ATLANTA – The state Senate passed legislation Monday that would impose mandatory minimum sentences for those found guilty of gang recruitment activities in Georgia.
The bill would require judges to impose prison sentences of at least five years on those convicted of recruiting gang members. It would prevent those sentenced with the crime from having their sentences suspended or serving them through probation.
The legislation would require tougher penalties for those who recruit someone under age 17 or someone with a disability to a gang, requiring at least a 10-year sentence.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has made cracking down on gangs an important part of his legislative agenda this year.
“Building on his promises, the governor, partnering with the attorney general and the lieutenant governor … seeks to continue to crack down on criminal street gangs by giving prosecutors the tools to go after known gang members,” said Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, the bill’s chief sponsor and one of Kemp’s Senate floor leaders.
“Although efforts to combat criminal street gang activities have had a tremendous impact throughout the state of Georgia, more must be done to keep our children away from a life of crime.”
The bill would allow judges to avoid mandatory minimum sentences in some circumstances. Judges could impose reduced or suspended sentences if an accused person provides “substantial assistance” to help identify or convict another person of gang recruitment – in other words, a plea bargain.
Democrats opposed the bill. Sen. Harold Jones II, D-Augusta, a former solicitor general in Richmond County, argued it could have the unintended consequence of reducing sentences for those guilty of serious crimes and putting tough penalties on those convicted of relatively minor crimes.
A low-level gang member is unlikely to have useful information that help would lead to the identification or conviction of a senior gang member, Jones said.
“The person who doesn’t know anything … they go to jail five years [because] they can’t tell on anybody. … They have nothing to offer,” he said.
On the flip side, someone who has committed a serious crime might have a great deal of information that could help convict someone else, thereby garnering a hardened criminal a reduced sentence, Jones said.
“What we’re going to be doing is unleashing persons who probably are more culpable,” he said.
Jones also suggested lawmakers should trust judges and prosecutors to make good decisions.
Almost all Senate Republicans voted for the bill, which passed 31-22. However, GOP Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, crossed party lines to vote against it.
“We have far too many plea bargains in this state, and this will only increase the amount,” Moore told Capitol Beat just after Monday’s vote. “Plea bargains allow the innocent to get improper justice and the guilty to get less than deserved. This is not the way to solve street gang crimes.”
The bill will now move to the state House of Representatives for consideration.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.