Georgia Supreme Court asked to ban banishment

A Valdosta Daily Times editorial reads in part:

A popular technique used for years by judges, particularly in the metro Atlanta area, to rid themselves of criminals has been to banish them to one county in the state, usually Echols or another underpopulated county here in South Georgia. Law doesn’t allow them to banish someone completely from Georgia, so our Atlanta friends do the next best thing — send them to the swamp.

[In a legal challenge against this practice being heard by the Georgia Supreme Court, the Court is being told] that this is a “thinly disguised effort” to evade a constitutional provision that forbids banishment, and that many of the criminals simply leave the state rather than move to rural areas.

While the decision will be made by the justices based on its constitutionality, the question remains, why South Georgia? Why not counties in North Georgia or the coastal areas?

If the court system believes banishment is a successful technique in ridding their communities of unwanted criminals, then the practice should be upheld. But South Georgia’s judges should be exhorted to utilize the practice as well, and banish criminals to metro Atlanta counties. Although that might be considered cruel and unusual punishment.