A Georgia sanitation worker is serving 30 days in jail all for starting work too early.

Kevin McGill says he was thrown in jail for picking up trash around 5 a.m., which violates an ordinance in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs that only permits trash pick up between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

In court, chief prosecutor Bill Riley asked the judge to sentence McGill to the 30-day maximum punishment, despite the fact that this was his first citation and he had only been working with the contractor for three months.

"I was stunned. I didn't know what to think. I was shocked," McGill told WSB-TV.

However, the prosecutor told WSB that he is unapologetic about the harsh sentence because "fines don't seem to work" in preventing sanitation workers from collecting garbage before 7 a.m. "The only thing that seems to stop the activity is actually going to jail," he said.

According to the prosecutor, the city statute works to prevent residents from complaining about the noise waking them up too early.

McGill, who began serving his 30-day sentence last week, said that the jail sentence is keeping him away from his family.

"I just want this to be over with," he told WSB. "I'm away from my family, my wife, and she's got to take care of the two little boys and I have four dogs."

McGill, who didn't have an attorney with him when he was sentenced, now has an attorney who says that the sentence is too harsh.

"Give him a warning," said attorney Kimberly Bandoh. "I mean he's the employee. He's not the employer. Sentencing him to jail is doing what?"

In response, Riley counters that each worker is responsible for their own truck, reports KTLA.

"The company doesn't start that truck up. The company doesn't drive that truck down the street," Riley said.

McGill is forced to serve the next 14 weekends in jail, but his lawyer has filed a motion to withdraw his plea.

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