When CNBC’s annual America’s Top States for Business report came out in July of this year, many Georgians were surprised to
find their home state had tumbled from number two to number seven. Why the big change, readers asked? One of the key categories considered for the report is Quality of Life. If you dig deeper into how CNBC assigns the 300 points in their Quality of Life rubric, you’ll find that crime stats play heavily into consideration. It appears that Georgia, and more specially Atlanta, the city that the rest of the country assigns uniform demographic and sociographic trends to the rest of the state, has seen a significant uptick in crime and more specially murder rates in the first 6 months of 2018. Clearly an increase in murder rates would be detrimental to Quality of Life scores.

One case in specific stands out in the media, the story of a well published shooting committed by a juvenile offender currently under the supervision of a private parole program. Such “private parole” programs have come under scrutiny from residents and lawmakers alike, perceived as being of a lesser quality or effectiveness and putting the community at risk. This case alone has led community members to request county leaders suspend the practice.

While elected officials are commended for trying to be good custodians of our tax dollars, more careful consideration needs to be given and outcomes weighed before programs are adopted that allow for convicted criminals and suspects to be freely returned to their own devices.