
- Senator Kim Jackson (D – Stone Mountain)
Robertson and Gooch were sponsors of the resolution in the Senate, which passed 53-0.
No meeting dates have been set at this time.
I wish you or I could be a fly on the wall of that group and their study of the GA Correction Facility
My son who is incarcerated at Wheeler Correctional Facility, Alamo, Georgia, just informed me that some inmates in his dorm were called out to complete forms for early release even though they are not eligible for parole. My son, who is Jewish, was not called out even though he was sentenced for twenty years. Is this initiated by Guidehouse, Inc. as a result of SR 570? Or is there some other reason that some inmates are being considered for early release? Has a briefing been made available? Who initiated the early release and what is the criteria?