There’s Hope for Reducing Crime in Georgia
Key Points
- Addressing gang violence is an important way to bring down Georgia’s crime rate
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Improving public safety and reducing crime in Georgia are key to growing economic opportunity
- Governor Kemp should add re-entry programs to his crime-solving agenda
When Governor Kemp delivered his state of the State address on Wednesday, January 25, he tackled head-on one of the worries that’s become top-of-mind for everyone in Georgia: public safety and gang violence. Governor Kemp led by saying “[w]e will also continue to take violent offenders out of our communities. For far too many Georgians, the safety of their families and homes is put at risk by the unchecked crimes of street gangs.” Kemp’s comments come on the heels of Atlanta experiencing its third straight year of increased homicide in 2023.
The protection of public safety is the most essential function of government and safe communities are preconditions for economic opportunity and prosperity. While crime control is predominately the responsibility of local government, state government has an important role to play, as well.
Addressing gang violence is an important way to bring down Georgia’s crime rate
Governor Kemp is right to focus on gangs. Studies routinely find that gang members offend at rates much higher than non-gang affiliated at-risk youth and the general public. Typically, less than one percent of a city’s population belong to gangs or street groups (less formal and hierarchical gangs), but those individuals are responsible for more than 50 percent of a city’s homicides.
It would also be wrong to think of gangs as just an Atlanta problem. In July 2021, Governor Kemp announced the largest gang bust in Georgia history, which occurred in Augusta-Richmond County. It included indictments of 77 members of the mostly-white Ghost Face Gangsters for a range of crimes, including attempted murder, drug trafficking, and assaults on police officers.
One of the specific proposals the Governor mentioned was increasing the penalties for recruiting a child into a gang. This is particularly relevant as the country deals with a nationwide increase in juvenile violence. But in testimony last year by Dallas Chief of Police Eddie Garcia, which he gave before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, Garcia explained that the juveniles involved in serious violence are often pressured by adults who sometimes literally put the gun in their hand.
So, to be successful, efforts to reduce juvenile crime must also focus on the adults who perpetuate the cycle and recruit these children into gangs. In Kentucky, for example, after a 2018 comprehensive anti-gang law passed, recruitment of a juvenile into a gang by an adult became a Class C felony (5-10 years in prison) for the first offense and a Class B felony (10-20 years in prison) for a second or subsequent offense.
Together, we can get Georgia back on track.
Together, we can get Georgia back on track.
Improving public safety and reducing crime in Georgia are key to growing economic opportunity
Reducing violent crime will not only save lives, but restoring public order will improve economic opportunity and mobility in our poorest communities. Increases in violent crime reduce economic mobility and hamper private sector job growth. One study found that changes in the rates of violent crime substantially impacted the economic mobility of children raised in low-income families. As crime went up during childhood and adolescence, their level of economic mobility went down.
Another study found that increases in violent crime cause existing businesses to downsize and discourage new businesses from entering the marketplace. When businesses avoid or flee communities because of crime, residents in those areas lose opportunities for jobs and income, and they have fewer options to affordably access goods and services needed for basic well-being. So, reducing crime is crucial to long term prosperity for both individuals and communities.
Governor Kemp should add re-entry programs to his crime-solving agenda
Not included in the Governor’s speech but worth the legislature’s consideration are efforts to reduce recidivism through re-entry programming. Ninety-five percent of inmates will re-enter civil society at some point, and we desperately need them to come back better. As of 2019—the last year of available data—23.7 percent of inmates will be re-convicted of a felony within three years of release. That’s down from a high of 28.4 percent in 2016, but still far too high. Reducing recidivism means less crime and fewer victims, and while successful re-entry programs are rare, there are some that work very well. As Georgia looks to become a leader in public safety and crime reduction, one of our biggest opportunities lies in how we support re-entry.
The rate of violence Georgians are currently experiencing is unacceptable, but the solutions are abundant and hopeful. Key to our success is reliance on what we know works and partnerships between state and local government, as well as the community. Together, we can get Georgia back on track.
Very well stated – thank you for the article.
I am writing to you about the Georgia Department of Corrections’ (GaDOC) conjoint incarceration of members of criminal gangs with offenders who are not gang members. The GaDOC designates criminal gang members as “Security Threat Group” (STG) members. Within the Georgia Department of Corrections, there are over 13,000 validated gang members. The vast bulk of the unlawful acts that occur inside the facilities are carried out by members of these gangs. The number of gang members in the GaDOC has doubled over the past three years and is still rising. Its expansion is the result of gang (STG) members being imprisoned alongside non-gang members, which supplies fresh members to the gangs. The GaDOC serves as the petri dish in which the gang culture develops before metastasizing throughout the State’s neighborhoods as more and more gang members are released onto unsuspecting citizens.
This conjoint incarceration increases violence and criminal activity within the GaDOC as can be seen by the attached article (Using Restrictive Housing to Manage Gangs in US Prisons) which shows that removing gang (STG) members from non-gang members reduces violence and criminal activity by approximately 30%. The article supports the placement of all gang (STG) members in restrictive housing. In Georgia that would be accomplished by placing gang (STG) members in Administrative Segregation or in a TIER I, TIER II or TIER III Program which are lock-down assignments. I am not arguing for the placement of gang (STG) members in lock-down units, unless they violate GaDOC disciplinary rules, because, as the article indicates, after release from restrictive housing the incidents of violence by these gang (STG) members may increase. I am, however, advocating that specific prisons within the GaDOC be designated as Gang (STG) Prisons where all non-renounced gang (STG) members will be incarcerated with no non-gang offenders.
Official Code of Georgia (O.C.G.A.) 42-5-52(a) Classification and Separation of Inmates states:
The department shall provide for the classification and separation of inmates with respect to age, first offenders, habitual criminals and incorrigibles, diseased inmates, mentally diseased inmates, and those having contagious, infectious, and incurable diseases. Incorrigible inmates in county correctional institutions shall be returned to the department at the request of the proper county authority.
Non-renounced gang (STG) members fit the definition of “incorrigible.” Incorrigibility does not delve into a metaphysical assessment of the individual but only upon the individual’s conduct. The conduct of membership in a criminal gang, being dedicated to a continuing criminal enterprise, evidences an intent to commit criminal acts to maintain or increase status in the gang. Such membership by an adult does not evidence immaturity of youth making impulsive and reckless decisions on occasion with an underdeveloped sense of responsibility. Membership by an adult offender shows a deliberate intent to participate in criminal activity and violent crime demonstrating a malevolent and dangerous character. This applies especially to an offender who refuses to renounce gang (STG) membership despite the GaDOC’s offering the opportunity to do so. Some have argued that gang (STG) members do not renounce because they fear retaliation by their gang (STG). This fear is because the gangs (STGs) are not separated but conjointly incarcerated. This issue will be ameliorated by the separation of gangs (STGs) from all other offenders.
Further, O.C.G.A. 16-15-2 states:
The General Assembly finds and declares that it is the right of every person to be secure and protected from fear, intimidation, and physical harm caused by the activities of violent groups and individuals.
Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention
The only way to secure and protect non-gang (STG) offenders from fear, intimidation, and physical harm caused by the activities of criminal gangs (STGs) in the prison environment is to separate gang (STG) members from all other offenders.
The creation of Gang (STG) Prisons will not be punitive in nature. The offenders placed in these prisons, due to their persistent membership in a criminal gang (STG), will have access to all anti-crimogenic treatment and educational programs as all other offenders. I believe that the offenders at these Gang (STG) Prisons will most probably have access to more programs. The GaDOC will be able to develop special and unique programs to encourage the renunciation of gang (STG) membership and offer pathways to joining the greater social group of non-criminals. This will help meet the purpose of the Street Gang Terrorism Prevention Act as stated in O.C.G.A. 15-15-2(c):
The General Assembly finds that there are criminal street gangs operating in Georgia and that the number of gang related murders is increasing. It is the intent of the General Assembly in enacting this chapter to seek the eradication of criminal activity by criminal street gangs by focusing upon criminal gang activity and upon the organized nature of criminal street gangs which together are the chief source of terror created by criminal street gangs.
Additionally, with the current extreme understaffing of the GaDOC, which does not allow for the proper monitoring of offenders, allowing the gangs (STGs) to run rampant and control the prisons, separation of gang (STG) members, who are shown to increase violence, is basic common sense. Therefore, as the attached article shows that separation of gang (STG0 members from all non-gang members greatly reduces violence and criminal activity; and, as Georgia’s statutory law (O.C.G.A. 42-5-52(a) & 16-15-2) directs such separation, I urge you to join with me and demand that the GaDOC immediately end the conjoint incarceration of gang (STG) members with non-gang offenders.
Thank you for your action in this matter.
NOTE: The GaDOC by designating criminal gangs as Security Threat Groups allows the GaDOC to tell those who inquire about the conjoint incarceration of gang members with non-gang members that there is no conjoint incarceration of these offenders. It’s a word game to allow the GaDOC to continue to conjointly incarcerate these offenders in violation of Georgia law.