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News Articles: Georgia Department of Corrections

Georgia Department of Corrections cadets and trainers before the 2010 ribbon cutting for the department's training facility and offices in Forsyth. A labor strike of the incarcerated would come about month later. GDC lost over 2,000 correctional officers in the following year.

Tagged as: 

  • Law

Gov. Kemp recommends adding $372 million to shore up Georgia prisons

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has released his recommendations for spending more adding $372 million in spending to strengthen Georgia prisons.

January 08, 2025
|
By:
  • Grant Blankenship

Tagged as: 

  • News

State prisons chief pitches case for funding boost

Georgia Department of Corrections officials began laying the groundwork Wednesday for an infusion of state funding to beef up staffing, replace aging infrastructure, and improve inmate health care.

November 14, 2024
|
By:
  • Dave Williams
Family members of people incarcerated in Georgia prisons and others protest against lax prison safety during a trip to the Georgia Capitol in 2023.

Tagged as: 

  • Law

The federal Department of Justice: 'deliberate indifference' to violence in Georgia prisons

After a yearslong investigation, the Department of Justice says violence in Georgia prisons is at a "crisis level."

October 01, 2024
|
By:
  • Sofi Gratas and
  • Grant Blankenship
Georgia Department of Corrections Director Tyrone Oliver testified at two Senate committees in August about the impact that understaffing, aging facilities, and a more dangerous inmate population is having on a rash of violent incidents at state prisons. Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder

Tagged as: 

  • Politics

Georgia prisons chief tells state lawmakers drones are smuggling deadly contraband into prisons

The Georgia Department of Corrections continues to struggle with an onslaught of drones that are being used to deliver contraband, such as drugs, cell phones, and potentially even the firearm used by an inmate of Smith State Prison to kill a food service worker in June.

August 30, 2024
|
By:
  • Stanley Dunlap
Lawsuit presser

Tagged as: 

  • News

A Georgia inmate died from heat exposure. Left with questions, his family is suing the state

According to the complaint, prison staff were warned that morning about the heat and told not to leave inmates outside too long, or without water.

July 26, 2024
|
By:
  • Sofi Gratas
Georgia State Prison in Reidsville was constructed in 1938 and closed in February 2022 largely due to outdated infrastructure. Before closing, it was the oldest prison in the state. Judson McCranie/Creative Commons

Tagged as: 

  • Politics

Advocates for inmates in Georgia state prisons want legislative study panel to spur reforms

A new Georgia House Special Subcommittee of Appropriations on State Prisons is taking another step in the marathon probe that is tackling statewide prison system problems, including homicides and suicides.

July 23, 2024
|
By:
  • Kate Verity
wellpath vs ga hearing

Tagged as: 

  • Health Care

Georgia prisons will soon have a new healthcare provider after contract was brought into question

This is the second time health care provider Wellpath’s lawsuit has been dismissed. 

June 26, 2024
|
By:
  • Sofi Gratas
Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Tyrone Oliver, second from left, in a 2023 meeting of the Board of Corrections. Oliver is one of the named defendants in a civil rights case flowing from Georgia's solitary confinement practices.

Tagged as: 

  • Law

In a scathing order, federal judge finds Georgia prison officials in contempt of their own promises

A federal judge has found leaders of the Georgia Department of Corrections in contempt of a 2019 agreement GDC made with attorneys for people incarcerated in the state’s most extreme solitary confinement unit.

April 23, 2024
|
By:
  • Grant Blankenship
A photo of Willie Pye among posters belonging to death penalty opponents.

Tagged as: 

  • Law

Before his execution, Willie Pye thanked Georgia prison staff in his last recorded words

A week after his execution, the Georgia Department of Corrections has released the final recorded statement of Willie Pye.

March 27, 2024
|
By:
  • Grant Blankenship
Isaac Lester carries a photo of his son, Isaac Lester, Jr., as he and other prison rights advocates march to the entrance of the Georgia State Capitol. Lester says his son died from an acute asthma attack because the prison where he was incarcerated did not have adequate health care.

Tagged as: 

  • News

Georgia prisons are full and understaffed. Families of the incarcerated want that message heard

There are now almost 51,000 people incarcerated by the state of Georgia — but too little staff and too much violence.

February 28, 2024
|
By:
  • Grant Blankenship and
  • Sofi Gratas
The former Georgia State Prison in Tattnall County.

Tagged as: 

  • Arts & Life

Georgia college students inside and outside of prison to edit a new literary journal

Georgia State University students both inside and outside of prison will soon begin working on a new literary journal featuring the work of incarcerated people.

April 11, 2023
|
By:
  • Grant Blankenship
Matthew Boyd sits with his fiancée, Amanda Hollowood, who has helped care for him since he was released from prison in December 2020.

Tagged as: 

  • News

Reentry programs to help former prisoners obtain health care are often underused

More than 600,000 people are released from prisons every year, many with costly health conditions but no medications, medical records, a health care provider, or insurance.

March 08, 2023
|
By:
  • Renuka Rayasam
Georgia State Prison

Tagged as: 

  • Politics

Georgia corrections prepares to spend $600M to replace older prisons

Georgia’s prison system could undergo a radical change with Gov. Brian Kemp’s proposal to spend $600 million to open two new prisons that would replace four outdated correctional facilities with the aim to make prisons safer and cut costs.

January 19, 2022
|
By:
  • Stanley Dunlap
Kristen Clarke US DOJ

Tagged as: 

  • Law

The justice department is investigating Georgia prisons: What is it looking for?

The DOJ will investigate whether “the state of Georgia adequately protects prisoners” in medium and high-level security prisons “from physical harm at the hands of other prisoners as required by the 8th Amendment.”

December 07, 2021
|
By:
  • Caleb Slinkard
Nerissa Wright's son, Dontavis Mintz, died for reasons she still doesn't know while jailed at Ware State Prison near Waycross. The US Department of Justice is investigating the Georgia Department of Corrections largely because of such deaths.

Tagged as: 

  • Law

A mother's son died in Georgia prison. The Department of Justice wonders if understaffing is why

The U.S. Department of Justice wants to know if understaffing in Georgia prisons is deadly. And a Georgia mother has questions about how — and why — her convicted son died at 24, just six years into his life sentence.

 

November 17, 2021
|
By:
  • Grant Blankenship
  • Load More

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