Carrie Teegardin and Bill Rankin
write in the AJC about A billion-dollar burden or justice? AJC investigation: Georgia leads nation in criminal punishment:

Georgia taxpayers spend $1 billion a year locking up so many criminal offenders that the state has the fourth-highest incarceration rate in the nation. When it comes to overall criminal punishment, no state outdoes Georgia.

They note that scare tactics made that happen.

But today, many public figures with strong anti-crime credentials are asking if that expenditure is smart, or even if it’s making Georgians safer. The debate about crime and punishment, once clearly divided along party lines, is now a debate in which conservatives often lead the charge for change.

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