---
title: O.C.G.A. § 36-12-5. Final disposition of deceased indigent individuals.
collection: code
id: 36-12-5
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 36-12-5 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-12-5
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-12-5.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-12-5/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t35-t36-ch1-59-(v27)-2025-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=66569db4_0#page=491
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-12.md
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version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia
heading_path: LOCAL GOVERNMENT / Provisions Applicable to Counties Only / SUPERVISION AND SUPPORT OF PAUPERS
extraction_warnings:
  - dehyphenation_unverified:intern-ment
---

# O.C.G.A. § 36-12-5. Final disposition of deceased indigent individuals.

(a) Whenever any individual dies in this state and the decedent, his or her family, and his or her immediate kindred are indigent and unable to provide for the decedent’s decent interment, cremation, or other final disposition, the governing authority of the county where the death occurred shall make available from county funds a sum sufficient to provide a decent interment, cremation, or other final disposition of the deceased indigent individual or to reimburse such individual’s immediate kindred as may have expended the cost of such decent internment, cremation, or other final disposition voluntarily, the exact amount thereof to be determined by the governing authority of the county but shall not exceed the lesser of the actual costs of interment, cremation, or other final disposition.

(b) The Department of Corrections is authorized to reimburse the governing authority of the county where expenditures have been made in accordance with this Code section for the burial, cremation, or other final disposition of any inmate under the authority, jurisdiction, or control of the Department of Corrections; provided, however, that in no case shall the governing authority of the county be entitled to reimbursement where the decedent was in the custody of a county correctional institution or other county correctional facility.

## History

Ga. L. 1863-64, p. 60, § 1; Code 1868, § 788; Code 1873, § 766; Code 1882, § 766; Civil Code 1895, § 441; Civil Code 1910, § 556; Code 1933, § 23-2304; Ga. L. 1967, p. 616, § 1; Ga. L. 1972, p. 971, § 1; Ga. L. 1974, p. 616, § 1; Ga. L. 1978, p. 1048, § 1; Ga. L. 1980, p. 722, § 1; Ga. L. 1982, p. 2107, § 34; Ga. L. 1983, p. 3, § 27; Ga. L. 1985, p. 265, § 1; Ga. L. 1985, p. 283, § 1; Ga. L. 1991, p. 431, §§ 1, 2; Ga. L. 2013, p. 669, § 1/SB 83; Ga. L. 2025, p. 269, § 2-8/SB 241, effective July 1, 2025.

## Cross References

Embalming, transportation, and care of bodies generally, § 31-21-1 et seq.

Notifying of commissioner of corrections and county coroner upon sudden death of inmate or death of inmate under unusual circumstances, § 42-5-7.

## Amendments

The 2025 amendment, effective July 1, 2025, rewrote subsection (a), which read: “Whenever any person dies in this state and the decedent, his or her family, and his or her immediate kindred are indigent and unable to provide for the decedent’s decent interment or cremation, the governing authority of the county wherein the death occurs shall make available from county funds a sum sufficient to provide a decent interment or cremation of the deceased indigent person or to reimburse such person as may have expended the cost thereof voluntarily, the exact amount thereof to be determined by the governing authority of the county but shall not exceed the lesser of the actual costs of interment or cremation."; and, in subsection (b), substituted “burial, cremation, or other final disposition of” for “burial or cremation of” and substituted “provided, however, that” for “but”.