Lauren Deal

Why did I become a lawyer? When I was a kid, I loved reading Nancy Drew and watching black and white reruns of Perry Mason. I grew up out in the woods, and we could only get a few stations thanks to the tall antenna on top of our house.

After college, I taught at Jefferson County High School in Louisville, Georgia. Many of my students only had one picture of their father: his prison photo. Many of my students were desperate for an adult to listen to them, and they needed fathers in their lives.

For eight years, I worked as a prosecutor in a district attorney's office. In Georgia, we send far too many people to prison, for far too long. Many times, we hurt families more than we help our communities. A wise older District Attorney told me that my job as a proscutor was to figure out who we were scared of, and who we were just angry at. We shouldn't be sending people to prison because we are mad at them.

As a criminal defense and family law attorney, my goal is simple: if we aren't afraid of someone harming his or her family or neighborhood, we shouldn't keep him away from his family or neighborhood. MOST parents should have a relationship with their children, and MOST criminal defendants should not be in prison.