Greetings:
A 1984 rule says the warden shall notify a prisoner’s family when he is badly hurt. Seven families since December 2024 found out from an intern, a contraband phone, other prisoners or Facebook.
The Department told the men at Autry there was no outbreak; the state had confirmed Legionella. Asked how the vendor was chosen for Georgia’s $85,585,244 purchase of 524 modular prison beds, GDC, DOAS and GSFIC each said the record wasn’t theirs, then GSFIC sent two undated pages saying it made a direct selection.
GPS filed a 45-page package with the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee, spoke at its Milledgeville meeting, published the Legionella outbreak sheets, re-sourced design capacity for all 35 state and private prisons to the state’s own documents, and sent briefs to nine newsrooms on forensic testimony and twelve on the Wilcox killing.
| 10 articles · 929 emails · 11 new advocates |
Significant work this period
The Warden Shall Notify: who Georgia’s prisons keep in the dark, and the law that lets them
GPS published a three-part accountability report. It sets the 1984 Board rule that says the warden shall notify a prisoner’s family of serious injury or death against families who learned from a hospital intern, a contraband phone, other prisoners or Facebook; the Autry and Wilcox Legionella record, from the state’s confirmation to the Department’s written denial and the refilled prison; and the statutes that make every inmate file a confidential state secret, including the auditor exception the Parole Board’s law carries and the Department of Corrections’ law does not.
GPS spoke at the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee’s September 18 meeting in Milledgeville
GPS filed a 45-page package with the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee ahead of its September 18 meeting, including a committee paper on the four-year habeas deadline, a revised supporting paper, a model bill, and a note on other issues. It traveled with a 63-page fifty-state review answering fifteen questions for every state on post-conviction deadlines, counsel, the trial record and capital counsel, 734 of its 750 cells verified against the statute, rule or decision behind each answer. GPS spoke to the committee for a second time in Milledgeville and transcribed the full three-hour, seventeen-minute meeting for its research corpus.
Georgia legislators heard from constituents on the four-year habeas deadline
455 active subscribers wrote to their own state legislators about the four-year deadline Georgia placed on habeas corpus petitions in 2004, and the bill that would repeal it. Each letter is written from the sender’s own situation and checked against the record before it goes.
Georgia released two prison Legionella outbreak sheets, and eleven newsrooms got the file
The Georgia Department of Public Health released two Outbreak Report summary sheets covering Legionella at a South Georgia prison, after closing the request twice with no exemption cited and referring a public-health question to the corrections department. It took four weeks and a complaint to the Attorney General’s Open Government Mediation Program. The sheets are now published in full alongside the GPS reporting, in English and Spanish, and a documented brief went to eleven newsrooms.
Georgia’s prison design capacities re-sourced to the State’s own documents
GPS re-sourced the original design capacity of Georgia’s 35 state and private prisons to the State’s own construction-era budget reports and Department of Corrections annual reports, and corrected eleven figures that had rested on web sources or on arithmetic. The prison data page now shows each figure beside the document it came from, marks rows where the State has documented no design figure, and keeps design capacity separate from higher operating numbers. It also publishes the staffing figures the State wrote into its budgets when these prisons opened, set against the Department’s August 2026 roster: Hays was authorized 399 positions and now has 133 people on its roster, and six of the seven prisons hold two to three times the population they were designed for.
Nine newsrooms briefed on the forensic evidence Georgia never went back to review
GPS published its reporting on three kinds of forensic testimony the FBI has disowned, and on what Georgia’s crime laboratory did with the FBI’s 2015 hair-comparison admission, then sent a documented brief to nine newsrooms. The brief sets out what the GBI’s own file shows, names the open-records request the documents came from, and lists the records a reporter can request independently.
Twelve Georgia newsrooms briefed on the Wilcox killing
After a man was killed at Wilcox State Prison, GPS published its reporting and sent a documented brief to twelve newsrooms, including every outlet already covering the death. The brief sets out what the state’s own tactical-squad and media policies do and don’t require, and lists the records any reporter can request. GPS asked the Department for comment first.
Upcoming events
Peaceful protest at Smith State Prison
Saturday, 24 October 2026, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Smith State Prison, 9676 Hwy 301 North, Glennville, GA 30427. Worldwide Chain Breakers is holding a peaceful protest outside Smith State Prison in Glennville, and everyone is welcome to attend. GPS encourages you to go. Organisers are standing for the people held there and asking for humanity, accountability, transparency, safety, humane conditions, meaningful rehabilitation, fair parole consideration and basic dignity. Ground rules for the day: stay in lawful public areas and off prison property, don’t block roads, gates, driveways, entrances or emergency vehicles, no violence or threats, don’t confront or harass staff, visitors or law enforcement, follow lawful instructions, and if anyone tries to provoke an argument, don’t engage. Bring a sign. Families, advocates, formerly incarcerated people, faith leaders, community members and organisations are all welcome. This is one of a monthly series, a different prison each month. The next one after this is at Macon State Prison on Saturday, 28 November.
Peaceful protest at Macon State Prison
Saturday, 28 November 2026, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Macon State Prison, 2728 Hwy 49 South, Oglethorpe, GA 31068. Worldwide Chain Breakers is holding a peaceful protest outside Macon State Prison, and everyone is welcome to attend. GPS encourages you to go. Macon State Prison isn’t in the city of Macon; it’s in Oglethorpe, in Macon County, about fifty miles southwest of the city, so put 2728 Hwy 49 South, Oglethorpe into your directions. The date is the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. Organisers are standing for the people held there and asking for humanity, accountability, transparency, safety, humane conditions, meaningful rehabilitation, fair parole consideration and basic dignity. Ground rules are the same as the Smith event: stay in lawful public areas and off prison property, don’t block roads or gates, no violence or threats, don’t confront or harass staff, visitors or law enforcement, follow lawful instructions, and if anyone tries to provoke an argument, don’t engage. Bring a sign. Families, advocates, formerly incarcerated people, faith leaders, community members and organisations are all welcome.
Articles published
10 articles published, and 9 Spanish editions.
The Warden Shall Notify: Who Georgia’s Prisons Keep in the Dark, and the Law That Lets Them
19 September 2026
A 1984 rule says the warden shall notify a prisoner’s family when he is badly hurt. Seven families since December 2024 found out from an intern, a contraband phone, other prisoners or Facebook. The Department told the men at Autry there was no outbreak. And the statute that makes every inmate file a state secret is missing the one sentence the Parole Board’s has.
Direct Selection: The Two-Page Note Behind Georgia’s $85,585,244 Prison Purchase
17 September 2026
Georgia paid $85,585,244 for 524 modular prison beds. Asked how the vendor was chosen, GDC, DOAS and GSFIC each said the record wasn’t theirs. Then GSFIC sent two undated pages: it read GDC’s information request and “made a direct selection.”
10 Lessons from How to Win Friends and Influence People: Communication That Actually Works
13 September 2026
Dale Carnegie opened his book with prisoners, pointing out that almost nobody in Sing Sing thought they were a bad person, and that criticism therefore almost never works on anyone. Ten lessons on persuasion, apology, and listening, plus an honest look at where charm runs out inside.
Nobody Told Them: Georgia Convicted People on Science the FBI Disowned, Then Shut the Courthouse Door
12 September 2026
The FBI has disowned three kinds of forensic testimony and sent letters each time. Georgia’s crime lab read the 2015 hair admission, measured its own error rate at one in twenty, and told no one. The one court door that opened last year is one-shot. The other is closed by the four-year habeas deadline.
“Contained to One Dorm”: The Squad Left Wilcox at Noon. The Coroner Was Called at Two.
8 September 2026
A tactical squad spent five hours turning out F2 dorm at Wilcox State Prison, then left at noon. The men were let out to shower. By two the coroner was called. GDC’s own policies have four pages on the squad and no page for the hour after.
What the Videos Don’t Show
7 September 2026
The prison videos on your feed aren’t proof that the men in them can’t be reached. Federal investigators read the same clips as proof of what a housing unit becomes when the state leaves it: half the posts empty, gangs deciding who sleeps where, drugs over a fence nobody watches. And the public already believes prisons don’t fix anyone.
The Amplifier: How Five Unelected Officials Turned Georgia’s Prisons Into a Constitutional Crisis
7 September 2026
Georgia’s legislature wrote the sentences. Five appointees nobody elected decided how much of them people serve, and three times they turned the dial up, once by wiring their floor to judges’ sentences so it rises on its own. The result is a prison system the DOJ says is unconstitutional.
When Nobody Comes: Surviving Georgia’s Prisons
6 September 2026
Nine contributors describe what daily survival requires inside Georgia custody: boots worn into the shower, lunch carried back from breakfast, a fire alarm ringing into an empty post, and medication missed behind a locked door. Much of what keeps people alive is done by other prisoners.
Twenty Percent of the Jail
5 September 2026
Georgia now reimburses rural county jails when more than 20 percent of their capacity is filled by people charged with delivering contraband to state prisons. Two sheriffs are in open revolt over the cost. Every dollar the state spends chases the supply chain it can see from a patrol car.
10 Lessons from Frederick Douglass: How a Man Forbidden to Read Taught Himself Anyway
5 September 2026
Frederick Douglass was legally forbidden to read. He traded bread for lessons, learned his letters off shipyard timber, and taught himself to write in the margins of a discarded copybook. Ten lessons from the man who wrote down exactly how he did it, and why the people in charge tried so hard to stop him.
Emails sent on your behalf
929 emails sent on your behalf this period: 918 legislative, 11 advocacy.
Open records requests
572 open records requests were made this period, to 7 different agencies or offices.
New advocates
11 new advocates joined GPS this period.
Explore GPS
Two corners of GPS worth a look:
Tell My Story
Firsthand accounts from people living inside Georgia prisons, in their own words. Read them, and share one if you have it.
Find Your Legislator
Look up exactly who represents you under the Gold Dome and how to reach them, a practical way to make your voice count on prison policy.
The GPS Team, accountability@gps.press