Should banishment be banished?

[CCTAU 3,350]

Why not run the criminal out of town instead of putting them in jail? And what better place to give them to live in freedom, than a swamp. See, this is where hard labor comes in. If an individual has to get up from dawn till dusk and bust rocks, they will be glad to live free in a swamp.

Should Banishments Be Banned?

Georgia Supreme Court

Provided by: The Associated Press

Last Modified: 1/7/2008 11:07:24 PM

ATLANTA (AP) -- Georgia Supreme Court justices debating the state's banishment policy on Monday reached at least one conclusion: Being confined to all but a remote Georgia county makes for a difficult drive.

When Justice Harris Hines wondered aloud how the banished offender could even reach the county without traveling through off-limits areas, fellow Justice Robert Benham quipped: "You could fly." Hines quickly responded by asking where you would even land.

The judicial interaction underscores the dilemma the state's top court faces over Georgia's strange banishment policy.

Georgia's judges are outlawed from banishing offenders from the state, but some have skirted the rule by banning them from all but one of Georgia's 159 counties. That means some metro Atlanta offenders are confined -- at least on paper -- to hard-to-reach spots near the Okefenokee Swamp.

Although the banished rarely move to these remote counties, the policy has sparked a debate among the legal community that has landed in the state's top court.

State attorneys contend the orders are a way to rid criminals from populous areas and protect victims from repeat offenses. But some defense attorneys see them as thinly disguised efforts to evade a Georgia constitutional provision that explicitly forbids courts from "banishment beyond the limits of the state."BANISHED