MARC HYDEN: To arrest prison crisis, lawmakers should give these ideas a second look

Another day, another serious complaint against the Georgia Department of Corrections. The most recent stems from Harris v. Georgia, which alleges the department failed to “provide incarcerated deaf and hard of hearing people with equally effective communication access to programs, services and activities, including medical care, telecommunications and prison programs.”

This comes on the heels of other concerning accusations. The U.S. Justice Department noted in 2024, “Our statewide investigation exposes long-standing, systemic violations stemming from complete indifference and disregard to the safety and security of people Georgia holds in its prisons. People are assaulted, stabbed, raped and killed or left to languish inside facilities that are woefully understaffed.”

Lawmakers have acknowledged the deplorable realities of our state prisons, which house 47,000 inmates in 34 prisons, and to address them, they allocated an additional $250 million to improve prison conditions and hire 700 more corrections officers. This is a start, but lawmakers should also consider serious reforms that responsibly curtail the prison population and save taxpayer money, while also making society safer.

To do so, lawmakers should address the front end of the system. The criminal justice pipeline often begins with an arrest and booking the accused into a local jail. However, time spent there – regardless of guilt or innocence – greatly increases the likelihood of committing future crimes. 

Despite this, Georgia has long perpetuated a money bail system – meaning those who cannot afford to make bail often remain behind bars longer. In 2018, Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, in cooperation with then-Gov. Nathan Deal, passed a bail reform package to address this, but the measure lacked teeth.

Either eliminating cash bail for first-time petty offenses for those who are not a flight risk or ratifying a more precise law governing cash bail for minor infractions would rectify this. It would ensure that defendants aren’t punished with extended jail time – while waiting for trial – for being too poor to make bail.

Stay in the know with our free newsletter

Receive stories from Albany straight to your inbox. Delivered weekly.

Your Email Address

Sign Up

This would provide a double benefit. It could curtail re-offense rates and save localities considerable money. It can cost more than $1,000 a month to house someone in a local jail, and as of September 2026, sheriffs held nearly 33,000 people in Georgia’s jails.

Another option involves focusing on Georgia’s pretrial diversion program. It has for years been an important tool to rehabilitate offenders, reduce recidivism and give them second chances, while keeping them out of jail. The program is typically reserved for first-time offenders who are accused of non-violent misdemeanors. If they satisfactorily complete the program, then they usually don’t face any additional penalties or have a conviction on their record.

This is a boon to the system and offenders, but navigating the program can be an unsure and complex process that requires counsel. Rather than forcing defendants to navigate this labyrinth, policymakers should consider creating a standardized statewide program that institutes an automatic enrollment for low-level first-time offenders who opt into the program. This would remove uncertainty in the process and make these rehabilitative services more accessible.

Taking into account that people “age out” of crime and the deleterious effects of prolonged imprisonment, the state ought to consider responsible ways to reduce those under supervision. There is a way: Second Look laws.

These statutes empower inmates who have served much of their sentence to petition the court to review their sentence and consider modifying it. There are limited methods of reducing and suspending sentences now, but they stand in stark contrast with the approach found in Second Look laws. They create a more accessible, streamlined pathway for a greater number of inmates. In doing so, they curtail the prison population and release those who have served their time and pose no threat to society.

As important as they are, getting these reforms to the next governor’s desk could prove challenging. Once the nation’s criminal justice reform capital, the flow of landmark reforms has slowed to barely a trickle. Part of that is due to political turnover and the perception that we are riding an unprecedented crime wave. 

“In 2023, a record 63% of U.S. adults called crime an extremely or very serious national problem, and those who reported being afraid to walk alone at night near their home reached a three-decade high,” my R Street colleague Jillian Snider wrote. Crime stats paint a different reality. “Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation show that violent crime fell an estimated 4.5% in 2024, bringing the national violent crime rate to its lowest level since 1969, while murder rates declined 14.9%,” Snider continued.

Georgia is not in the midst of a historic crime wave, but the glaring allegations facing prisons prove we have unmistakable flaws within our justice system. Given everything we know, perhaps it is time for Georgia to make criminal justice reform a priority again before another tragedy unfolds.

Marc Hyden is the senior director of state government affairs at the R Street Institute. You can follow him on X at @marc_hyden.