On the courthouse steps of the Augusta Judicial Center on Wednesday, Augusta District Attorney Jared T. Williams reflected on the success of the Major Crimes Division and announced new programs to address the rise in crime and the length of time it takes to resolve cases.
One of the new programs, the Checks Over Stripes program, aims to target first-time offenders, preventing them from repeating crimes.
Williams said he planned to spend Wednesday afternoon meeting with community stakeholders, private businesses and local charity organizations as part of the program, working to address deficits in the emerging adult category of offenders – people between the ages of 17 to 25.
“The science and the data says their brains are not fully formed, but that if you felonize them at that early stage, the likelihood of them staying in the criminal justice system is very high,” Williams said. “The idea is to not just rack up convictions, but to actually change lives.”
He also highlighted multiple convictions from the Major Crimes Division last week. The division, created in December 2021, is made up of the Violent Crimes and Gang Unit and the Special Victims Unit.
“In 2019, the District Attorney’s Office had a 48% success rate at trial in Richmond County,” Williams said. “In 2022, after the inception of the Major Crimes Division, our trial success rose to 80% circuit-wide.”
While the new division is making strides in providing justice for Augusta families, Williams said he hopes to bring the DA’s Office into the 21st century, using technology to shorten the time it takes to prosecute cases.
“We’re working on a couple of different projects that will reduce the time from case inception to resolution,” he said. “We are going to be asking the county for a capital project that would bring on a digital evidence system, which means that the sheriff’s office will be able to collect their evidence and then grant us access to it so we can review it, click a button, and send it along to defense attorneys. That will allow us to shave 9 to 12 months off of the life of the case.”
With most cases lasting two to three years, according to Williams, the change would greatly impact the crowded Charles B. Webster Detention Center.
“It’s working smarter, not harder,” he said. “It’s 2023, we’re not sitting there with chisels and tablets – but it’s not much better. We have to do our part to find technology that will help us win the fight against crime.”
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