Social Welfare Law Commons^™

Medical-Legal Collaboration And Community Partnerships: Prioritizing Prevention Of Human Trafficking In Federally Qualified Health Centers, Kimberly S.G. Chang Md, Mph, Hamida Yusufzai, Anna Marjavi

Georgia State University Law Review

Human trafficking (HT) is increasingly recognized as a public health issue, and its severe consequences affect some of society’s most vulnerable members. Prioritizing prevention is a critical component of a public health framework when addressing HT, and the health care delivery system plays a crucial role in operationalizing primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention interventions. As a significant part of the primary care system in the U.S., Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are uniquely positioned to be the first point of contact with the health care system for people at risk for and affected by HT. FQHCs provide many preventive services, …

Uncovering The "Hidden Crime" Of Human Trafficking By Empowering Individuals To Respond, Laura Shoop

Georgia State University Law Review

This Note will examine current state law promoting awareness of human trafficking and identification of trafficking survivors in the United States and make recommendations as to what further measures, if any, state legislators should take to increase awareness, identification, and reporting of human trafficking. Part I explains the history and development of human trafficking legislation at the federal and state levels. Part II analyzes the methods that states currently use to promote public awareness and identification. Part III discusses a proposal for amending current state law to better encourage and facilitate awareness of human trafficking and the identification and reporting …

Don’T Let The Bed Bugs Bill: Landlord Liability For Bed Bug Infestations In Georgia, Megan M. Harrison

Georgia State University Law Review

Although the historical relationship between bed bugs and humans dates back to ancient Egypt, the common bed bug, or Cimex lectularius, vanished from the beds of Americans around World War II. In the late 1990s, however, our bloodsucking bedfellows returned. Bed bug infestations are a growing public health issue. Bed bugs are now found in all fifty states, with populations in five states reaching epidemic levels. Both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) consider bed bugs a “pest of significant public health importance."

Despite their name, bed bugs are not limited to …

Sb 174 - Probation And Early Release, Andrew J. Navratil, Jobena E. Hill

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act amends Georgia’s probation laws by shortening the amount of time offenders spend on probation, providing local supervision, and creating a more efficient use of resources within the criminal justice system. The Act permits the transfer from parole to probation and the use of local supervision for certain offenders. The Act also allows for early release of probationers who meet the terms of their probation. The Act creates a process to automatically generate a request for early termination of probation for certain low-level offenses after the offender successfully completes three years of probation.

Unbefriended And Unrepresented: Better Medical Decision Making For Incapacitated Patients Without Healthcare Surrogates, Thaddeus Mason Pope

Georgia State University Law Review

The purpose of this Article is to help improve the quality of healthcare decision making for the unbefriended. I hope that this comprehensive and systematic explanation of both the problem and the available solutions will empower both public and clinical policymakers to develop more informed and more circumspect policies and procedures

An Empirical Assessment Of Georgia’S Beyond A Reasonable Doubt Standard To Determine Intellectual Disability In Capital Cases, Lauren Sudeall Lucas

Georgia State University Law Review

In Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court held that execution of people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. In doing so, the Court explicitly left to the states the question of which procedures would be used to identify such defendants as exempt from the death penalty. More than a decade before Atkins, Georgia was the first state to bar execution of people with intellectual disability. Yet, of the states that continue to impose the death penalty as a punishment for capital murder, Georgia is the only state that requires capital defendants …

Injustice Under Law: Perpetuating And Criminalizing Poverty Through The Courts, Judge Lisa Foster

Georgia State University Law Review

Money matters in the justice system. If you can afford to purchase your freedom pretrial, if you can afford to immediately pay fines and fees for minor traffic offenses and municipal code violations, if you can afford to hire an attorney, your experience of the justice system both procedurally and substantively will be qualitatively different than the experience of someone who is poor. More disturbingly, through a variety of policies and practices—some of them blatantly unconstitutional—our courts are perpetuating and criminalizing poverty. And when we talk about poverty in the United States, we are still talking about race, ethnicity, and …

Tackling The Social Determinants Of Health: A Central Role For Providers, Jessica Mantel

Georgia State University Law Review

Americans’ poor health and high health care costs largely stem from social, environmental, and behavioral factors that adversely impact health. Yet, health care providers traditionally have neglected the social determinants of health, focusing instead on medically treating patients’ symptoms. As a result, addressing the social determinants of health has primarily been the domain of government and community groups. Unfortunately, the efforts of the public health and social services sectors are stymied by chronic underfunding, a situation unlikely to change in the current political environment. This article identifies a potential solution to this problem: recent health care reforms that encourage health …