Pubdate: Mon, 20 Jan 2003
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Contact:  http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: Bill Rankin

JUDGES MAY GET SENTENCING GUIDELINES

Throughout Georgia, the length of prison time a defendant gets often 
depends not only on what he did but where he did it.

In Fulton County, for instance, a person charged with cocaine possession on 
average gets just over two years in prison, while someone charged with the 
same thing in Augusta on average receives almost six years, Department of 
Corrections records show. Shoplifters in the Griffin Judicial Circuit south 
of Atlanta receive about 5 1/2 years in prison, almost double the average 
handed down in DeKalb.

A state commission studying sentencing disparities and prison overcrowding 
has endorsed new sentencing guidelines that would help eliminate unlevel 
treatment of defendants who commit similar crimes.

The guidelines would also make room for more violent, sex and career 
criminals behind bars without taxing Georgia's skyrocketing prison budget, 
because fewer people committing relatively minor offenses would go to prison.

On Tuesday, the state's judiciary has the opportunity to take the first 
step toward making the guidelines part of Georgia's criminal justice 
system. But few issues evoke more impassioned debate among judges.

Many strongly resist surrendering the wide discretion they have in 
sentencing convicted felons for crimes, ranging from those forging a check 
to dealing cocaine, from those shoplifting in a store to burglarizing a home.

Still other judges say it's not their job to worry about the prison 
spending, only what sentence a criminal before them rightly deserves.

"Judges should not be in the prison population business," said Superior 
Court Judge Johnnie Caldwell Jr. of the Griffin circuit. "That's up to the 
governor, and it's not up to me to be concerned about it."

Over the past few decades, a succession of tough-on-crime laws has led to 
steady increases in the state's prison population and an annual Corrections 
Department budget of more than $1 billion. Georgia has led the nation in 
prison growth in two out of the last four years, and its incarceration rate 
is now sixth-highest in the country.

The new guidelines allow a variety of sentencing options for nonviolent and 
first-time offenders, such as boot camps, detention centers, home 
confinement and probation. The guidelines also are expected to potentially 
reduce the number of incarcerated African-Americans, now about 64 percent 
of the inmate population, because fewer drug possession offenses and other 
nonviolent crimes would bring prison time.

Shortage of beds

The guidelines come under consideration at a time when state corrections 
and budget projections indicate Georgia will have a shortage of 5,000 to 
10,000 prison beds in the next five years. Unless the rate of inmate growth 
is stemmed, lawmakers will have to find sources of revenue to build more 
prisons or state officials may have to allow the early release of hundreds 
of inmates.

Other states are facing similar issues. Over the past month, the state of 
Kentucky, mired in a deficit crisis, has allowed the early release of more 
than 800 inmates with mass commutations of sentences. In Oklahoma, the 
names of more than 150 inmates have been forwarded to the governor for 
early release to save money, and similar proposals are percolating in 
Washington, Connecticut, Oregon and Nevada.

Atlanta defense lawyer Jack Martin, a member of the state sentencing 
commission, said if the new guidelines are adopted and used, they will not 
eliminate Georgia's prison population boom but will help keep it from 
getting out of control.

"Over the long term, if we don't do something about it, it's going to be so 
outrageous it's going to bankrupt the state," Martin said. "What we're 
doing with our prison resources is just nonsense. And how can you argue 
with a system that at least attempts to make people who commit the same 
crimes get the same sentence?"

On Tuesday, the important rules committee of the Council of Superior Court 
Judges is expected to vote on whether to study the proposed guidelines for 
the next six months.

Vote by judges

This will set up a vote in the summer by all the state's Superior Court 
judges to adopt or reject them.

"I think this is something that is good and important and something we 
ought to consider," said Superior Court Judge Walter Matthews of the Rome 
Judicial Circuit and co-chairmn of the state guidelines commission. But 
Matthews added that the state's judges are also well aware that his 
commission was the idea of a governor who was voted out of office in November.

"Many judges are wondering why we should take this up right now," he said. 
"It's not Gov. Perdue's proposal. It's Gov. Barnes' proposal. The election 
has put a lot of things up in the air, so we shall see."

Perdue spokeswoman Erin O'Brien said the governor has read the sentencing 
commission's report with "great interest" but has yet to take a position on 
it. He hopes to meet with the Superior Court judges about it this week, she 
said.

Under the guidelines, judges would be provided a grid where they would work 
within a range of sentences for particular crimes. Repeat offenders would 
be treated more harshly.

The most lenient sentences are allowed for minor crimes, such as thefts of 
less than $500 and breaking into a car. Residential burglars get stiffer 
treatment than a nonresidential burglars. A drug dealer arrested with a gun 
would get more time than one who didn't use a weapon.

University of Georgia law professor Susette Talarico noted that the roughly 
25 other states that have enacted sentencing guidelines generally have had 
success with them.

"In the interest of equity and the interest of systemwide consistency, 
judges need some direction and even some limitation," she said. "We need 
some refinement to help ensure there's more consistency in the interest of 
justice and then more predictability in sentencing in the interest of more 
efficient use of limited resources, especially incarceration facilities."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart