(Sister Janet’s guest columnist this week is Ellis McDougall, Georgia’s Commissioner of Corrections, who discusses correctional legislation.)

The 1973 session of the Georgia General Assembly passed a package of extremely important correctional legislation. Passage of that legislation has enabled our department to establish a Youthful Offender Division, become a member of the National Interstate Correctional Compact and join the Interstate Agreement on Detainers. These bills and others have been instrumental in the rapid progress that our department has made in the past year.

Our legislative program this year has two major objectives. The first is to amend bills with certain deficiencies that we feel need correcting if programs are to work effectively. The other objective is to introduce new legislation, which we feel, will help place Georgia among the top states in the country in correctional reform.

The following list of bills is broken into two sections. The first is the section of amendments and the second is new legislations.

Amendments

HB 380 – A bill was passed during the 1972 General Assembly to authorize the Department of Corrections to give $25 to $150 in release money to inmates being released from correctional institutions. The wording of the bill inadvertently left out the word “misdemeanants”. The money has been allocated but we can not give it to these inmates. This bill corrects that mistake.

HB 382 – The Interstate Agreement on Detainers was also passed last year and a typographical error placed the word “unlawful” where the word “lawful” should have been. According to Georgia law a new bill has to be passed to correct the wording.

HB 842 – Probably the most important piece of correctional legislation passed in Georgia in many years was the Youthful Offender Act. There is a slight flaw in the act. It places the power of conditional and unconditional release with the Director of Corrections instead of the Pardon and Parole Board. This amendment places that power with the board which enables it to conform to the Georgia Constitution. It is essential that this bill pass the General Assembly.

SB 142 – By law, certain inmates have special driver’s licenses to operate state vehicles. This bill provides liability insurance protection for those drivers. We feel this bill protects the taxpayers of Georgia if they are involved in an accident with one of our trusted drivers.

SB 143 – A bill last year enables us to transfer unruly inmates to the Federal Bureau of Prisons if they are serving concurrent state and federal sentences. This amendment will allow us to transfer inmates serving only state sentences. In some instances having this ability can save an inmate whose life is in jeopardy in the Georgia system.

New Legislation

HB 381 – This bill would make it unlawful for any employee of any state correctional institution to remove an inmate from the institution without prior written consent. If it occurs now we can only fire the employee. This act will make it a criminal offense.

HB 448 – The purpose of this bill is to make it a felony for an inmate to carry a deadly weapon (knife, gun, dagger, explosive, etc.) while in the custody of any penal institution or officer of said institution. By law, all we can do now is segregate the inmate and take good time away from him. This bill should be an effective deterrent.

HB 724 – This legislation will allow correction industries to competitively bid on construction projects of the State Board of Corrections. It will permit us to build many of our own facilities with inmate labor, which will enhance rehabilitation through constructive skills.

HB 1027 – This is a shock probation bill. Since its inception in Ohio in 1965 more than 91 percent of its probationers have been successful. This bill is a tool whereby the judge can sentence an individual to a determinate period and after serving 60 days bring that individual back for a hearing and possibly probate the remainder of his sentence. Many times just a taste of prison life can be a tremendous preventive measure for future crime.

HB 982 – One of our problems in corrections is the ability to hire professional staff members for institutions that are located far from metropolitan areas. Finding qualified physicians is one example. This legislation would allow us to hire an inmate with specialized skills to work inside our institutions when there is a critical shortage of help. We would be able to do this through our work release program.

SB 144 – Work release inmates now turn over their paychecks to us and we take care of all their financial obligations. This bill will enable us to permit responsible inmates to handle their own financial affairs. This can be done by coordinating it with consumer education courses taught in the work release centers.

SB 146 – This bill would permit correctional industries to become active in service related fields. It would enable industries to refinish used furniture for the state which would save money on new desks, chairs, tables, etc. It would also allow us to service our own institutional canteens across the state. The potential areas in this field are numerous.

The rapid progress that has been made in corrections since I have been director has been phenomenal. This progress could not have been made without the tremendous support we have received from members of the General Assembly and also the receptive mood of the people of the State of Georgia. It is because of this progressive attitude that I feel that very soon the Georgia Correctional System will be the model by which the rest of the nation will be striving to copy.

Your continued support for these programs will be greatly appreciated.