Opinion
Parole is working for the citizens of Georgia
ATLANTA — The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles Board Members and staff are dedicated to our mission of enhancing public safety by making informed parole decisions and successfully transitioning offenders back into the community. This balanced approach has allowed the Pardons and Paroles Board to contribute to the protection of the citizens of Georgia by facilitating, as appropriate, the timely and successful transition of offenders into the community.
The Field Operations staff is diligent and dedicated to protecting public safety, while assisting parolees in their efforts to become productive and law abiding members of our communities. We currently supervise over 21,000 parolees, and are the only entity in the state with the constitutional authority to grant executive clemency. Georgia’s prison population is ranked fifth largest in the nation, and one in 13 adult Georgians is under some form of correctional supervision.
In spite of current economic conditions, our Field staff has identified new and innovative evidence-based supervision strategies to assist parolees in their quest to remain crime and drug free. Currently, our parole completion rate stands at 66 percent, more than 20 percent higher than the national average. Our parolee employment rate is 78 percent, even during these economic times, as Parole Officers continue to develop relationships with area employers. Studies show that for every day a parolee is employed, there is a 1 percent decrease in the chance that they will be re-arrested.
Another reason Parole is so vital in these tough economic times is that it costs just $4.91 a day to have someone on parole, as compared to $470 a day to keep someone incarcerated.
The Board continues to provide crime victims and their families with opportunities for their voices to be heard in the parole process. Through our collaborative approach with judicial circuits across the state, nearly 1,000 victims of crime and their families have taken the opportunity to meet with representatives of the Board or Board Members during our Victims Visitors’ Day.
The Board’s core mission is to manage prisoner reentry, but our primary focus is public safety. Without the influence of Parole’s intense supervision, more offenders would return to Georgia prisons, creating a costly cycle of increasing recidivism.
For more information on the Parole Board, please visit our website at www.pap.state.ga.us
- Opinion
-
-
History is bound to repeat itself
Robert M. Ball, a former commissioner of Social Security under Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, said, “Medicare was created because the elderly had difficulty securing affordable private insurance coverage.”
-
Tim Rogers: Looking for the good
Good morning.
Several years ago, when I worked in Wichita, Kan., I ate lunch most days with a reporter friend who could find a conspiracy in just about any situation.
-
Wanted: Jobs in private sector
13.1 percent.
That is the unemployment rate in the Dalton Metro area right now.
And the statistics don’t suggest that it will go away anytime soon.
-
Citizens of the Week: Supporters of United Way and its agencies
Times are tough. Money is tight. Resources are scarce. But the people of Whitfield and Murray counties keep giving their time and money to those less fortunate.
-
Root for the Lady Bruins
No matter where you live in Whitfield County or Murray County, or what team you root for, it will be cool to wear blue today.
-
Letter: Thank you Regency Park
As I begin to write this letter, I am still with a heavy heart. You see, on Saturday, Feb. 27, I lost an important part of my life. My mother and my friend, Mrs. DeeEtte Page Scott, departed this life to be with our heavenly father.
-
Letter: Students are fighting to protect higher education
The nearly $600 million in budget cuts proposed for the University System of Georgia struck a chord with me when I learned how the budget cuts would affect my region.
-
Letter: A road solution
I am not a rocket scientist nor an engineer, yet I have come up with a very simple solution for a bypass for the Highway 225 and the Alternate Highway 52 congestion. And I wasn’t paid $750,000 to do it, nor have I been influenced by any landowners along the way.
-
Tim Rogers: Hubris applies to all
There is a word that I have been thinking a lot about lately. It is hubris.
-
Jean Lowrey: Play it again, Karen
A September Evening, 1990: The Dalton Education Foundation was about to launch its first Hall of Fame presentation at a November banquet. A group of local singers, under the direction of Andy Baker, gathered in the Dalton High School choral room to begin rehearsals for the upcoming event.
- More Opinion Headlines
-
History is bound to repeat itself
