Behind the high walls and twisted barbed-wire fences of the Lee Arrendale State Prison in Alto, 102 women received their high school GED diplomas Wednesday in a ceremony like others around the state lately designed to encourage inmates to pursue education.

But this graduation was different. It marked more than 2,000 Georgia prisoners earning the diplomas in the past year—a show of progress for the latest phase of Gov. Nathan Deal's criminal justice reform movement. And the governor gave the keynote speech.

After starting accountability courts all over the state to offer nonviolent offenders counseling, training and community service as an alternative to prison, plus revamping the juvenile justice system similarly to allow kids to stay at home instead of in a home, Deal has focused on ways to reduce recidivism after reentry into society by offering classes, technical training and even charter high schools in prison.