---
title: O.C.G.A. § 42-5-58. Prohibition against corporal punishment; use of handcuffs, leg chains, and other restraints; permissible punishment generally.
collection: code
id: 42-5-58
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 42-5-58 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/42-5-58
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/42-5-58.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/42-5-58/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t41-t42-(v29a)-2023-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=4afea80d_0#page=321
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.
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version: the only printed version
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current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: PENAL INSTITUTIONS / CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF STATE AND COUNTIES / CONDITIONS OF DETENTION GENERALLY
---

# O.C.G.A. § 42-5-58. Prohibition against corporal punishment; use of handcuffs, leg chains, and other restraints; permissible punishment generally.

(a) Whipping of inmates and all forms of corporal punishment shall be prohibited. All shackles, manacles, picks, leg irons, and chains shall be barred from use as punishment by any penal institution operated under authority of the board. In transferring violent or potentially dangerous inmates within an institution or between facilities, handcuffs, leg chains, waist chains, and waist belts may be utilized. Handcuffs, leg chains, waist chains, and waist belts may also be used in securing violent or potentially dangerous inmates within an institution and in public and private areas such as hospitals and clinics; but in no event may handcuffs, leg chains, waist chains, and waist belts be used as punishment; provided, however, that if the accused becomes violent in the courtroom, restraints may be used.

(b) The department shall restrict punishment for an infraction of correctional rules and regulations to isolation and restricted diet or to uniform standard humane punishment which the department may deem necessary for the control of inmates.

## History

Ga. L. 1956, p. 161, § 15; Ga. L. 1983, p. 1806, § 1; Ga. L. 1984, p. 22, § 42; Ga. L. 1989, p. 14, § 42; Ga. L. 2023, p. 730, § 5(b)(2)/HB 475, effective July 1, 2023.

The 2023 amendment, effective July 1, 2023, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, inserted “that” near the end of the last sentence of subsection (a).

## Cross References

Cruel and unusual punishment, U.S. Const., amend. 8 and Ga. Const. 1983,Art. I, Sec. I, Para. XVII.

Prohibition against whipping as punishment for crimes, Ga. Const. 1983, Art. I, Sec. I, Para. XXI.

Penalty for assault by state officer under color of office or commission, § 45-11-3.

## Law Reviews

For note, “Behind Closed Doors: An Em-pirical Inquiry Into the Nature of Prison Discipline in Georgia,” see 8 Ga. L. Rev. 919 (1974).

## Administrative Rules and Regulations

Institutional and Center Operations, Official Compilation of the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia, Board of Corrections, Chapter 125-3.