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Publication Date

2013

Abstract

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.

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