Many inmates leave prison with insufficient substance abuse treatment, primarily due to the vast numbers of offenders who need intense, meaningful counseling. For those individuals whose treatment did have an impact, there must also be a continuation outside of prison. Unfortunately, there is a critical shortage of affordable and effective substance abuse services in the community. Mental health cases. The number of probationers on the street with mental health problems is unknown, but can be expected to be higher than the prison population.
Statistics show that employed offenders are significantly less likely to commit new crimes.
Two-thirds of Georgia inmates failed to reach the 12th grade and, for most, their average reading, spelling, and math level falls below a 7th grade level. These four factors are highly related to the propensity for committing crimes. And to prevent crime before it occurs, there must be a statewide commitment to quality education for Georgia's youth, an expectation for structured lives for our children, and a demand for better parenting from our adults. Many of the juveniles who graduate to the adult system were failures in the educational system, came from single-parent homes, lived in poverty situations or where alcohol and drug abuse were common, and were raised in situations of family criminality. In fact, it is estimated that in Georgia today more than 200,000 children have a father who is either in prison, on probation, or on parole.