Over the last 19 years, The Venerable Carole Maddux has connected with countless people who have been impacted by the criminal justice system. An archdeacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta and the founding executive director of the Georgia Interfaith Public Policy Center, Maddux has seen firsthand how our system, which is focused on punishment rather than reform or restoration, creates an endless cycle of incarceration.
The Extended Impact of Incarceration
While discerning her call to the dioaconate, Maddux volunteered with ForeverFamily. “I accompanied children to visit their mothers in state prisons, usually many miles away from their families,” she recalled. The experiences of entering the prison and helping the children process their visits profoundly impacted Maddux. These experiences were an early step that led to Maddux becoming involved in work with citizens returning to the community after incarceration. ”I discovered how few resources are available—stacking the deck against them and their successful re-entry.”
Her years of work with people impacted by the criminal justice system led Maddux to take her voice a step further. She began advocating for justice at the state level and states, “My current work is focused on reforming our system to improve outcomes.”
Statewide Advocacy
The State of Georgia’s criminal justice system has led to some staggering statistics:
- Georgia is #1 in the country for our correctional control rate. 1 in 18 people in Georgia are in jail or prison or under probation or parole. We also have some of the most prolonged parole periods in the country.
- We are #4 for our high incarceration rate, despite being #26 in our crime rate.
- All this leads to 4.5 million people in Georgia with a “criminal history,” about 40% of Georgia’s adults.
- Georgia is the ONLY state that will execute people with intellectual disabilities unless they are proven beyond a doubt. All other death penalty states use a lower threshold of proof.
Georgia’s prisons “are so bad that the federal government has had to step in,” Maddux stated. “They are understaffed, underfunded, and ineffective at stopping crime even within their walls.”
Strategies for Georgia Criminal Justice Reform
To address immediate needs and underlying systemic challenges, Maddux categorizes criminal justice reform strategies into three categories: advocacy, service, and spiritual.
- Advocacy
- Get involved with the organizations working to reform our system: End Mass Incarceration, National Incarceration Association, Georgia Justice Project, Southern Center for Human Rights, and Justice Reform Project. Sign up for their action alerts to share your support with your representative and senator.
- Attend Days at the Capitol. Educate yourself on the issues.
- Support educational opportunities for incarcerated people, shorter parole periods, access to occupational licensure for the previously incarcerated, and the end of cash bail for non-violent offenses—this only harms people living in poverty.
- Service
- Get involved in prison ministry. Learn about the jail in your community.
- Help the families of incarcerated people stay in touch with their loved ones. Show people in prisons they are not forgotten.
- Welcome people home when they are released. Hire them.
- Spiritual:
- Pray, unceasingly and publicly (with appropriate privacy concerns), for the imprisoned, their victims, and their families.
- Examine our complicity in our system of mass incarceration. Work to end the Death Penalty as it stains the soul of every one of us.
- Help parishes acknowledge and support families with imprisoned members. Work toward an emphasis on restorative justice over punitive.
Grants from the Episcopal Community Foundation for Middle and North Georgia are available for parishes and organizations working with people impacted by the criminal justice system. Learn more about ECF grants.
Sources: Georgia Justice Project, Prison Policy Initiative, Southern Center for Human Rights