Gale Buckner began her law enforcement career as a Chatsworth police officer while earning her undergraduate degree from Georgia State University more than 25 years ago.
Within days of graduating, she took a job with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation as a special agent. She worked in a variety of positions and later served as an agency legislative liaison for six years.
That work propelled her into positions as executive director of the Governor's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and time on the National Criminal Justice Association Board of Directors, and she served as president of the International Association of Women Police . She currently serves on the board of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange.
In 2005, Gov. Sonny Perdue appointed Ms. Buckner to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles. She was recently re-elected chairman of the board and is halfway through her first term.
The board reviews and makes 77,000 clemency decisions annually.
Q: What brought you from your work as a GBI agent to the Board of Pardons and Paroles?
A: When I first started with GBI, I had no idea how to achieve that. But work as one of the agency's legislative liaisons was an eye-opening experience, listening to everyone's opinions and what was important to different groups at the Legislature. With my law enforcement career and interest in faith-based community tie-ins to parole work and in victim's rights, I made my pitch to the governor on why I could serve well.
Q: Why should Georgians care about what happens in parole?
A: We should not live in a community where the only answer to crime is to throw people in prison and throw away the key. Parole can make a difference in an offender's life. It also helps to transition the person back into society and keeps crime victims informed of the status of the offender.
One reason parole is so vital is it costs us $4.91 a day to have someone on parole as compared to $45 a day to keep someone incarcerated.
Q: How has pardons and paroles been affected by this year's budget cuts?
A: Substance abuse classes, sexual offender education classes and electronic monitoring -- we had to put some of that programming on the table last year (although) we knew if we cut programming, then our completion rates would suffer. The national average for successful parole completion is 45 percent. So far this year we're at 65 percent completion, which is up from 64 percent last year.
Q: How has the economic downturn affected jobs for parolees, most of whom are required to work as a condition of parole?
A: For the first three quarters of this fiscal year, our parolee employment rate is 78 percent, which is down from last fiscal year's 84 percent rate statewide.
Our parole officers develop relationships with area employers to aid parolees in finding work. We do everything we can to help as long as we have a parolee authentically beating the streets and trying to find a job.
One reason it's so critical from an economic standpoint is studies show that, for every day a parolee is employed, there is a 1 percent decrease in the chance that they will re-offend.
