The COVID-19 pandemic created economic pressures for local and state governments nationwide, with reduced revenue projections compared to the months before the pandemic and the need to conduct budget conversations virtually.

Despite the major challenges posed by COVID-19, the Mayor’s budget continues to increase equity across communities, expand opportunities to address the needs of our most vulnerable residents, and provide relief and recovery assistance to those affected by the pandemic. This was achieved with a balanced budget with no tax increases or layoffs. Mayor Bottoms’ FY21 Budget continues to build on her equity and justice reform agenda by:

• Transferring $13.5M from the Department of Corrections’ budget to the Office of Constituent Services
• Expanding the pretrial diversion program citywide to reduce incarceration and increase equity and opportunities
• Increasing funding for the Atlanta Citizens Review Board
• Increasing funding for the independent Office of Inspector General

Requiring cash bail before an initial court hearing can result in extended detention for individuals who cannot afford it, even though they have not yet been convicted of a crime. This detention can have a significant impact on people’s lives, affecting their ability to maintain jobs and their homes, especially for low-income residents.

This ordinance eliminates cash bonds to secure release from the City of Atlanta Detention Center following an arrest for violation of city ordinances.

Beginning in March 2010, the City of Atlanta entered into an agreement with the U.S. Marshals Service to house ICE detainees within the Atlanta City Detention Center. In response to the Trump Administration’s enforcement of zero-tolerance immigration policies that resulted in the separation of hundreds of families at the United States/Mexico border, the Bottoms Administration temporarily halted the detention of ICE detainees until a permanent solution was identified.

Mayor Bottoms signed an Executive Order directing the Chief of the Atlanta City Department of Corrections to take the necessary action to permanently stop receiving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees under an agreement with the United States Marshals Service.

Preparing Adult Offenders through Treatment and Therapy (PAT3) is a groundbreaking reentry program in partnership with the Georgia Department of Corrections, the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management, the Atlanta Department of Public Works, and the Urban League of Greater Atlanta. The PAT3 program is available to non-violent detainees – men with children – who are near the end of their jail sentences and provides them with job skills and the financial-management tools necessary to rejoin society in a positive way. Upon their release, the program places them in jobs, with full health benefits, at the City of Atlanta.

Mayor Bottoms issued an Administrative Order to establish a process to restrict the records of offenses for possession of less than one ounce of marijuana or other minor offenses from public view and would only be accessible to law enforcement for criminal justice purposes. Numerous studies have shown a direct correlation between the expungement of marijuana records and an increase in wages.