The public can be easily confused by the various disciplines within the Georgia criminal justice system and the high degree of misinterpretation can be attributed to a number of factors.

For one, criminal justice professionals are themselves guilty of failing to better educate the public about their jobs. This internal flaw is often aggravated by use of jargon that's specific to individual roles within the system. For instance, there's a lack of clear distinction between "probation" and "parole." Closely aligned yet completely different, the two terms are used interchangeably with no regard for the consequences.

The print and electronic media have also been known to misinform about the criminal background of individuals charged with particularly horrible crimes. It's not unusual to see, hear or read "Parolee Charged with Murder!" only to have the content of the report reveal that the person was actually on probation.

Candidates for political office add to the confusion by making one component of the system responsible for the ills of other parts. This may result from an ignorance of the facts or, worse, a cynical and oversimplified attempt to divert the public so that the office-seeker can avoid the real, more complex issues confronting the voter.

The Georgia criminal justice system is a large, interconnected network of resources and agencies that are required both by law and necessity to exercise vast amounts of discretion in order to keep the system fluid. Each part law enforcement, courts, prisons, probation, and parole must use a high degree of discretion for the entire system to operate efficiently.

Law enforcement officers use discretion in making arrests of criminal suspects, jailing offenders prior to trial, and assisting in prosecution. At the judicial level, the court system exercises discretion at every step of the process, including the admissibility of evidence, the credibility of witnesses, and the final decision about guilt. In fact, more than 90 percent of all criminal cases resulting in a conviction are discretionary plea bargains between the prosecutor and defense attorney where the defendant drops his right to a jury trial in exchange for what's usually a lesser offense and/or lesser punishment.

The sentencing judge in criminal cases has several options of punishment at the court's discretion, including conditional probation, incarceration, or a combination of the two known as split sentencing. With probation, the judicial branch of government maintains jurisdiction over the case but commits the person to the supervision of the executive branch, usually probation officers working for the Georgia Department of Corrections.

In Georgia, the probation numbers are staggering. There are presently 137,276 offenders under state probation supervision, with another 93,048 misdemeanor probationers supervised by private, for-profit probation companies whose primary concern is the collection of court-ordered fines and restitution.

If a judge chooses against probation and instead orders a period of incarceration, the felon is ordered to the custody of the state prison system. Today, many incoming inmates will serve most, if not all of their court-imposed sentence. Some, such as those convicted a first or second time of the "two strikes" crimes murder, rape, armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy, and aggravated sexual battery have absolutely no chance of early release.

The Parole Board, part of the executive branch of government, uses its constitutional discretion to make decisions on parole-eligible inmates. The Board applies strict policy to repeat criminals, residential burglars, and others like drunk drivers who kill, requiring at least 90 percent of sentence served before release. For lesser offenders, the conservative board is making maximum use of all prison bed space by requiring even the best-behaved inmates to serve close to half of their sentences, if not longer.

If eventually paroled, the offender is closely monitored by a parole officer. Today, there are 19,989 paroles under supervision, a relatively small group compared to the 230,324 on probation. Even so, parole has been an easy target for tough-on-crime politicians because it means an early release from prison (never mind that Georgia prisons are always full to capacity).

Political fire against parole is often fueled by erroneous reports from the media and others who use the terms "probation" and "parole" interchangeably. Not withstanding the very excellent job done by the state's judges and the efforts of overworked probation officers, there are a number of probationers who have committed extremely violent crimes. For instance:

In December 1997 probationer Jerry Scott Heidler allegedly shot to death four members of a family in Santa Claus, Ga., then kidnapped and molested the three surviving children. Heidler was placed on probation two months earlier for DUI and other offenses.

In January 1998 the bodies of six people were found shot to death in Walthourville, Ga., and a seventh body was found miles away in a burned-out car. Dexter Palmer, on probation for cocaine possession, was charged with multiple counts of murder.

In June 1998 two Dunwoody teenagers were accosted by four men who wanted their car. They were forced to drive to northwest Georgia where one, Louis Nava, was shot execution-style. Two assailants were on adult probation for drug-related crimes, one was on juvenile probation, and the forth was on parole, also for drug crimes.

In August 1998, Levi Simon III, a Redan High student was shot to death at random by one of three men who "crashed" a party. Donzell Johnson, on probation for weapon possession, was charged with murder and three counts of aggravated assault.

These are sickening examples of society's most heinous crimes. What's unfortunate is that a few political office-seekers have used the one parolee in the Nava murder to position themselves as "tough on crime" with calls to abolish paroles. But what of the probationers in the Nava murder, or any of the other crimes? If certain politicians truly believe the answer is parole abolition, then where's their call for the end of probation and that substantially larger number of potential repeat criminals?

Currently, more than 22,000 Georgia probationers are violent or sex offenders, including more than 2,400 child molesters. That's in steep contrast to parole, which supervises only 3,631 violent or sex offenders throughout the entire state. Despite that relatively low number, some candidates want the public to believe that parole is Georgia's single-greatest threat to public safety.

Abolishing parole would require tens of thousands of new prison beds and a cost to taxpayers as high as $8 billion. What, then, would be the price tag for abolishing probation for violent and sex offenders? That group has been sentenced to 122,976 years on probation and a conservative estimate for incarcerating those additional offenders would be another $2.5 billion in prison construction and operating expenses.

The costs are not only stunning, they are unaffordable. After all, Georgians already spend $750 million annually to run the eighth-largest prison system in the country. Ending parole will cost billions, and billions more will have to be spent to end probation for violent crimes. Where will it all end?

The facts are clear that neither parole nor probation should be abolished. If Georgians want safer communities, and if the state's criminal justice system is to operate efficiently, then the kind of discretion afforded by parole and probation is an indisputable necessity.

It's very clear that candidates' simple sound bites aren't the answer, folks.