BlUF: This Must Stop

Illustration for the story: BlUF: This Must Stop

A mother says she has paid over $2,000 since June to protect her son at Wheeler Correctional Facility, after he told her he would be harmed if she didn’t send money via Cash App. She demands the extortion stop.

Georgia Parole Board Rejects Constitution

Editorial cartoon: a parole board official with scissors prepares to cut the line "The Board may parole anyone 62 or older" out of a scroll labeled Georgia Constitution, saying "Never heard of it," while an elderly prisoner stands at a barred window. Caption: 32 years. Zero paroles.

In 1994, 81% of Georgia voters gave the parole board constitutional authority to parole anyone 62 or older — an exception written into the same amendment that created life without parole. Thirty-two years later, the Board has no rule, no process, and no record of ever using it once.

Five Hours in a Shower Stall

Georgia’s own death investigators recorded what happened to four men at Washington State Prison. A man locked alone in a shower stall to cool down. A cell unchecked for fourteen hours. A tray at 10:19 nobody rose for. In each case the response to a medical crisis was a placement, not treatment.

Eight Questions for the Next Governor

Illustration of a hand placing a ballot into a ballot box with a capitol dome and autumn leaves in the background

On July 25 we sent the same eight questions on Georgia’s prison crisis to both nominees for governor. One campaign answered all eight in writing. The other has not responded. We publish the answers we received, without endorsement, and the same offer stands.

Georgia’s Family-Package Monopoly | GPS

Georgia ended direct family packages and funneled families to one vendor: Union Supply. Single T-shirts at $4.55–$9.25 plus shipping and tax, packed by incarcerated women at Arrendale — and the state has never disclosed its cut.

GCI: Georgia’s $326M No-Bid, $0-Wage Corp | GPS

Georgia Correctional Industries took $325.7M from GDC over eight years — a mandatory, no-bid “preferred source” running farms and factories on $0 wages. Its books don’t show the food split, its workforce is also its consumer, and the law wrote it that way.