Braddock: Legislators Considering 'Caylee's Law'

We have now completed our sixth week here at the gold dome. The end of week six marked the halfway point of the 2012 legislative session. Friday, Feb. 17, was legislative day 21 of the 40 days that we are allowed to meet. With the end of session drawing closer, we continued to work in committees and on the House floor to ensure important legislation makes it through the House while there is still time.

House Resolution 1325 was passed this week. HR 1325 urges Congress to repeal an outdated law so that illegal cell phone use can be more easily detected in prisons. Illegal cell phone use has become a huge problem in Georgia’s prisons. In 2011, the Georgia Department of Corrections confiscated more than 8,500 illegal cell phones. These phones are often used by inmates to initiate attacks against prison guards and coordinate gang activity from behind bars.

Georgia corrections officers have reported that they could dramatically decrease the violence with the use of cellular jammers, devices that prevent cellular phones from receiving signals from base stations. Unfortunately, prisons are unable to use cellular jammers due to an outdated federal law. While we cannot change this law ourselves, we can send a strong message to Washington, which we did with HR 1325. Now that this measure has been approved by the House, this resolution will be considered by the Senate.

In addition to HR 1325 and other legislation approved on the House floor this week, we also continued working on legislation in committees. For example, the Judiciary Non-Civil Committee began work on House Bill 974, also known as “Caylee Anthony’s Law.” As you may remember from last summer, Caylee Anthony was a 2-year-old girl who was reported missing by her grandmother a month after she had last been seen. Caylee’s mother, Casey Anthony, was later acquitted of charges that she murdered little Caylee, a result that many felt to be a miscarriage of justice. People across the nation found it troubling that Caylee’s disappearance was not reported for a month after the fact. Casey Anthony admitted to lying about the circumstances surrounding Caylee’s disappearance and death. Although Caylee’s mother ultimately served some time in prison for the misdemeanor offense of lying to law enforcement, Florida had no laws to enable prosecutors to penalize a criminally negligent parent who fails to report the disappearance or death of their child. HB 974 would ensure that Georgia prosecutors do not face the same challenge.

“Caylee Anthony’s Law” would require parents in Georgia to report their child’s disappearance or death in a timely manner, holding parents and other adult caretakers responsible for children younger than 13, requiring them to maintain contact with those children. If the responsible adult has not been able to contact the child for 18 hours, the adult must report the child as missing. The legislation would also require these individuals to report the death of a child within 12 hours. This bill is designed to penalize criminally negligent parents, and does not apply to parents who are simply unable to communicate with their child due to a situation where a child was away at a summer camp or another similar scenario.

In addition to learning about newly introduced legislation like HB 974, we also continued our Red Tape Watch initiative this week. Through this series of hearings, we have had the opportunity to hear from small businesses across the state, as they shared the challenges they face with unnecessary government regulations. The feedback has provided us with some insight into possible areas for improvement. For example, business owners from several different industries have complained about delays in working with state agencies to obtain inspections and licenses. Also, many owners of day care centers complained of a new requirement that employees must have a technical or college degree. We need to look at policies like these and determine if this is the right step to take. My colleagues and I appreciate these many business owners who have stepped forward with their stories, and we look forward to finding ways to resolve these issues so that small businesses can flourish and create more jobs.

As we move into the second half of the 2012 legislative session, we will continue to hear from more small businesses and review more legislation. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at my Capitol Office 404-656-0177 or via email paulette.braddock@house.ga.gov. You may also leave a comment by going to my Legislative Facebook Page: State Rep. Paulette Braddock (R-19). To sign up for the legislative newsletter go to: www.paulettehouserep.com/contact.html.

If you would like to schedule a visit at the Capitol, please contact Marsha Barnes at 404-656-0177.

Thank you for allowing me to serve as your representative.