Our team of nearly 13,000 Corrections professionals rises above the demands of our industry every day to achieve our mission - building on a proven track record of good stewardship and integrity in the largest law enforcement agency in the state.
Our agenda is clear. Public safety is non-negotiable as we strive to oversee more than 60,000 offenders in state facilities and more than 150,000 probationers under our supervision.
Georgia is ranked ninth in the nation for the size of its overall population but is ranked fifth nationally for the size of its prison population. One in 15 Georgians is under some form of correctional supervision, in prison or jail, on probation or parole. Every year some 18,000 offenders complete their sentences and return to the community, but 20,000 offenders enter our system. Many of them are repeat offenders.
Therein lies our challenge - to insure we provide the citizens of this great state an uncompromised level of public safety while we take steps to address the increasing size of our offender population, largely due to recidivism.
We have already begun taking the right steps to fight recidivism and promote more effective offender re-entry programming across our offender and probationer populations. We’re doing what research says should be done. We’re moving beyond solely brick and mortar solutions to crime and expanding our re-entry initiatives - starting with the first day an offender enters our custody and supervision. This approach also enables us to partner with communities and key leadership across the state that want to help us win the “war” against recidivism in Georgia.
I am certain that community involvement and partnerships will drive our efforts to continue leading change and expanding how we use “best practices” in Corrections. Our plans and vision for the future direction of this department is conveyed in the information on our website. We hope having access to us via the website will be insightful and useful as you learn more about who we are.
Let me take this opportunity to welcome you to the best managed department in the best managed state in the nation.
Commissioner Brian Owens