Georgia Juvenile Code Rewrite Could Cost Millions, According to District Attorneys
Georgia’s juvenile code rewrite may have hit another bump on its long road to passage. In a letter signed by Athens-Clarke County, Ga., District Attorney Kenneth Mauldin, the District Attorney’s Association of Georgia asked the Georgia Assembly’s Advisory Committee on Legislation to “withhold consideration” of the bill currently in the State House containing the rewrite.
Mauldin, writing in the nine-page letter addressed to Advisory Committee Chairman Charles Clay, argues the bill places an additional burden on the DA’s office. Additionally, it would cost the taxpayers of each county at least $5.3 million each year to pay for an additional assistant district attorney and staff to handle the increased workload.
Mauldin added that the measure, HB 641, requires the prosecuting attorney to decide whether to charge a child with a delinquent act. According to the letter, only a few districts in Georgia currently follow this practice.
Mainly, however, the letter focuses on the added financial burden that could be placed on district attorneys’ offices, estimated at some $20,000 million by the association.
“We would ask,” Mauldin writes, “that the committee recognize that implementation of this important measure will require a financial commitment by state and local governments — a commitment that in the present, economic climate may not be available.
Mauldin goes on to say a consensus may be reached by using a “collaborative approach.”
Kirsten Waldman, director of Policy and Advocacy at the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory University School of Law, said the District Attorney’s Association has been a “great partner” in the effort to rewrite the state’s juvenile code and that she has confidence the remaining differences can be bridged.
“We are still trying to gain the support of the association and we believe we’ll get it,” she said. “The more substantive disagreements have already been dealt with. Now, we’re just dealing with some of the minor points. We should be able to resolve these.”
Newsfeed Archives
- November 2024
- October 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- October 2020
- August 2019
- August 2018
- May 2016
- September 2014
- April 2014
- December 2013
- April 2013
- August 2011
- July 2011
elsewhere
- An interview with Karlan Sick, Board President
- BOOKS CAN HELP INCARCERATED TEENS SUCCEED
- Books Through Bars
- Distribution to Underserved Communities Library Program
- Juvenile Justice Information Exchange
- Life Lessons Through Literacy for Incarcerated Teens
- Passages Academy Libraries
- Passages Academy Schools
- Read This
- What's Good in the Library?
- Women and Prison