For three years, Jamariel Hobbs was confined to Georgia, unable to travel freely. A probation officer showed up at random times of night to test him for drugs. Hobbs, 29, was among almost 176,000 Georgia residents on probation, the nation's largest per capita population Under a new law, a court slashed what was supposed to be nine years of probation to three, the Associated Press reports. “Probation feels like a leash,” he said. “I have my future back.” Defendants often are put on probation for low-level crimes such as drug possession or nonviolent theft. Georgia refuses to cap sentences, as many other jurisdictions do. The practice of long sentences persisted for years despite research suggesting that the likelihood of people reoffending drops after three years on probation. Longer probation may do little to improve public safety.
“You’re talking about folks who have often been through a lot of trauma and feel like they are constantly walking around with a weight on their shoulders, a cloud over their head, where the smallest little thing could completely derail all the work they’ve put in,” said Wade Askew of the Georgia Justice Project. People on probation must pay fees to help offset the cost of monitoring them, a particular burden for low-income people.
In 2017, Georgia lawmakers passed a bill designed to reduce the number of people on probation by letting some off early. According to a study by the Urban Institute, the measure could have translated into roughly one-third of the men and women on felony probation being offered sentences with the opportunity for time off their probation after three years at most, providing they stayed out of trouble. Instead, just 213 sentences that included the possibility of an early end to probation actually finished ahead of schedule. , according to Georgia’s Department of Community Supervision. In 2021, the legislature passed another law outlining stricter guidelines to make the process more automatic. By last January, Georgia’s probationary population had fallen about 8% from 190,475 in 2021, echoing nationwide trends. At least 26,523 sentences have ended early since the bill passed, though many of those terminations could have been granted for other reasons.