CRITICS SAY INMATE GLUT IS RELIEVED VIA PAROLES

Corrections: Bed Space Is 'Adequate'

Alfred Davis has been convicted of 34 crimes and has gone to prison nine
times since 1974.

So it didn't surprise assistant store manager Rhonda Hart as much as it
annoyed her to learn that Davis, one of many shoplifters who has preyed on
the Ingles supermarket in Gray, was released from his latest prison term
before he had served even the recommended minimum sentence.

Each month, more than 300 nonviolent inmates like Davis are released by
Georgia's parole board. And while victims' rights activists are concerned
that the criminals are not serving their full terms, prison reform
advocates see the early releases as a sure sign of a prison bed shortage
and a way to manage prison populations.

The Department of Corrections insists these low-level offenders ---
forgers, shoplifters, thieves and drug dealers --- are freed because the
board feels they are ready to return to society. The Parole Board, however,
says the threat of running out of prison cells is forcing them to free some
inmates who have been imprisoned after previous paroles were violated.

State law mandates that prisoners serve at least one-third of their time
before they are released. But that provision can be bypassed as long as
prosecutors and judges don't object. Also, the parole board doesn't always
follow its own guidelines about whom to release when.

"It's a Catch-22," said Kim McCoy, director of victims' services for the
Cobb County District Attorney's Office. "Certainly we need the bed space
for the more violent offender. But what kind of society are we creating if
we are not holding them accountable for their crimes?"

At the core of the controversy is a debate over whether there is a prison
bed shortage. The state Department of Corrections says that the early
releases aren't related to space pressures.

"There is adequate prison space," said department spokesman Scott
Stallings. Nonviolent criminals are being released early because parole
board members "think they ought to be released," he said. "To assert
otherwise is ludicrous."

Gov. Roy Barnes' office provided no direct answer to the question of
whether there is a prison space shortage. Instead, it touted Georgia's
aggressive prison-building program.

"Georgia is building more prison cells and putting more people in prison
than almost any other state," said Joselyn Baker, a spokeswoman for Barnes.
"We have one of the toughest criminal justice systems in the country."

But that toughness --- including new laws requiring stiffer sentences ---
has kept Georgia's prison population growing, too. Virtually every week,
the Department of Corrections' status reports show an increase in the
number of state inmates.

New halfway houses that could free up prison beds are in various stages of
completion, and an 864-inmate facility that is new to the Department of
Corrections's system should be full within the next few months. After that,
there are no plans for new prisons. Only a 193-bed addition to the Georgia
Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson for death row inmates is
in the works.

Stallings acknowledged that common areas at six prisons have been used for
some time to house a total of 550 prisoners at those institutions.

Tamara Serwer of the Southern Center for Human Rights, an Atlanta-based
nonprofit group, said she saw such a practice with 114 inmates at Augusta
State Medical Prison. "We're facing an imminent problem though we're not at
an overcrowding crisis," she said.

'No room in the system'

For his part, Mike Sullivan, director of clemency for the parole board,
said there is a definite relationship between the releases and crowding
concerns.

"If we weren't concerned about the prison population, we'd probably be
releasing 600 to 700 [inmates on parole] a month," Sullivan said. "Now the
target is about 900." That's up from 850 in January and 800 a few months
before that.

In addition, some prison-bound inmates linger in county jails. The
Department of Corrections says there are almost 2,000 sentenced inmates
waiting in jails for spaces in the state system. The state Department of
Community Affairs, which compiles numbers provided by sheriffs statewide,
says there are almost 3,400.

State Rep. David Lucas (D-Macon), chairman of the House committee that
oversees the state prison system, said he has no doubt that a prisoner
jam-up is developing.

"The prison system is becoming overcrowded," said Lucas. "Those they are
releasing probably aren't as bad as those they aren't releasing. [But] why
are they releasing them? Because we ain't got no room in the system."

Taking a risk

Using early releases to free up inmate beds --- rather than making informed
and careful decisions about who should go to prison in the first place ---
increases the likelihood that some people who actually should be in prison
will go free, he said.

McCoy expressed a similar concern.

"If the standard is you may go to [prison] but you may get out early, how
many times will it take before they learn and until they are
rehabilitated?" she said. "If it takes them stealing five times from five
different people and it takes sending them to prison five different times,
are we wisely spending our money in the criminal justice system?

And, she added, "Are we taking the risk that these offenders are going to
become more frequent, more severe, more violent?"

Petty crime serious too

The parole board's Sullivan said there are few other choices, since the
board is constrained by state mandatory sentencing laws and its own
policies that require violent criminals serve at least 90 percent of their
sentences. The pool of potential parolees is small and shrinking.

"If there is not a decrease in admissions of nonviolent offenders, then the
prison system is going to continue to increase at 2,100 [beds] a year."

While state officials debate whether there is a problem, Hart, the Ingles
assistant supermarket manager, is frustrated that they aren't providing her
more protection from the petty thieves who plague her business.

"They don't pay for their crimes. But we pay the price of this," she said.
"When you come shopping, you pay more. It's petty crime, but it's not
petty. You have to send a message that you don't tolerate it."