ATLANTA — For three years, Jamariel Hobbs was confined to Georgia, unable to travel freely or move where he wanted to. At the beginning, a probation officer showed up at random times of night to test him for drugs.

The soft-spoken Hobbs, now 29, was among almost 176,000 Georgia residents on probation, the largest per capita population in the United States. Then he got lucky. Because of a new law, the court slashed what was supposed to be nine years of probation to three.

He was free.

“Probation feels like a leash,” he said. “I have my future back.”

People are often put on probation for low-level crimes such as drug possession or nonviolent theft. Georgia refuses to cap sentences the way 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. In short, 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 also have to pay fees to help offset the cost of monitoring them, a particular burden for low-income people.

Previous attempts to free people from probation stalled

Under state law, a lot more people like Hobbs could have been free. In 2017, Georgia lawmakers passed a bipartisan 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.

The Legislature’s directive fell short for multiple reasons. Judges often failed to include possible early termination dates for probation when they should have and they turned down the Department of Community Supervision’s requests to end probation early.

In 2021, the Legislature passed a second law outlining stricter guidelines to make the process more automatic.

To qualify for their freedom, people who are convicted of a felony for the first time have to pay off any restitution they owe and avoid being arrested for anything more serious than a routine traffic violation. They also have to have avoided their probation being revoked anytime within the previous two years. Judges or prosecutors can request a hearing if they oppose a case.

And people who have been on probation for at least three years can seek an early end if they meet the criteria, even if they were originally sentenced to a longer period.

Judges and lawyers say they’re seeing progress

Observers – including judges and lawyers – say the new law seems to be more effective than the original.

By last January, Georgia’s probationary population had fallen about 8% from 190,475 in 2021, according to the Department of Community Supervision, echoing nationwide trends.

The department said it could not readily provide the number of people released from probation under the criteria set out in 2021. What is known, is that at least 26,523 sentences have ended early since the bill passed, though many of those terminations could have been granted for other reasons.

“It has been a very successful, very big first step,” Askew said.

Some defense lawyers and advocates across the state say they still see eligible people on probation struggle to get probation officers to act. Others say they encounter judges and prosecutors less friendly to the changes.

“If you want to get something done, you’ve really got to hound them,” said Devin Rafus, an Atlanta defense lawyer.

Jamariel Hobbs had a friendly judge.

One man finds the exit

The Emory University graduate’s life seemed to be on track after he earned his degree in Japanese in 2019. He landed a sales job peddling auto parts across the South. Then, the pandemic took a toll on Hobbs’ mental health. After intervening in a family argument in 2020, he was charged with aggravated assault, according to Hobbs and the indictment against him.

He spent months couch surfing after his friends bailed him out of jail. He lost his job and his company car. In December 2021, he was sentenced to a year of incarceration and nine on probation, but was able to avoid jail time by enrolling in Georgia’s Accountability Court Program for people with mental health and substance abuse problems. It was there that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed medication for it.

He now works for a biopharmaceutical company and recently began serving as a peer outreach coordinator for people recovering from substance abuse or mental health issues.

Hobbs said his probation officers didn’t make it clear to him that his sentence included the possibility of early release from probation. So it felt surreal when he got a letter from Judge Layla Zon in December and was off probation days later.

Now he hopes to move to North Carolina, where the cost of living is more affordable and he dreams of starting an organization to help people with health and wellness.

“I’m sitting here probation-free,” Hobbs said, pausing to smile. “It’s a blessing.”

Judge Zon agreed.

“It’s really one of the better things that I get to do as a judge, to reward that person for what they’ve accomplished and for doing what we’ve asked them to do,” she said.

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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon.