- Collection:
- Georgia Law Review
- Title:
- Safe Haven No Longer: The Role of Georgia Courts and Private Probation Companies in Sustaining a De Facto Debtors' Prison System
- Creator:
- Bellacicco, Sarah D.
- Date of Original:
- 2013-01-01
- Subject:
- University of Georgia. School of Law
Law--Study and teaching
Georgia Law Review Association - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Clarke County, Athens, 33.96095, -83.37794
- Medium:
- notes (documents)
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Description:
- Georgia was specifically established as a colony for debtors-a haven where they could be safe from imprisonment. It is a haven no longer. Georgia courts are regularly imprisoning people for failing to pay debts, often through probation revocation of probationers who have failed to pay a fine or fee imposed as a condition of probation. Some of these probationers are on probation solely because they could not pay a fine on the day of sentencing, a practice which greatly increases the amount they owe due to the additional probation fees imposed. In Bearden v. Georgia, the Supreme Court held that revoking probation for failure to pay is unconstitutional when the probationer was non-willful in the default. Despite this precedent, indigent probationers are regularly imprisoned in hearings where the probationer's willfulness is not considered. The regularity with which these unconstitutional probation revocations occur is due in part to the fine collection methods used by private misdemeanor probation companies hired by many Georgia counties. These companies' income is made up entirely of the fees collected from probationers, giving them strong incentive to seek imprisonment of defaulting probationers through probation revocation. In order to combat these unconstitutional practices in Georgia, awareness must be raised among legal practitioners; the supreme court needs to hear cases challenging statutes that help sustain these practices; and the legislature needs to create a statutory scheme offering greater protection to indigent defendants. Until such recommendations are heeded, indigent probationers will continue to face the threat of debtors' prison.
Georgia Courts -- Private Probation Companies -- De Facto Debtors' Prison System -- Constitutional Law -- Courts -- Law -- State and Local Government Law -- Supreme Court of the United States - External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/glr/vol48/iss1/5
- Holding Institution:
- Alexander Campbell King Law Library
- Rights:
-
