Evaluating the Impact of Legislation on Timing and Approval of Felony Probation Termination

• In Event: Probation Reform: Through Legislation and Agency Action

Abstract

In the decades following the shift in attitudes towards incarceration during the 1980s, the population under community supervision has grown nearly threefold. Yet, many on probation fail to successfully complete supervision sentences, creating a cycle of recidivism. Recent state-level reforms aim to create pathways for individuals on supervision to end probation early. Georgia’s 2017 SB 174 law, created provisions that allowed individuals convicted of certain felonies or that met certain conditions to obtain early termination after three years on probation provided that they did not have an arrest, revocation, or owe restitution. The law required that the Department of Community Supervision (DCS) create petitions for eligible people to gain early discharge, review petitions internally, and send to judges for final approval. A 2021 law, SB105, revised this process, including language mandating that DCS generate petitions within certain time periods. Using administrative data for ~387,000 individuals from 2017-2022, this study examines SB105’s impact on the time taken for petitions to be approved or denied by DCS’s algorithmic review, circuit-level reviewers, and judges using a mixed-effects survival analysis paradigm. Additionally, we examine demographic covariates to determine whether the time and outcome of probation termination varied by race, sex, age, or convicted offenses.

Authors

• Pranav Athimuthu, RTI International

• Christopher Scott Inkpen, RTI International

• Caroline Kery, RTI International

• Pam Lattimore, RTI International