A legacy of healing — Documentary tells ReCAST Lawrenceville’s journey through residents’ stories

by Cierra Johnson | Nov 17, 2025

A legacy of healing — Documentary tells ReCAST Lawrenceville’s journey through residents’ stories

Excerpt from Gwinnett Daily Post profile:

Originally published October 15, 2025

Funded four years ago with a $5 million federal grant, ReCAST Lawrenceville has been an invaluable resource to a host of city residents as it works with its partners — Impact 46, the Georgia Center for Opportunity and Viewpoint Health — in promoting resiliency and wellbeing in the community.

To provide awareness to those not familiar with ReCAST and to remind those who are familiar with the agency’s reach and impact, a 17-minute documentary has been produced that amply displays three examples of the role ReCAST has played in the areas of housing, employment and behavioral and mental health.

“We just wanted to celebrate the success of the work that’s been going on through the grant program since October of 2021,” said Marcus Thorne, program manager of ReCAST (which stands for Resiliency in Communities After Stress and Trauma).

The documentary — which was produced by award-winning communications company JComm, Inc. — focuses on three Lawrenceville residents and ReCAST clients — Josiah Hardy, Success Bonds and Nadia Hill — as they navigate their way through potential crises with guidance and assistance from ReCAST’s three partners. Hardy is aided by the Georgia Center for Opportunity’s Jobs for Life program while Bonds receives housing support from Impact 46 and Hill describes the helpful counseling she received from Viewpoint Health.

Read the full article here.

About the Georgia Center for Opportunity

The Georgia Center for Opportunity is a nonprofit organization that works to remove barriers to ensure that every person—no matter their race, past mistakes, or the circumstances of their birth—has access to safe communities, a quality education, fulfilling work, and a healthy family life.

###

Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) is independent, non-partisan, and solutions-focused. Our team is dedicated to creating opportunities for a quality education, fulfilling work, and a healthy family life for all Georgians. To achieve our mission, we research ways to help remove barriers to opportunity in each of these pathways, promote our solutions to policymakers and the public, and help effective and innovative social enterprises deliver results in their communities.

Send media inquiries to:

Camille Walsh
Georgia Center for Opportunity
camillew@foropportunity.org

The Fantasy That Cutting Prison Populations Saves a Lot of Money

by Cierra Johnson | Nov 10, 2025

Georgia news, in the news, current events, Georgia happenings, GA happenings

The Fantasy That Cutting Prison Populations Saves a Lot of Money

Joshua Crawford in Governing

Originally published October 31, 2025

State leaders hoping to trim budgets by reducing prison populations are in for some disappointment. Proponents of decarceration often tout potential savings, but despite a 24 percent drop in state prison populations since 2010, corrections spending has continued to rise.

Over the past decade, states have enacted hundreds of criminal justice reforms — from reclassifying drug possessions to reducing mandatory minimum sentences — often with the promise of both greater fairness and lower costs. Yet while these policies have succeeded in driving down incarceration rates, they have failed to deliver the taxpayer savings that many conservative lawmakers expected when they pushed for criminal justice reform.

This is because incarcerating criminals is expensive. Using the aggregate division method — taking the total cost to incarcerate for a year and dividing it by the average number of inmates a state houses in a year — state per-prisoner expenditures range from $22,981 per prisoner per year in Arkansas to $307,468 in Massachusetts. So reducing the prison population by 100 people, decarceration advocates argue, should yield an annual savings of over $2.2 million in Arkansas and over $30 million in Massachusetts.

But in the years since the wave of reforms, neither overall state budgets nor department of corrections budgets have declined. In fact, state budgets increased in every state and state corrections budgets increased in all but two states. So why didn’t the promised fiscal benefits to taxpayers come to fruition?

First, it’s important to understand that state corrections budgets have always made up a relatively small percentage of overall state expenditures — never more than 5 percent. This is far below the cost of education (25-35 percent), public welfare (20-25 percent), highways (5-10 percent), and hospitals and health care (5-10 percent). It was always going to be hard to cut overall state spending by reducing one of the smaller budget items.

Read the full article here.

Joshua Crawford is the Director of Criminal Justice Initiatives at the Georgia Center for Opportunity and the author of “Kids and Community Violence: Costs, Consequences, and Solutions” in the edited volume Doing Right by Kids.

New Report: Corrections Spending Rises in Georgia Even as Prison Population Declines

by Rebecca Primis | Oct 13, 2025

New Report: Corrections Spending Rises in Georgia Even as Prison Population Declines

PEACHTREE CORNERS, GA—Georgia’s prison population has shrunk in recent years, but a new Manhattan Institute report written by Joshua Crawford, a Public Safety Fellow at the Georgia Center for Opportunity, shows that the decreasing number of inmates hasn’t translated to meaningful savings or improvements in public safety for Georgians.

Instead, the report reveals that corrections spending has risen as Georgia’s prison population has declined. The number of incarcerated Georgians dropped by 11.7% between 2010 and 2023, but corrections spending increased by 23.6% over the same period. The trends in Georgia are consistent with those in almost every other state—incarceration rates are falling while corrections budgets are growing.

The data confirms that reducing the number of people in prison isn’t the answer to decreasing the state budget in Georgia or elsewhere.

As Crawford says, “Georgia lawmakers should focus conversations about criminal justice where they belong: on protecting the public and creating a fair and just system that values the lives, liberty, and property of Georgia families. Those are things lawmakers can meaningfully impact immediately, while criminal justice budgets are more complex and fixed.”

At a glance: facts on the prison population and corrections spending in Georgia

In 2023, 49,814 people were incarcerated in Georgia.
From 2010-2023, Georgia’s prison population decreased by 6,618 people, or 11.7%.
From 2010-2023, Georgia’s corrections spending increased by $258,546,766, or 23.6%.
In fiscal year 2023, Georgia’s Department of Corrections budget was $1,354,962,683, or 2.2% of the state’s total budget.

A closer look at Georgia’s inmate numbers and corrections spending

The number of people in Georgia’s prisons decreased by 6,618 to 49,814 from 2010-2023, but corrections spending in Georgia increased by $258,546,766 during the same time frame.

Notably, Crawford points out most individuals in Georgia’s prisons are violent and repeat offenders, and the majority have had five or more prior arrests before incarceration. Because these offenders pose higher public safety risks and drive most of the system’s costs, reducing inmates at the margins does little to generate savings.

Even with the growth in spending, Georgia’s overall Department of Corrections budget in fiscal year 2023 was $1,354,962,683, just 2.2% of the state’s total budget. The vast majority of state dollars went toward other initiatives that help Georgians prosper, including education, public welfare, healthcare, and highways.

Regarding corrections spending, Crawford explained that “because prison budgets are driven by fixed costs like payroll, maintenance, and facilities, modest reductions in the number of inmates don’t free up meaningful savings. Unless states close prisons or dramatically cut staffing, costs remain largely unchanged.”

Reshaping the conversation on criminal justice policy

Long-standing arguments continue about reducing the prison population as a way to decrease Georgia’s overall spending. But the data shows that policymakers need to focus instead on building a more effective criminal justice system that addresses the true costs of crime and helps Georgians flourish.

One crime was committed every 2 minutes and 33 seconds in Georgia in 2024. The effects of this criminal activity are devastating for local communities. Violent crime, in particular, takes a huge toll on property values, employment, economic opportunities, and people’s upward mobility.

Ensuring safety is a core government responsibility, and it’s the first step in creating more prosperous communities throughout Georgia. Public safety is essential to improving economic opportunities, building healthy relationships among neighbors, and enabling Georgians to thrive.

With effective reforms, policymakers can make safety a reality for Georgia’s residents, breaking the interconnected cycles of poverty and crime and transforming communities for generations to come.

About the Georgia Center for Opportunity

The Georgia Center for Opportunity is a nonprofit organization that works to remove barriers to ensure that every person—no matter their race, past mistakes, or the circumstances of their birth—has access to safe communities, a quality education, fulfilling work, and a healthy family life.

###

Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) is independent, non-partisan, and solutions-focused. Our team is dedicated to creating opportunities for a quality education, fulfilling work, and a healthy family life for all Georgians. To achieve our mission, we research ways to help remove barriers to opportunity in each of these pathways, promote our solutions to policymakers and the public, and help effective and innovative social enterprises deliver results in their communities.

Send media inquiries to:

Rebecca Primis
Vice President of CommunicationsGeorgia Center for Opportunityrebeccap@foropportunity.org

National Poverty Rate Fails to Capture the Problem of Poverty Concentration in Georgia and Beyond

by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Sep 9, 2025

National Poverty Rate Fails to Capture the Problem of Poverty Concentration in Georgia and Beyond

PEACHTREE CORNERS, GA—The official poverty rate fell 0.4% to 10.6% in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest report on poverty. The data shows that 35.9 million Americans were living in poverty last year.

These numbers suggest trends at a high level, but they don’t reflect the biggest poverty-related issue, both for the nation and for Georgia: the concentration of poverty in specific neighborhoods. Instead of affecting only certain individuals and families, poverty is enveloping entire communities. This is leading to significant geographic and societal separations among Georgians—not only financially, but also in terms of opportunities for education, work, and family formation.

Randy Hicks, the Georgia Center for Opportunity’s President and CEO, also shared that:

“The national numbers don’t tell us much about poverty from the perspective of the person or community experiencing it. They fail to convey that poverty is much more than a material issue for those who are struggling. Research has shown that people living in neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty lack the essential local network of supportive relationships that’s crucial for helping them thrive and rise out of poverty.”

At a glance: facts on concentrated poverty in Georgia

Georgia’s poverty rate: 13.5%—2.9% above the national average, ranking 38th.
Poverty exceeds the national rate in 133 of Georgia’s 159 counties.
Atlanta’s poverty rate: 18.1% overall; 27.2% among children.
Lawrenceville’s poverty rate: 17.2%, compared with Gwinnett County’s 10.5%.
Southern and central Georgia show especially high concentrations of poverty.

Breaking down Georgia’s poverty landscape

Georgia’s average poverty rate was 13.5% in 2023, per the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or 2.9% higher than the national rate.

This difference may seem slight, but it puts Georgia 38th in the country when it comes to poverty. Poverty rates in 133 of Georgia’s 159 counties also exceed the national rate.

Within counties, concentrations of poverty exist in particular cities. For example, Atlanta, the county seat of Fulton County, has a poverty rate of 18.1%. Poverty is even more concentrated among the city’s children, with 27.2% living in poverty. These numbers are significantly higher than the county’s average poverty rate of 12.6%.

Lawrenceville, in Gwinnett County, also struggles with concentrated poverty at a rate of 17.2%. The county’s average poverty rate is just 10.5%.

In many cases, poverty rates are higher than the state average in central and southern Georgia, suggesting concentrations of poverty in communities in those regions.

Impacts of increasing concentrations of poverty

In neighborhoods with higher poverty levels, residents experience many negative impacts, including limited access to quality education, healthcare, and employment opportunities. They also struggle with increased crime and inadequate housing and living conditions. These factors significantly hinder social and economic mobility and contribute to cycles of poverty that are difficult to escape.

Eric Cochling, the Georgia Center for Opportunity’s Chief Program Officer and General Counsel, noted:

“Poverty has an especially big impact at the local level. It’s a crisis of human well-being. These neighborhoods are often missing the vital community connections and social institutions that help people navigate life’s challenges. As social isolation and disengagement from work increase, people suffer from the loss of purpose and belonging that work and relationships provide.”

About the Georgia Center for Opportunity

The Georgia Center for Opportunity is a nonprofit organization that works to remove barriers to ensure that every person—no matter their race, past mistakes, or the circumstances of their birth—has access to safe communities, a quality education, fulfilling work, and a healthy family life. Learn more at foropportunity.org.

###

Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) is independent, non-partisan, and solutions-focused. Our team is dedicated to creating opportunities for a quality education, fulfilling work, and a healthy family life for all Georgians. To achieve our mission, we research ways to help remove barriers to opportunity in each of these pathways, promote our solutions to policymakers and the public, and help effective and innovative social enterprises deliver results in their communities.

Send media inquiries to:

Camille WalshGeorgia Center for Opportunitycamillew@foropportunity.org

Are we witnessing a Baltimore Miracle in the fight against crime?

by Rebecca Primis | Jul 3, 2025

Are we witnessing a Baltimore Miracle in the fight against crime?

Joshua Crawford in The Baltimore Sun
Originally published July 3, 2025

By the mid-1990s, Boston was in a constant state of tumult. While homicides had been high since 1980, the six years from 1989-1995 would prove to be among the city’s deadliest, with 710 murders — 75 more than the preceding six-year period. Racial strife and police abuses riled the city after the 1989 murder of Carol Stuart — a pregnant white woman from the suburbs — whose murder was blamed on a young Black man by her husband, the actual killer.

For the foreseeable future, Boston was to be a place of violence, chaos and disorder. Only, that’s not what happened. Thanks to a team composed of the Boston Police Department, researchers from Harvard University and local religious leaders, an innovative approach called “Operation Ceasefire” dramatically reduced violent crime in the city. Over the next four years, youth homicides decreased in the city by 63%, and Boston has become one of the safest large cities in the country.

Governments and the media hailed that initial decrease as the “Boston Miracle.” Nearly three decades later, similar reductions in Baltimore deserve the same praise — if not more.

Baltimore has struggled with crime, especially drugs and violent crime, in both reality and in the imaginations of the American people for decades. Routinely in the top of the “most violent” or “least safe” city rankings, Baltimore has only had fewer than 200 murders three times since 1970.

In line with national trends, murder totals began increasing in the 1960s and then decreasing in the 1990s through 2014. Then, also in line with national trends, murder rose sharply in 2015 and remained elevated. Baltimore did not have fewer than 300 murders again until 2023, when a mix of best practices produced one of the most impressive declines in deadly violence in the nation’s recent history. Murder declined nearly 22% in 2023, and then another almost 23% in 2024 — erasing all of the post-2014 increases. Through May 1, 2025, homicides were down another 31%, putting Baltimore on pace for its fourth sub-200 murder year since 1970, and the city’s lowest total since the mid-1960s.

What happened?

Read the full article here.

Joshua Crawford is the Director of Criminal Justice Initiatives at the Georgia Center for Opportunity and the author of “Kids and Community Violence: Costs, Consequences, and Solutions” in the edited volume Doing Right by Kids.

Welfare stands in the way of the American dream

by Rebecca Primis | Jul 3, 2025

Op-Ed: Welfare stands in the way of the American dream

Randy Hicks in the Washington Examiner
Originally published July 3, 2025

As we celebrate Independence Day, we’ll be reminded of our inherent right to life, liberty, and one of our country’s most defining ideals: the American dream. Each of us has a picture of what the American dream looks like, but a common theme throughout is the ability to achieve what we want through hard work.

It’s important to remember, however, that there’s more to the American dream than money, promotions, or a nice house.

It’s what those things make possible. The economic markers associated with the American dream — income, upward mobility, homeownership — are not the ends in themselves. They’re tools. A good job and a house in a safe neighborhood matter not just because they are desirable, but because they create the space for something deeper: family, friendships, and community.

As humans, we are wired to connect with family members, friends, coworkers, and neighbors. This Fourth of July, it’s worth noting that meaningful relationships and a strong sense of community are as much a part of the American dream as any economic measure.

Unfortunately, our belief in that dream is dwindling. Just 53% of Americans think the American dream is still possible.

Clearly, something is amiss, and it’s more than the rising cost of owning a home. Our sense of community, once a defining feature of America, is also slipping away.

Despite being more technologically connected than ever, there is an epidemic of loneliness in the United States. Deaths from suicide, alcohol-related illness, or drug overdoses — “deaths of despair” — have more than doubled since the 1990s.

Meanwhile, very few Americans attend religious services, and a growing number of men have no close friends. Participation in traditional civic groups and community organizations continues to fall. Family formation is also on the decline. Americans aren’t getting married and aren’t having kids.

There are many reasons behind these cultural shifts. But what’s rarely discussed is how systemic obstacles are driving some of these troubling trends.

There are federal and state policies in place that make it harder to achieve what the American dream is all about: the freedom to shape your own future, build a family, and contribute to your community.

America’s safety net system, in particular, prevents people and families, especially from poorer backgrounds, from achieving the American dream.

Congress is thankfully considering reforms to this system for the first time in decades, including adding work requirements to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It’s promising that we’re finally discussing the importance of connecting work to welfare. But work requirements will do little to fix the larger structural problems with the safety net system.

If lawmakers dug deeper, they’d find baked into these programs a phenomenon where beneficiaries are often discouraged from getting a job or a raise. They’d notice that our tax code penalizes welfare recipients for getting married and forming a family. And they’d discover that even if we implement work requirements, welfare agencies are not set up to help recipients find jobs. Welfare and workforce programs oddly operate in silos, making it difficult for people to access the support they need to secure employment.

These are policy failures that push people in the opposite direction of the American dream, into a life of dependency instead of self-determination —a life that makes it difficult not only to get ahead but to build meaningful relationships and a sense of purpose.

If the U.S. is going to continue to thrive, we need institutions and policies that don’t stand in the way of achieving the full extent of the American dream. That means a safety net that no longer discourages work, penalizes marriage, or traps people in a cycle of dependency.

Randy Hicks is the president and chief executive officer of the Georgia Center for Opportunity and founding member of the Alliance for Opportunity.