the incarceration rate among blacks in georgia dropped by 20% in five years. the change signals a shift in their approach to sentencing and offender treatment. driven to cut costs and improve outcomes, lawmakers increasingly reject tough-on-crime models which once defined the state.
instead, they're adopting public health-based solutions, including treatment centers for drug addicts and inmates with mental illness, as well as accountability courts offering alternatives to incarceration for offenders working to experience drug-free living and optimum mental health.
georgia's progressive reforms have improved outcomes for offenders of all ethnic groups. in fact, they've cut the state's overall incarceration rate by 15% since 2009, which is both remarkable and historic considering the state's dark past with black prisoners.
though blacks are currently over-represented in georgia prisons - making up more than 60% of the state population but less than 32% of the overall state population - the encouraging decline affirms success towards fair sentencing practices and outcomes.
i am
- mark j. tuggle
- harlem, usa
- same-gender-loving contemporary descendant of enslaved africans. community activist, feminist, health educator, independent filmmaker, mentor, playwright, poet & spiritual being. featured at, in & on africana.com, afrikan poetry theatre, angel herald, bejata dot com, bet tonight with tavis smiley, blacklight online, black noir, brooklyn moon cafe, gmhc's barbershop, klmo-fm, lgbt community services center, longmoor productions, nuyorican poets cafe, our corner, poz, pulse, rolling out new york, rush arts gallery, saint veronica's church, schomburg center for research in black culture, sexplorations, the citizen, the new york times, the soundz bar, the trenton times, the village voice, upn news, uzuri, venus, vibe, wbai-fm, wnyc-fm & wqht-fm. volunteered with adodi, bailey house, inc., black men's xchange-new york, colorofchange.org, drug policy alliance, east harlem tutorial program, imagenation film & music festival, presente.org, save darfur coalition, the enough project, the osborne association, the sledge group & your black world. worked on films with maurice jamal & heather murphy. writing student of phil bertelsen & ed bullins. mjt975@msn.com.
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