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• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 7/16/2009 5:11 PM UTC

  Southern Center For Human Rights - "Stop Locking Up People Because They Are Poor"
  

  
  
  Scotty Reid of the Black Talk Media Project spoke with a representative of the Southern Center for Human Rights concerning Hatley's case. According to SCHR, Hatleys is not an isolated case and that too many people are incarcerated for being poor and unable to make payments to the State.
  
  

  The Associated Press reports:

  A Georgia man spent more than a year behind bars for failing to pay child support for a child that wasn't his, but he was released after DNA tests showed he wasn't the father.

  Frank Hatley, 50, had been jailed since June 2008 for not making payments, but two separate DNA tests in the last nine years showed he was not the father of the boy, who is now 21.

  
  

  Southern Center for Human Rights attorney Sarah Geraghty won Hatley's release at a hearing Wednesday in Superior Court. A court order has also relieved him of his financial obligation to the Georgia Department of Human Resources.

  "State child support officials have shown extraordinarily poor judgment in Mr. Hatley's case," Geraghty said.

  
  

  Although Hatley was freed from making future payments after a 2001 hearing, Superior Court Judge Dan Perkins had ordered him to continue making $16,000 in back payments. He paid $6,000 of that before being laid off from his job. Perkins ordered Hatley's immediate release Wednesday after determining that he was indigent. Although he was released, Hatley's paternity case is still unresolved.

  
  

  Read the SCHR Press Release

  South Georgia Man Released from Year-Long Incarceration; Jailed For Being Too Poor To Support A Child That Is Not His
  • Tags:
  • child support
  • georgia
  • Frank Hatley
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Comments

	Black Talk Radio™ 7/17/2009 4:41 PM UTC @LukeEaster Thank you for pointing out that minor and trivial fact of english. Since no where in the post does it refer to Hatleys race which I did not know at the time of the interview, because it did not matter really, I have to assume your comment is meant to be racist so go somewhere else with your bs.
	LukeEaster 7/17/2009 9:55 AM UTC Do you mean because "they're or they are" black? "Their" is the incorrect form of English.

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