June 30, 2004

Albany -- The Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court says mandatory sentencing laws have caused the state's prison population to grow out of control.

Chief Justice Norman Fletcher says Georgia's prison population has grown by 417 percent in the last three decades, crushing the state budget. One of every 75 men in Georgia is now living in a jail or prison.

Fletcher says the only way to slow the prison population boom, is to free judges from mandatory sentencing laws on non violent crimes. Fletcher said "Society would probably be better served if those people were not serving so long and taking up the hard beds. So that we can be certain that we keep violent people within the prison system as they should be."

Chief Justice Fletcher says the new state-wide public defender system, going into effect in 2005, will help guarantee fairness in Georgia courts.

Now that was a strong statement that needed to be said. I been in a court room and observed sentencing differences in people who could afford to pay lawyer and those who could not. And it is also shocking to hear that 1 out of every 75 of our men are in prison. That is a strong proof that drugs and achohol has taken over our soceity and that we need stronger programs that will reflect our true problems within our communities and offer more job skill training that reflects todays job market. And bring back the importance of faith and family. We tend to ignore people with the problems,instead of offering them a help and hand or direct them to someone who can help them through their problems.