Policies and practices in organizational management

Policy and Practice

Racial disparity in arrests and convictions in Georgia are is a significant and growing social problem. Yet, legislation and policy seems to be lacking in an attempt to solve or even begin to reverse the increasing trend. Georgia has been a special focus of several human rights organizations for some time with regard to the disparity associated with arrests, convictions and sentencing but especially with those having to do with drug laws. In 1996 Human Rights Watch (HRW)a nonprofit organization that seeks to bring awareness to legal and policy issues that are applied unfairly to minorities determined that Georgia has one of the worst race records in the nation with regard to new drug enforcement laws as well as extremely disproportionately applied mandatory sentencing laws with regard to those laws.

HRW determined through careful examination that between 1990 and 1995 3% of whites who qualified for mandatory life sentences received such while 15% of blacks who qualified were sentenced under Georgia's laws received mandatory life sentences of those 77% were charged in cases where possession was of small amounts and 60% where sentences to life for possessing drugs worth less than fifty dollars. Even Georgia law enforcement officials testified that it is simply easier to enforce hew drug laws among minorities as their drug offences more often occur out in the open streets and engender more public complaints as well as simply being easier to monitor, record and observe (HRW, 1996). The findings associated with the 1996 study were then reinforced in another research document in 2008, where again HRW determined Georgia to be one of the worst offenders with regard to the application of new drug laws in the U.S., on the grounds of racial disparity (HRW, 2008). The income disparity issue has been addressed and in 2000 a task force was developed to attempt to reform Georgia's indigent defense system, with an outside research organization reviewing the statistics, meeting with Georgia officials and listening to testimony as well as observing proceedings over a three-year period. The results indicated that the indigent defense system contributed greatly to the problem of racial disparity in sentencing and was in need of reformation and was in violation of the constitutional right of council.

The recommendations of the review were to improve and adequately fund defense systems for the states' indigent defendants. The problem in Georgia seems to be that indigent defense is not adequately funded and that there is no centralized system of appropriation for defense, as each county is assigned the responsibility to provide council by whatever means they can, even if the means are not present to do so. The review determined that the burden needs to be more adequately shared by the county and state and some counties took action by creating new systems, while others continue to languish in the cost of an ever increasing population of defendants with very minimal state funding support for defense (Chief Justice's Commission on Indigent Defense, 2002). The demand by the panel for a constitutionally adequate defense system in Georgia did not prove to significantly improve the system and is currently again in need of review. Currently in Georgia, despite more than a decade of awareness of the severity of the racial disparity in arrest, enforcement and sentencing there are no pending laws that directly challenge the issue and as Georgia has continued to seek a "drug free" state with a tough on crime record, they have also continued to discriminate significantly against racial minorities in the application of criminal justice system laws and policies. The attempt to review indigent defense system funding in counties served as a good starting point to reform the manner in which defendants are supported through the maze of the legal system, yet this amounted to minimal change amongst much debate and the enforcement and arrest aspects of the problem went almost completely without address.

The circle of disparity of application of drug and other stricter laws in Georgia goes something like this: National outcry for tougher laws regarding drug and other violent crimes; local and political public response to such sentiments; increased severity of laws and polices associated with feared crimes; inadequate funding or infrastructure for enforcement; lazy enforcement under pressure of public scrutiny to clean up the streets; increased arrests with increased significant racial disparity; despite the existence of greater diversity in the criminal justice system; inadequate systems to support increased arrests demanded by the public; disparate enforcement, arrest and sentencing that seems to only be on the increase rather than the decline. Specifically for Georgia, a relatively rural and often poorly funded law enforcement system due almost exclusively to funding issues the creation of stronger laws and greater public demand for action has created a perfect storm. Like price increases on goods and services which increase over time and rarely decrease there are very rarely fundamental reversals of legal and policy actions, especially when they are seen by the public in a positive light. Policy changes that increase the public responsibility for funding response to tougher laws and tougher even disparate enforcement of them are extremely unpopular and as it has been proven in countless states the drug problem is not likely to go away as a response to stricter actions. There are currently no internal actions to repeal laws, excluding occasional state and national supreme court level challenges to enforcement challenges in specific cases. Like many other civil rights and human rights issues it is likely that a national Supreme Court and/or congressional stand on the growing disparity in our legal systems will be needed to challenge the popularity of these massive unfunded mandates (Tonry, 1996). On a local level the pressure must be taken off law enforcement to produce arrest numbers as "clean up the streets" without serious public sentiment to reverse such laws and policies the trend is unlikely to reverse, despite countless research and legally-based calls to action that challenge the stricter laws associated with the War on Crime. Specifically in Georgia the perfect storm of demands with poor and limited infrastructure the changes will likely be seen when the public begins to understand the extreme nature of the racial disparity that has occurred as a result of the so called racially neutral laws and regulations that feed it. Likely a reversal will only begin when national action is taken and/or Georgia and other states with particularly challenging economic development with regard to the criminal justice system are seen by their own publics to be unable to pay the bill for such disparate legal action and the burden is seen for what it is, a social ill in need of response.