Criminal Justice Reform

Lead poisoning drove America’s crime epidemic

In 1995, Princeton professor John DiIulio warned America of coming “superpredators”—30,000 new “young juvenile criminals so impulsive, so remorseless that they can kill, rape, maim without giving it a second thought.” His predictions, amplified by influential criminologists and adopted by policymakers including Hillary Clinton, drove a mass incarceration frenzy. Three strikes laws, juvenile transfers to adult courts, and draconian sentencing policies imprisoned millions.

Every prediction proved catastrophically wrong. Crime declined dramatically—but not because of tough-on-crime policies. Multiple lines of scientific evidence reveal the real cause: between 1923 and 1996, the U.S. government allowed 8 million tons of lead from gasoline to poison children’s developing brains. Lead damages the prefrontal cortex, permanently impairing impulse control and increasing aggression. When lead-poisoned cohorts reached their twenties, violent crime surged. As lead-free generations matured, crime plummeted. We didn’t have a moral crisis—we had an environmental poisoning crisis. And we responded by imprisoning the victims.

The Poverty-to-Prison Pipeline: How Georgia Criminalizes Being Poor

Georgia has the world’s highest incarceration rate – achieved by systematically criminalizing poverty through cash bail, court fines, and predatory fees.

Boys from Georgia’s poorest families face 20x higher incarceration rates than those from middle and upper-class households.

Why Georgia Must Create a Liberty Interest in Parole

Georgia’s parole system is broken because people have no enforceable right to release — even when they do everything asked of them. Creating a liberty interest in parole would finally bring fairness, transparency, and real hope to thousands of families across our state.

The Price of Staying Close: Families Pay the Cost of a Broken System

Across Georgia, families are going broke just to keep their loved ones alive and connected behind bars. From elderly grandparents skipping meals to mothers living on disability, the human cost of Georgia’s prison economy runs far deeper than commissary prices or phone bills. These are the voices of those paying The Price of Staying Close.