ATLANTA (AP) – As Georgia state lawmakers tackle juvenile justice reform this year, they are also expected to expand on last year’s overhaul of the adult criminal justice system.
Last year’s legislation drew heavily on recommendations from a special committee created the year before to study the issue and make recommendations for rewriting the state’s sentencing laws to emphasize rehabilitating relatively low-risk nonviolent offenders in community-based supervision programs rather sending them to prison. In a report released last month that focused mostly on the juvenile justice system, the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform also recommended lawmakers build on those efforts.
