Georgia’s Controversial SB 63: How a New Law Could Impact Taxes and Jail Releases

A new Georgia law could raise taxes and make it more difficult for people to get out of jail.

Gov. Brian Kemp signed Republican-backed SB 63 into law on Wednesday, expanding the list of felonies requiring cash bail to over 30. It also restricts bail-assistance organizations to bailing out three people each year. Criminal trespass, failure to appear for a traffic citation, and possession of more than one ounce of marijuana are among the newly added penalties.

“This bill carries out important bail reforms that will ensure dangerous individuals cannot walk our streets and commit further crimes,” the governor stated on Wednesday. While Kemp maintains that this will keep violent offenders in prison, the ALCU of Georgia disagrees.

“It’s actually the opposite of being in the interest of public safety, and all this does is cost taxpayers more money while making us all less safe,” said Cory Isaacson, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.

Isaacson stated that the measure would result in more individuals being detained. “Our jails are already overcrowded, and local sheriffs and other agencies are already overburdened with the amount of people who are filling the jails,” Isaacson said in a statement.

Deep Center, a community development organization that collaborates with bail support organizations, stated that the charges are not violent.

“These are not those types of offenses,” Coco-Guthrie Papy, Deep Center director of public policy and communications, explained. “They’re often rooted in things like behavioral and mental health, homelessness, poverty, and substance abuse disorder.” The main issue with the new law, according to advocacy groups such as the ACLU of Georgia, is that it expressly targets the poor.

“We have an existing problem where oftentimes people will be stuck in jail again, not because of what they might have done or not have done, but because they can’t afford to pay for their freedom,” said Isaacson. “And this bill just exacerbates that problem and exacerbates that significantly.”

That is why the ACLU of Georgia is following through on its threat made in February to litigate if the bill is signed into law. “We hoped that Gov. Kemp would be able to stand up and recognize how awful our law is. We are now prepared to challenge the law in court in an attempt to prevent it from causing the unavoidable pain and destruction,” Isaacson stated.

Isaacson also stated that the ACLU of Georgia hopes to block the law before it takes effect in July.