ATLANTA — A new subcommittee in Georgia's House of Representatives hopes to improve Georgia's state prisons.
The speaker of the house, Jon Burns, announced the creation of the "Special Subcommittee of Appropriations on State Prisons."
The subcommittee will be led by Dublin's member of the state house, Rep. Matt Hatchett.
The group came together shortly after Gov. Brian Kemp’s announced an in-depth, system-wide assessment of the state corrections system.
“The General Assembly has placed significant emphasis on improving the safety, security and conditions of our state-operated corrections facilities,” Burns said in a press release. “With Governor Kemp’s ongoing assessment of Georgia’s prisons, we want to ensure we are prepared to take immediate action when subsequent recommendations and appropriations requests are delivered in January or during the interim. I look forward to the work of the committee and its support of efforts to restore law and order to Georgia’s prison system.”
Kemp announced a partnership with Guidehouse, Inc., who will perform an in-depth and thorough system-wide assessment while giving recommendations on how to improve Georgia’s state prisons.
Central Georgia has seen three different deaths in State Prisons within a few weeks.
Several higher members of government, including Sen. Jon Ossoff recognized that Georgia’s state prisons are not where they should be.
“It is apparent that Georgia state prisons are and have been dangerously mismanaged, jeopardizing the lives and safety of inmates and prison staff,” Ossoff said. “This is an urgent public safety and civil rights crisis.”
The chair, Hatchett from Dublin, didn’t volunteer for the role — Burns placed him in the chairman position — but he’s eager and ready for the task of improving the state's prisons.
“I think we have a duty to do that,” Hatchett said. “I’m looking forward to seeing improvements that we might need to make that we can make sure happen."
Hatchett wasn’t fully sure why he was chosen, but believes that Burns chose him because he’s in “the right position.”
He also recognized that, while there are issues in the prison, he said that Kemp, senators like Ossoff and the government as a whole are making the right strides to make prisons and the community safer.
“(We need to) make sure we are knowledgeable about what the needs are so that we can try to get them done as quickly as possible,” Hatchett said. “The security of our state prisons is of utmost priority.”
He added that he and the other representatives have invested around $20 million to update security, infrastructure and increase technological abilities at Georgia prisons.
Hatchett said he, Burns and the rest of the legislature are committed and believe it’s of utmost priority that these issues are eventually resolved.
“Leave no stone unturned and see what we need to do to make sure that our prisons are secure and safe as they need to be,” Hatchett said.
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