On August 25, Georgia Prisoners’ Speak sent the same five questions to both nominees for Attorney General: Republican state Sen. Brian Strickland and Democratic state Rep. Tanya Miller. The questions covered the Justice Department’s 2024 findings on Georgia’s prisons, deaths in state custody, the Open Records Act, independent oversight of the prison system, and the State’s use of procedural defenses in habeas corpus cases.
We told both candidates that written answers received by Friday, September 25 would be published in full, unedited and side by side, and that a decision not to answer would be noted without comment. Word limits were theirs to choose.
Sen. Strickland answered by email on September 3. No answers were received from Rep. Miller by the closing date.
The answers below are reproduced exactly as they were sent, including any typing errors. Candidates appear in alphabetical order. The GDC Accountability Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization and doesn’t support or oppose candidates for any office.
Question 1: The Justice Department’s findings
On October 1, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice issued findings concluding that conditions in Georgia’s prisons violate the Eighth Amendment. If the United States files, or moves toward, a civil action based on those findings during your term, how would your office approach it? In particular: would your office be open to resolving such an action through a negotiated agreement, such as a consent decree, and if so, under what conditions? If not, why not? 1
Tanya Miller (D)
No answers were received by the closing date.
Brian Strickland (R)
It is difficult to answer this with more detail until I am in the office and have the expertise on where things stand on this matter right now. That said, I would generally be open to working with the Department of Justice to resolve any outstanding matter that still exists when I am in office. It is essential that our state is protecting the constitutional rights of all people in our care.
Question 2: Deaths in state custody
Georgia reported 310 homicides in state and local custody to the U.S. Department of Justice for fiscal years 2020 through 2024, and the Department of Corrections has not routinely disclosed causes of death since the end of 2021. What role, if any, should the Attorney General’s office play in ensuring deaths in state custody are explained to the public? 2
Tanya Miller (D)
No answers were received by the closing date.
Brian Strickland (R)
It is important that the public knows exactly what led to any death of an inmate in our care. A family especially has a right to know this information. As Attorney General, I will use my authority to make sure any death is properly investigated, and that the public is provided the results of this investigation.
Question 3: The Open Records Act
The Attorney General’s office both advises state agencies on the Open Records Act and may enforce it. Requesters, including this organization, routinely receive hourly fee estimates agencies decline to bound, and denials of electronic data that O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71(f) appears to require agencies to produce. How would your office approach Open Records Act compliance by state agencies, and the production of electronic data in particular?
Tanya Miller (D)
No answers were received by the closing date.
Brian Strickland (R)
Open records are essential. I will make certain that every local government and agency of the state fully complies with our open records laws. I will also work on creating standardized procedures for the production of open records in our state so anyone that wants to obtain records will encounter a process that is easy to navigate and predicable. It may be necessary to work with the legislature to make changes to our current laws to improve this process but I am committed to improving the process that we have in place now.
Question 4: Independent oversight
Georgia has no independent oversight body for its prison system. Would you support or oppose the creation of one, and why?
Tanya Miller (D)
No answers were received by the closing date.
Brian Strickland (R)
Our prison system should be overseen now by the Department of Corrections, with the assistance of the Attorney General’s office. When I am Attorney General, if I find that the current system does not provide adequate oversight, I will support additional safeguards.
Question 5: Procedural defenses in habeas cases
The Attorney General’s office represents the State in habeas corpus litigation. Where a person’s constitutional claim has never been decided on the merits by any court, what is your view of the office’s use of procedural defenses, filing deadlines and defaults, to prevent a merits ruling?
Tanya Miller (D)
No answers were received by the closing date.
Brian Strickland (R)
It is best that these cases are heard on the merits, though there is still a need in making certain that proper procedures are followed so these cases can move through the system. As Attorney General, I will work to make sure there are resources in place for the individuals filing these matters to comply with the procedures that need to be followed but also work hard to make certain that my office is doing every thing in our power to have these matters properly heard.
Call to Action: What You Can Do
Share the candidates' answers with someone who votes in Georgia.
Spread the Word: It Takes One Click
Awareness without action changes nothing. Here’s how you can help push for accountability and real reform:
Vote: Georgia’s general election is on November 3, 2026. See every statewide race, including Attorney General, at https://gps.press/2026-statewide-races/.
Join the GPS Advocacy Network: Sign up at https://gps.press/become-an-advocate/ and we’ll advocate on your behalf every week. GPS identifies your state legislators, crafts personalized letters on the most pressing prison issues, and sends them directly to the representatives who represent you. You receive a copy of every letter. It takes two minutes to sign up, and we handle the rest.
Send a 60-Second Message: Pick an issue, get a ready-to-edit message with the verified facts already in it, and email your state House representative and senator directly from your own inbox at https://gps.press/send-a-message/. No signup, nothing stored. It takes about a minute.
Tell My Story: Are you or a loved one affected by Georgia’s prison system? GPS publishes first-person accounts from incarcerated people and their families. Submit your story at https://gps.press/category/tellmystory/ and help the world understand what’s really happening behind the walls.
Contact Your Representatives: Your state legislators control GDC’s budget, oversight, and the laws that created these failures. Find your Georgia legislators at https://gps.press/find-your-legislator/ or call Governor Kemp at (404) 656-1776 or the GDC Commissioner at (478) 992-5246.
Demand Media Coverage: Contact newsrooms at the AJC, local TV stations, and national criminal justice outlets. More coverage means more pressure.
Amplify on Social Media: Share this article and tag @GovKemp, @GDC_Georgia, and your local representatives. Use #GAPrisons, #PrisonReform, #GeorgiaPrisonerSpeak.
Message the Board of Corrections: The citizen board that oversees the GDC publishes no contact details for its members. GPS built the missing front door: pick a board member and a policy message and send it from your own email at https://gps.press/write-the-board/.
File Public Records Requests: Georgia’s Open Records Act gives every citizen the right to request incident reports, death records, staffing data, medical logs, and financial documents. Start with the GPS Action Toolkits at https://gps.press/toolkits/. The Open Records Toolkit walks you through what to ask for, gives you ready-to-file request templates, and tells you what to do when the state says no. File directly with GDC at https://georgiadcor.govqa.us/WEBAPP/_rs/SupportHome.aspx.
Attend Public Meetings: The Georgia Board of Corrections and legislative committees hold public meetings. Your presence is noticed.
Contact the Department of Justice: File civil rights complaints at https://civilrights.justice.gov. Federal oversight has forced abusive systems to change before.
Support Organizations Doing This Work: Donate to or volunteer with Georgia-based prison reform groups fighting for change on the ground.
Contact GPS: If you have information about conditions inside Georgia’s prisons, reach us securely at GPS.press.
Further Reading
Eight Questions for the Next Governor
The questionnaire GPS sent to both nominees for governor in July, and the answers we received.
The Empty Column: Georgia Won’t Say How Prisoners Die
Georgia’s 2024 prison mortality report has a column headed “Cause of Death,” and it’s empty for all 330 people.
The Sleeping Giants: Two Georgia Statutes That Could Unlock Post-Conviction Justice
Two Georgia statutes already on the books that could open the courthouse door if anyone enforced them.
How the four-year habeas deadline closes the door on people convicted with forensic testimony the FBI has disowned.
The Amplifier: How Five Unelected Officials Turned Georgia’s Prisons Into a Constitutional Crisis
How the Parole Board’s own rules helped build the prison system the Justice Department found unconstitutional.
GPS Intelligence System
The GPS Intelligence System maintains living research profiles that aggregate data, news, settlements, and analysis on Georgia’s prisons and the issues defining them. The profiles below provide deeper context for the issues raised in this article:
What’s known about deaths in Georgia’s prisons, and what the State hasn’t disclosed.
The investigations, audits and outside reviews of Georgia’s prison system, including the 2024 Justice Department findings.
Explore the Data
GPS makes GDC statistics accessible to the public through several resources:
- GPS Statistics Portal: Interactive dashboards translating complex GDC reports into accessible formats, updated within days of official releases.
- GPS Lighthouse AI: Ask questions about Georgia’s prison system and get answers drawn from GPS’s investigative archive and data analysis.
- GPS llms.txt: A single machine-readable index of every GPS data resource, published using the open llms.txt standard. Point any AI tool (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity) at this URL and the model can navigate to facility profiles, intelligence briefs, mortality records, statistics, and the full investigative archive, with no other configuration needed. It is the fastest way to ground an AI conversation in verified GPS data.
- GPS Public MCP Server: For AI tools that support the Model Context Protocol (Claude, ChatGPT, and others), connect directly to GPS’s data: read-only tools covering population, facilities, mortality, parole, the Georgia Code, settlements, and more. Every answer arrives with its source link and citation built in.
For a walkthrough of how to put these resources to work with AI, see How to Use GPS Data with AI Tools: a step-by-step guide for researchers, advocates, families, and journalists analyzing Georgia prison conditions, statistics, and policy with tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
Contact GPS at media@gps.press for access to underlying datasets used in this analysis.
About Georgia Prisoners’ Speak (GPS)
Georgia Prisoners’ Speak (GPS) is a nonprofit investigative newsroom built in partnership with incarcerated reporters, families, advocates, and data analysts. Operating independently from the Georgia Department of Corrections, GPS documents the truth the state refuses to acknowledge: extreme violence, fatal medical neglect, gang-controlled dorms, collapsed staffing, fraudulent reporting practices, and unconstitutional conditions across Georgia’s prisons.
Through confidential reporting channels, secure communication, evidence verification, public-records requests, legislative research, and professional investigative standards, GPS provides the transparency the system lacks. Our mission is to expose abuses, protect incarcerated people, support families, and push Georgia toward meaningful reform based on human rights, evidence, and public accountability.
Every article is part of a larger fight: to end the silence, reveal the truth, and demand justice.
The Architecture Is the Evidence
Across the 32 state prisons whose original design figures we hold, Georgia built for 15,737. They hold 34,019 — 216% of design capacity.
Dorms tripled. Cells double- and triple-bunked. Medical, kitchens, libraries — unchanged. Every facility, every design figure, every source.
See the receipts →- U.S. Department of Justice Investigation of Georgia Prisons Oct 1 2024, https://www.justice.gov/crt/media/1371406/dl [↩]
- Bureau of Justice Assistance Death in Custody Reporting Act reported data, https://bja.ojp.gov/program/dcra/reported-data [↩]