Department Of Corrections Answers Questions About Inmate Monitoring At Transitional Centers

(SAVANNAH, GA)They were so close to finishing their sentences, but instead, two inmates at the Coastal Transitional Center ended up under arrest. Eugene Waters is accused of robbing a woman at gunpoint outside of a job fair at the Civic Center last week. He was finishing up his sentence for aggravated assault. Dion Bernard Antonio Orr - originally jailed for theft - now faces charges of felony robbery and burglary after an alleged attack at the Savannah Suites hotel. The incidents raised a lot of questions in our mind. How could that happen? Are inmates being properly monitored? We finally have some answers from the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Jack Koon is currently a warden, but his previous job was as the Transitional Center Operations Coordinator for the state. Few people know better than he, how these centers are run, and if mistakes may have been made. Koon says it's not unusual for a Transitional Center inmate to have a violent offense on his record. One of the two inmates arrested in Savannah last week did. “Most Transitional Center residents are not violent offenders, but we do have violent offenders in Transitional Centers,” says Koon. In fact - there are more than half a dozen inmates in the Coastal Transitional Center right now with murder convictions, but he says not everyone gets in, “We have a policy that spells out specific instance where an offender can go to a Transitional Center - for instance, an offender can't have more than one violent offense in his record…most of these people and in fact, all of them, are close to the end of their sentence - so they're gonna be getting out anyway.” Usually within 6 to 9 months.

In order to get into the program a referral is required from Pardons and Parole or the Department of Corrections. Some receive assistance in finding a job...others are sent out on their own.
There's no monitoring like ankle bracelets...but verified work schedules are kept at the Center.
Inmates check out and back in allowing only enough time to get to and from the work site.
Any deviations are supposed to raise a red flag. Random work site visits and phone calls to supervisors are made by corrections staff. Koon says overall - the center's methods work, “We've got 15 Transitional Centers statewide with about 3,000 inmates, so on any given day about 2500 inmates go out, go to work and come home and there's usually no problem whatsoever. I mean it's very rare that there's an instance like this one.” But he admits having two inmates charged with new crimes in a week is a valid concern for the community, “I mean to us, it's a very, very serious event and we grieve when things like this happen.”

News 3 also spoke with members of Chatham County's legislative delegation today. They have been made aware of the two recent arrests and several have been in touch with Pardons and Parole as well as the Department of Corrections. Representative Burke Day says he's also having Legislative Council look into the laws...to see if there are any that mandate what should be done with these types of criminals in the future.