State Rep. Rob Leverett has put forward legislation in the Georgia House intended to overhaul how state offenders are held in county jails and to clarify requirements for obtaining local approval, the Georgia State House reports.
Filed as HB997 on Thursday, Jan. 15 during the 2026 regular session of the 158th General Assembly, the bill is officially titled: ’Penal institutions; limit time that Department of Community Supervision can hold certain inmates in a county facility’.
Below is our analysis, which draws on the actual bill text and may incorporate interpretation to clarify its intent.
This proposal updates Georgia statutes on the housing of state offenders in local jails by limiting the time sanctioned probationers can be kept in county facilities by the Department of Community Supervision to 30 days without local consent, with that period connected to state reimbursement. It directs the Department of Corrections to assign inmates within 15 days after receiving court documents and increases the minimum daily county reimbursement to $50 per inmate, outlining when payments begin and end in probation and parole cases. Under the bill, felons, felony probation violators, and felony parole violators generally would not serve sentences in county facilities unless a sheriff or warden gives explicit approval.
Co-sponsors of the legislation are Rep. Bill Hitchens (Republican-161st), Rep. Danny Mathis (Republican-133rd), Rep. James Burchett (Republican-176th), and two others.
This session, Leverett has sponsored nine other bills, with seven of them passing.
Leverett earned a BA from Dartmouth College in 1986 and a JD from the University of Georgia.
Leverett, a Republican, joined the Georgia State House in 2023, representing the 123rd House District. He succeeded Mark Newton in this role.
According to Georgia’s legislative process, bills begin when a legislator collaborates with the Office of Legislative Counsel to draft language, often prompted by a constituent. After being filed with the Clerk of the House or Secretary of the Senate, a bill receives its first reading and is sent to committee for discussion and analysis. If it passes committee, it advances for further debate and a floor vote. To become law, a bill must pass both legislative chambers—potentially undergoing reconciliation in a conference committee—before reaching the governor. The governor then has six days while the legislature is in session or 40 days after adjournment (Sine Die) to sign, veto, or allow the bill to become law without a signature. The Georgia General Assembly holds a 40-day session each year, starting the second Monday in January.
| Bill Number | Date Introduced | Short Description |
|---|---|---|
| HB530 | 02/19/2025 | Courts; authorization for electronic filing of pleadings in probate court; provide |
| HB406 | 02/11/2025 | Judicial Retirement System; increase retirement age of superior court judges first taking office on or after July 1, 2026 |
| HB377 | 02/10/2025 | Buildings and housing; manufactured homes; provisions |
| HB339 | 02/06/2025 | Motor vehicles; exempt ride share drivers or ride share network services from definition of motor carrier |
| HB327 | 02/06/2025 | Official Code of Georgia Annotated; amend various titles |
| HB86 | 01/16/2025 | Public officers and employees; calculating and setting the salaries of certain state officials; revise provisions |
| HB85 | 01/16/2025 | Superior Court Judicial Compensation Reform Act; enact |
| HB37 | 01/14/2025 | Education; require local school systems to notify employees regarding social security withholdings and eligibility for certain benefits |
| HB36 | 01/14/2025 | Guardian and ward; revise list of providers who are authorized to participate in the processes for appointment of a guardian for an adult |
This article is based on information from the Georgia State House. Access the source data here.
