Juvenile Parole Board Legislation Sponsor: ‘My Bill Will Be Heard On The Floor Of The Senate’

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It seems that even the Georgia Legislature can have an off schedule week. First the House Children & Youth Committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at the State Capitol got canceled at the last minute. According to the agenda, the topic was supposed to be a discussion about “a system-wide approach” to “children and youth with special needs.”

Then JJIE.org got tipped off that the Senate Judiciary Committee had scheduled a hearing Thursday on Senate Bill 105, which proposes to establish a three-person juvenile parole panel within the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). An hour-and-a-half into the committee’s meeting (following a lively discussion about the controversial immigration-focused Senate Bill 40) we learned that the parole board bill would not be heard that day. “The committee chairman has the authority to add or delete anything from the agenda,” explained SB 105 sponsor Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur).

New DJJ Chief Believes in Power of Law and Prayer

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Garland Hunt plans to rely on the Good Book as much as his law books for guidance in his goal of keeping thousands of juveniles who’ve run afoul of the law from graduating into Georgia’s criminal justice system for adults. Instead, Hunt, the new commissioner of theGeorgia Department of Juvenile Justice, is determined to see as many of them as possible graduate from the DJJ’s school system, with either high school diplomas or GED certificates.