The $1 billion annual corrections budget and the likelihood minor offenders sentenced to prison time often become major criminals has led the State of Georgia to consider alternatives to nonviolent crime.
The low cost and success of drug courts throughout the state has lead Governor Deal to propose in this year’s budget to quintuple funding to $10 million for the state’s accountability courts.
A 2010 state audit found that 29 percent of state prison inmates with substance-abuse problems committed another crime within two years of release, compared to only 7 percent of drug court graduates. Drug courts also operate at a fraction of the cost — about $20 a day, compared to $51 a day for a state prison bed. The audit estimated that sending offenders through drug court saved the state $14 million in 2009.
The program teaches offenders responsibility, how to stand on their own two feet, how to pay taxes and be a good citizen, he said. “All of these things are conservative principles. We do not want them to be a drain on the government,” said Jeffrey Bagley, chief judge of Forsyth County Superior Court.
Bagley added there is no real downside to the program. “If they fail, I will sentence them,” he said. “If they succeed, society is better off.”
Read more details about the state’s drug courts including stories from some of Fulton County’s recent graduates.
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