In the article, "Sanitation worker's early pickup leads to two weekends in jail" (Link to Article) it states that Kevin McGill, a sanitation worker in Atlanta, had been sentenced to thirty days of jail time for the "crime" of picking up garbage too early. Apparently, McGill violated a city noise ordinance that did not allow for trash pickup to take place before 7 AM. McGill started work at 5 AM one day which is why he was charged. The court allowed for his sentence to be served only on weekends, though, and he had already served two weekends as of the time this story was published.
I find this whole story completely ridiculous. First of all, I think if someone is going to be punished for violating a city ordinance like this, they should maybe be fined but definitely not sentenced to serve jail time. I think that this is an excellent example of cruel and unusual punishment, for jail time is far worse than the minor crime that this man committed. He just started working early one day, for heaven's sake! Thankfully, the solicitor's office realized this after the story went viral, for they announced that they would amend McGill's sentence because, "the actions of the court with regards to Mr. McGill's sentence for violating the city's noise laws was disproportionate to a first-time offense." They considered his time served after the two weekends he spent in jail. Like I stated before, I think that it is ridiculous that a court decided to put a man in jail for doing something as trivial as picking up the trash early when prisons are already overcrowded as is. I hope that something like this doesn't happen again.
