FINDING SOLUTIONS: Marshal’s Office offers alternative to cash fines

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – It’s tough to pay a fine if you don’t have the resources.

If you can’t pay the fine, you end up facing harsher penalties and clogging the court system.

But the Richmond County Marshal’s Office is trying to find solutions to three problems at once: keeping Augusta clean, helping those in poverty, and clearing out the court docket.

Probationers are cleaning up trash in Augusta, instead of cleaning out their wallets.

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“It’s helping the people who didn’t have money to pay a fine, and it’s helping clean Augusta. That’s our mission to help keep Augusta clean and safe,” said Richmond County Marshal Ramone Lamkin.

Probationers from magistrate and state courts with charges ranging from shoplifting to disorderly conduct can now choose this option, instead of a cash fine.

“The deputies actually came up with this idea. It didn’t come from the top. It came from the deputies. It creates more work for them because they have to be out more hours doing this,” Lamkin explains.

Lamkin says it’s also giving probationers the chance to see law enforcement in a different light.

“We’re not just having them work. We’re helping them also. Our deputies are picking up trash and picking up stuff on the side of the road, so it’s an opportunity for the people to see a different side of law enforcement also,” he said.

This is a first for the Marshal’s office, and they’re hoping to expand the program if commissioners will green light it.

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