Written By: Dr. Kipton E. Jensen is the Director of the Higher Education in Prisons Program in the Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership.
The United States has 4% of world’s population but 20% of the world’s incarcerated population. Georgia has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world: whereas the national rate is 664 per 100,000, Georgia incarcerates 881. (By way of comparison, France locks up 93 per 100,000.) According to data provided by the Prison Policy Initiative in 2023, 95,000 of Georgia’s residents are locked up in prisons and jails. And while Georgia’s crime rate ranks 26th in the nation, we rank 4th in terms of the rate of incarceration. Georgia leads the nation in “correctional control” (1 in 24, or 451,000): prisons, jails, parole, and probation. Georgia has more individuals on probation than any other state in the country and the average probation sentence is 6.3 years as opposed to a national average of less than 2 years; moreover, 40% of probation sentences in GA exceed 10 years. The Department of Justice recently released a report suggesting that “conditions of confinement in Georgia’s prisons violate the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution”.
Many people believe that formerly incarcerated men and women are permanently disenfranchised: but in Georgia a person only loses that right temporarily. 4.5 million people in GA suffer from a criminal history. A little more than 600,000 of those have a Georgia felony conviction in their record. But 450,000 of those with a felony conviction can vote now because their sentence is complete. There are also more than 40,000 people in Georgia who are currently serving a felony First Offender Act or Conditional Discharge sentence who have not lost the right to vote, but often think they must wait until their sentence ends. Ms. Page Dukes, who is an Ambassador for Represent Justice, produced a compelling short film—Until We All Count—that reveals the way felony disenfranchisement is designed to strip the rights and suppress the votes of Georgians and the work that people are doing, especially formerly incarcerated citizens, to win back their right to vote.
The Andrew Young Center recently hosted an event sponsored by the Georgia Justice Project (GJP) and Common Good Atlanta (CGA). The commitment shared by GJP and CGA is “fostering the development of engaged, educated, and empowered citizens who can contribute positively to the community.” Both organizations believe in “eliminating barriers—whether educational, legal, or societal—that restrict formerly incarcerated individuals from full participation in society.”
Although several AYC-HEP faculty affiliates and AYC-HEP student ambassadors were in attendance, the primary beneficiaries of this event were formerly incarcerated alumni of CGA; Morehouse faculty teach humanities classes with CGA at several prisons in GA (viz., Metro Reentry Prison, Burruss Correctional, and the Federal Correctional Institution in Atlanta). The session on “Advancing Access” was led by Dominique Harris, who is both an alumnus of CGA and an Outreach Associate for GJP, and Ann Colloton, who is the Policy and Outreach Coordinator at the GJP. The historical and racial context of disenfranchisement, especially for those caught up in the carceral system, claimed Mr. Harris, is very important. It is a fact that Black people are disproportionately over-represented in the incarcerated population: whereas Black men and women comprise only 31% of GA residents, they represent 59% of the prison population. Black people are similarly impacted when it comes probation rates: i.e., twice as likely. Mr. Harris cited the 13th Amendment of 1865 that outlawed slavery except as punishment for a crime, the Black Code Laws that were enacted to create a Convict Leasing System, the 1877 Felony Disenfranchisement Amendment to Georgia’s State Constitution, and the contemporary phenomena of over-policing, sentencing laws, and mass incarceration.
As it turns out, you can vote in Georgia if (a) you are not currently serving a sentence for a felony conviction, (b) you are serving a felony ‘First Offender’ or ‘Conditional Discharge’ sentence and the status has not been revoked, or (c) your sentence—including incarceration, parole, and probation—is complete. When one’s sentence is complete, the voting rights of returning citizens is automatically restored: one simply needs to re-register. Further, Ms. Colloton explained that outstanding monetary obligations do not preclude one’s right to vote. Due to recent changes in laws and policies in Georgia, many of our returning citizens in Georgia are eligible for early termination of felony probation; the criteria for early termination include completion of three years of the probation sentence, no probation revocations within the past twenty-four months, no new arrests (other than non-serious traffic offenses), and payment of restitution (not including fines & fees). It is also possible to vote while one is detained in Georgia’s jails, which means that one has not yet been convicted, unless one is serving a sentence for a pre-existing felony conviction.
Georgia Justice Project’s mission is to reduce the number of Georgians who are under correctional control and remove barriers to reentry for individuals affected by the criminal legal system. They do this through direct legal representation, policy advocacy, and coalition-building. If you, or someone you know, wishes to request early termination of a felony probation sentence, see GJP.org/probation. GJP also assists people who have Georgia arrests or convictions with record clearing or expungement; they can be reached at 404-827-0027 (extension 238) or Intake@GJP.org.
The facts cited in this article can be found at https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/GA.html and https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-finds-unconstitutional-conditions-georgia-prisons.