Today is Legislative Day 12 of the 2026 session, and standing committees have begun to advance bills through the legislative process. Below, we provide a reminder of our policy priorities, what has happened since our last legislative update, and important upcoming events.

Priorities

A few weeks ago, we introduced you to our 2026 policy priorities. Those priorities are: 

• Improving Conditions of Confinement in Georgia
• Protecting Free Speech and Civic Engagement
• Expanding Parole and Reducing the Prison Population
• Decriminalizing Poverty
• Treating Kids Like Kids

You can read more about them on our Legislative Resources webpage.

What’s happened so far? 

Below, we provide updates on a few key bills, but please check out our bill tracker for a full list of the bills we’re closely monitoring. Our bill tracker lets you follow legislation in real time and receive daily or weekly updates. A few bills introduced this year have already been added, and more bills will be added in the coming weeks — making it much easier to get involved on issues you care about!

On Friday, January 23, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Safety met. (agenda)(video). Commissioner Oliver presented the Department of Corrections budget request of $87.1 million for the amended fiscal year. He also shared that GDC’s capacity is 54,000 people, and the prison population is projected to be 55,000 in five years and 65,000 in ten years. Representatives for Georgia’s private prisons (Core Civic) and GDC’s healthcare provider (Centurion Health) also appeared before the Subcommittee.

On Tuesday, January 27, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Judicial met to hear amended budget requests from the various court systems in our state and the Public Defender Council, and public defenders. (agenda)(video)

On Wednesday, January 28, two bills we oppose passed out of the House Public Safety Committee. (agenda)(video). That same day, the Senate Public Safety Committee passed SB 116. (agenda)(video).

• HB 295 would allow property owners to sue local governments if they believe the city is not aggressively enforcing laws related to public camping, panhandling, loitering, and similar activities. If passed, this would encourage cities to rely on counterproductive and harmful policing and criminal punishment systems and discourage community outreach and diversion strategies. The bill was favorably reported out of committee, and we will continue to advocate against this bill.
• SB 29 would require law enforcement to collect the DNA of every adult arrested for a serious violent felony and upload their DNA profile to a nationwide database. Under current law, only people convicted of a felony have their DNA collected and sent to GBI’s Division of Forensic Sciences for analysis and entry into the database. SB 29 undermines the presumption of innocence by collapsing distinctions between pre- and post-conviction. It establishes a system of suspicionless and warrantless searches of people’s genetic data. We oppose the bill, and we are also advocating for a few amendments that would make this bad bill less bad. The bill was favorably reported out of committee, and we will continue to advocate for improved language.

On Monday, February 2, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee met to consider SB 398, a new AI bill that is indented to create the crime of “virtual peeping.” (agenda)(video).

• The bill would make it a felony to generate an obscene image of a minor. Similarly to our opposition to HB 171, we oppose the bill because it does not adequately protect kids from facing felony sex crime prosecution for behaving like kids. A bill supposedly about protecting kids shouldn’t include sending teenagers to prison for teenage behavior. We spoke in favor of an amendment to broaden the carveout that would reduce the offense to a misdemeanor for teenage defendants in certain circumstances. No action was taken on the bill. We will continue to work with the author and committee members to improve the language of the bill.  

Yesterday, February 3, the Hong Subcommittee of Judiciary Non-Civil met to consider several bills we oppose. (agenda)(video)

• SB 27  would make, electronically posting someone’s personally identifiable information, such as their phone number or employer, “with reckless disregard as to whether” the information could be used by another party to cause the identified person (or their associates) to be fearful of physical harm (including stalking, injury, or death), significant economic injury, or mental anguish. Simply put, the criminal law proposed by SB 27 is unconstitutionally over-broad. The risk of arrest and prosecution would chill free speech, and that’s why SB 27—like any overly broad law that prohibits unprotected speech and a substantial amount of protected speech—is a serious constitutional violation. The subcommittee voted to advance the bill to the full committee. We will continue to advocate against the bill as written.
• HB 1076 would create the offense of “obstruction of a law enforcement officer with a motor vehicle.” This bill is unnecessary because misdemeanor obstruction and felony obstruction are already crimes in Georgia. Moreover, this bill would allow for a fine of “up to $100,000” in addition to 1-5 years of incarceration. The Subcommittee narrowly voted to advance the bill to the full committee. We will continue to advocate against the bill.  

What’s coming up? 

• Feb. 5 – Tomorrow, at 7am, GDC will appear before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety. (agenda)
• Feb. 5 – Also tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee and House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee are scheduled to meet. The Senate Judiciary Committee intends to consider a revised version of HB 398. (agenda)
• Feb. 10 – On Tuesday, Feb. 10, several agencies will appear before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Safety. (agenda)
• Feb. 24 – Justice Day at the Capitol will be on February 24, 8am-3pm at Central Presbyterian Church. Join Georgia’s leading advocates for the only annual comprehensive criminal legal reform advocacy day to connect with like-minded individuals, engage with lawmakers, learn about important criminal legal issues, and discover ways to support people who are incarcerated and effect change. Register here!
• March 6 – Crossover Day. This is the deadline for house bills to pass the house and Senate bills to pass the Senate. If a bill has not passed its chamber of origin by the end of Crossover Day (as in, “crossover” to the other chamber), it will not be considered by the other chamber.

We will be keeping you updated on our priorities throughout the legislative session and how you can support our efforts, and don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Sr. Policy Counsel Blake Feldman at [email protected] if you have questions about what’s happening at the Capitol.