With the recent exodus of undocumented Hispanic migrant workers leaving Georgia to avoid the consequences of House Bill 87, Gov. Nathan Deal made a statement on Tuesday suggesting that probationers could potentially fill the approximately 11,000 open jobs in the state’s agricultural economy.

“Specifically, I asked Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens and (Department of Agriculture) Commissioner Gary Black to review the current situation and offer possible options,” said Deal in his statement. “Commissioner Owens has indicated that there are 100,000 probationers statewide, 8,000 of which are in the Southwest region of the state and 25 percent of which are unemployed … I believe this would be a great partial solution to our current status as we continue to move towards sustainable results with the legal options available.”

The potential move would allow probationers who are unable to find work to have a source of income, provided they are able to meet employer standards. Income can then be used to pay probation fines, along with other state fines that are a requirement of their probation sentence.

Rep. Ellis Black, R-Valdosta, believes the initiative could work but said something needs to happen quickly.

“In the political arena, there aren’t any guarantees. I don’t see why we would have a problem and I think we can get the legislature to get interested in it,” said Black. “I’ve spoken to a number of farmers who said that there isn’t a pool of workers available like there used to be and a couple of other farmers who had lost crops because there was no work available.”

Black remembers a prison work release program in which inmates were able to pick produce and work fields during the day and return to their cells in the evening. According to Black, the program was discontinued about 30 years ago, but he has assigned staff to research if such a program would work today.

Local farmer Dee Ritter has never had much success with hiring workers from the U.S. Department of Labor.

“You would be out there babysitting and not getting anything done,” said Ritter. “It goes back to having a non-immigrant out there. They’ll stop and chitchat without working if they can. This proposal wouldn’t work; repealing the law is the only (thing) that will work.

“Probationers is certainly not the way to fix the lack of farm workers, unless they want to send out armed guards to watch them. The reason they’re on probation in the first place is because they weren’t working and they were out stealing or doing something else illegal.”