Reports of poor conditions and treatment of inmates inside some of Georgia’s prisons is a humanitarian crisis according to the Southern Center for Human Rights, which calls for a Department of Justice investigation as suicide rates rise and recent large-scale riots have broken out.

Inmates are locked in cells for days on end and sick inmates are not getting adequate care while quarantined, the inmate advocates allege. 

Dr. Christine Montross says people with serious mental illnesses in the U.S. are far more likely to be incarcerated than to be treated in a psychiatric hospital. Her new book is Waiting for an Echo.