Former Gov. Zell Miller is most often remembered for the monumental HOPE Scholarship that sent more Georgia students to college at a minimal cost. A report on the school-to-prison pipeline released Tuesday contends Miller also sent more teens to prison as a result of changes to the juvenile justice system that remain in place today.
The Southern Poverty Law Center report, “Only Young Once: Dismantling Georgia’s Punitive Youth Incarceration System,” cites Miller’s depiction of young super predators in his 1994 State of the State address. “These are not the Cleaver kids soaping up some windows,” said Miller, referencing the 1950′s and early 1960′s sitcom “Leave It to Beaver.” “These are middle school kids conspiring to hurt their teacher, teenagers shooting people and committing rapes, young thugs terrorizing whole neighborhoods — and then showing no remorse when they get caught.”