Earlier this month, the Georgia legislature passed a draconian bail bond measure which, if signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp, will further crush the poor and people of color caught up in our state’s criminal legal system.
Senate Bill 63 adds 30 offenses—many of them misdemeanors—where judges will be prohibited from setting cash-free bonds. The bill also makes it increasingly difficult for individuals and charitable groups like the Oconee Street United Methodist Church’s Community Bail Initiative in Athens to post cash bonds on behalf of indigent defendants locked up in the Athens-Clarke County Jail.
Since June 2021, the OSUMC Community Bail Initiative has posted cash bonds for 74 people confined in our jail because they were unable to purchase their pretrial liberty. Thirty-five of this number were homeless. Many of the 74 were essentially living hand to mouth, some with mental health diagnoses, others hounded by alcohol and/or drug-related issues. Most had been locked up for allegedly committing misdemeanor offenses. As a result of their marginalization in our community, and their poverty, these 74 women and men spent a combined 2,188 days in jail before their cash bonds were posted. The majority of bonds the Community Bail Initiative has posted have been for less than $100, some as low as $10 or even $1 in a half-dozen instances.
If SB 63 becomes law on July 1, more and more of ACC’s homeless, mentally ill and addicted residents will find themselves in jail unable to purchase their pretrial freedom because our magistrate judges will be required to set some amount of cash bail, even for minor offenses like trespassing, theft by taking or deception, battery, misdemeanor obstruction or unlawful assembly. Persons with a “failure to appear” as many as five years ago (even for a traffic citation), or a felony arrest in the last seven years will be ineligible for a no-cash bond. The bill more than doubles the list of offenses for which a judge must order cash bail. Even when a judge determines that the person is not a public safety risk, that judge will be forced to order a cash bond.
As the OSUMC Community Bail Initiative has learned, even cash bonds of a few dollars can keep impoverished misdemeanor defendants in jail for days, sometimes weeks or even months. Conversely, someone with money charged with the exact same offense, will be able to pay to get out of the jailhouse almost immediately.
Despite what SB 63’s proponents claim—Athens Rep. Houston Gaines, the bill’s co-sponsor, among them—the new law has very little to do with safety or justice in our community or deterring crime across the state. Mandating cash bail will almost exclusively negatively impact those who already face disproportionate barriers in the criminal legal system. Even without SB 63, the sinister cash bail system denies the poor and marginalized their fundamental right to the presumption of innocence. What SB 63 will most certainly do is bring higher pretrial detention costs for ACC taxpayers to fork over and increased revenue for the predatory bail bond industry.
Equally disturbing is SB 63’s intention to significantly hinder the ability of individuals and organizations to pay bail on behalf of jailed people in Georgia. The bill reads that “no more than three cash bonds may be posted per year by any individual, corporation, charity, non-profit corporation or group in any jurisdiction.” The bill would also require any entity purporting “to be a charitable bail fund with the purpose of soliciting donations to use for securing the release of accused persons” to register as professional bail bondsman with the sheriff’s office, which requires fingerprinting and a full background check. This obviously would severely impact the OSUMC Community Bail Initiative’s ability to function. In 2023 alone, the initiative posted its third cash bond on Jan. 31, and 45 more during the remainder of last year. SB 63 would have prohibited those 45 inmates from accessing the Community Bail Initiative’s resources, forcing them to remain in jail.
The Georgia ACLU has promised a lawsuit if Gov. Kemp signs SB 63 into law, arguing the bill is a blatant violation of the First Amendment and the Georgia Constitution. “In a state that already locks up more of its people than any other state in the country, SB 63 will dramatically increase the number of Georgians languishing in our jails,” the ACLU stated in a press release. “We can’t allow the state to enact a system in which a person’s freedom is determined by the amount of money in their wallet.”
Indeed, SB 63 should be alarming to anyone who values a free society. It is a harmful, regressive piece of legislation clearly designed to further block and reduce poor people’s routes to freedom.
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Bail Bill Would Make Pre-Trial Defendants Who Can’t Pay Languish in Jail
Earlier this month, the Georgia legislature passed a draconian bail bond measure which, if signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp, will further crush the poor and people of color caught up in our state’s criminal legal system.
Senate Bill 63 adds 30 offenses—many of them misdemeanors—where judges will be prohibited from setting cash-free bonds. The bill also makes it increasingly difficult for individuals and charitable groups like the Oconee Street United Methodist Church’s Community Bail Initiative in Athens to post cash bonds on behalf of indigent defendants locked up in the Athens-Clarke County Jail.
Since June 2021, the OSUMC Community Bail Initiative has posted cash bonds for 74 people confined in our jail because they were unable to purchase their pretrial liberty. Thirty-five of this number were homeless. Many of the 74 were essentially living hand to mouth, some with mental health diagnoses, others hounded by alcohol and/or drug-related issues. Most had been locked up for allegedly committing misdemeanor offenses. As a result of their marginalization in our community, and their poverty, these 74 women and men spent a combined 2,188 days in jail before their cash bonds were posted. The majority of bonds the Community Bail Initiative has posted have been for less than $100, some as low as $10 or even $1 in a half-dozen instances.
If SB 63 becomes law on July 1, more and more of ACC’s homeless, mentally ill and addicted residents will find themselves in jail unable to purchase their pretrial freedom because our magistrate judges will be required to set some amount of cash bail, even for minor offenses like trespassing, theft by taking or deception, battery, misdemeanor obstruction or unlawful assembly. Persons with a “failure to appear” as many as five years ago (even for a traffic citation), or a felony arrest in the last seven years will be ineligible for a no-cash bond. The bill more than doubles the list of offenses for which a judge must order cash bail. Even when a judge determines that the person is not a public safety risk, that judge will be forced to order a cash bond.
As the OSUMC Community Bail Initiative has learned, even cash bonds of a few dollars can keep impoverished misdemeanor defendants in jail for days, sometimes weeks or even months. Conversely, someone with money charged with the exact same offense, will be able to pay to get out of the jailhouse almost immediately.
Despite what SB 63’s proponents claim—Athens Rep. Houston Gaines, the bill’s co-sponsor, among them—the new law has very little to do with safety or justice in our community or deterring crime across the state. Mandating cash bail will almost exclusively negatively impact those who already face disproportionate barriers in the criminal legal system. Even without SB 63, the sinister cash bail system denies the poor and marginalized their fundamental right to the presumption of innocence. What SB 63 will most certainly do is bring higher pretrial detention costs for ACC taxpayers to fork over and increased revenue for the predatory bail bond industry.
Equally disturbing is SB 63’s intention to significantly hinder the ability of individuals and organizations to pay bail on behalf of jailed people in Georgia. The bill reads that “no more than three cash bonds may be posted per year by any individual, corporation, charity, non-profit corporation or group in any jurisdiction.” The bill would also require any entity purporting “to be a charitable bail fund with the purpose of soliciting donations to use for securing the release of accused persons” to register as professional bail bondsman with the sheriff’s office, which requires fingerprinting and a full background check. This obviously would severely impact the OSUMC Community Bail Initiative’s ability to function. In 2023 alone, the initiative posted its third cash bond on Jan. 31, and 45 more during the remainder of last year. SB 63 would have prohibited those 45 inmates from accessing the Community Bail Initiative’s resources, forcing them to remain in jail.
The Georgia ACLU has promised a lawsuit if Gov. Kemp signs SB 63 into law, arguing the bill is a blatant violation of the First Amendment and the Georgia Constitution. “In a state that already locks up more of its people than any other state in the country, SB 63 will dramatically increase the number of Georgians languishing in our jails,” the ACLU stated in a press release. “We can’t allow the state to enact a system in which a person’s freedom is determined by the amount of money in their wallet.”
Indeed, SB 63 should be alarming to anyone who values a free society. It is a harmful, regressive piece of legislation clearly designed to further block and reduce poor people’s routes to freedom.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
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