The crowd that packed the Rialto theater Wednesday morning gave Gov. Nathan Deal a standing ovation before he made it to the stage. U.S. Attorney John Horn had to interrupt to finish introducing him. Both appeared in the movie that premiered there—”Released: When does the Sentence End?” —along with a cast of convicted felons and business, clergy and nonprofit leaders working to help inmates prepare for jobs when they return to private life.
Before the screening started, Deal took a moment to talk about the passion of his seven years as governor: the state’s comprehensive criminal justice reform movement. The efforts began with creating accountability courts for nonviolent offenders and continued with education and job training inside prisons to help people avoid returning. Deal said the movement has been among the most successful in the country and because of it “we have 6,000 fewer inmates in our prisons than we would have otherwise.”
