Greetings:
This week is about what the state writes down when someone dies in its custody — and what actually happened.
A 24-year-old died of thirst in a solitary cell after staff allegedly shut off his water for nine days; the state recorded it as a natural death, then quietly settled. Another man died in isolation three weeks after a toothache; the state’s records listed no cause at all. And Georgia’s four-year habeas deadline — waived for death row alone — doesn’t reject wrongful-conviction claims. It buries them unheard.
So this week we put the record where it can’t be ignored: a printed copy of our full habeas investigation mailed to all 251 members of the General Assembly, and 46 open records requests pressing the state for its own death-investigation and prison-food files. We don’t ask anyone to take our word for any of it. The receipts do the work.
| 10 articles · 75 stories to legislators · 662 emails · 5 new advocates |
Significant work this period
Mailed the full “Buried Alive” investigation to every Georgia legislator
We sent all 251 members of the Georgia General Assembly a printed copy of our investigation into O.C.G.A. § 9-14-42 — the four-year deadline that guts habeas corpus for everyone but death row — with a letter asking them to take it up when the session reconvenes.
Filed a wave of open records requests for death-investigation and prison-food records
This week we filed 46 open records requests with Georgia agencies — pressing the GBI for death-investigation files and the prison system for its own food-service cost and nutrition reports.
gps.press is now fully bilingual — every page and article in Spanish
Every page, every screen, and all 249 published articles now have a Spanish edition at gps.press/es/, with an EN | ES switcher on every page.
Articles published
The State Called His Death Natural. Reginald Jacobs Died of Thirst in a Prison Cell. (July 3) — Reginald Jacobs Jr., 24, died of dehydration in a solitary cell at Calhoun State Prison after a lawsuit says staff shut off his water and left him for nine days. The state recorded it as a natural death — then quietly settled. En español
A Toothache Should Not Be a Death Sentence: The Last Three Weeks of James Byrd (July 1) — James Byrd, 30, died in an Effingham County Prison isolation cell three weeks after a toothache. The state’s records listed no cause; records obtained by GPS reveal a $10 million negligence claim still unresolved four years later. En español
A Wrongful Conviction Story: One Man’s Journey Through Fraud, Coercion, and Systemic Failure (June 29) — A man spent eleven years in prison on two invalid convictions, and was repeatedly infected with Legionella from contaminated water, leading to permanent injury. En español
Buried Alive: The Four-Year Deadline That Killed Habeas Corpus in Georgia (June 26) — Georgia exempted death row from its four-year habeas deadline — the one group it gives lawyers and unlimited time. Everyone else gets four years, no attorney, and rationed law-library access. The deadline doesn’t reject wrongful-conviction claims. It buries them unheard. En español
The Felon Train: How Georgia Turns Citizens into Convicts (June 23) — One in seven adults in Georgia is a felon. How the system turns everyday people into lifelong convicts. En español
Mailings this period
Advocacy letters mailed: 252.
We also put 75 firsthand stories from inside directly into Georgia legislators’ hands — real accounts mailed as Tell My Story postcards, each carrying a pull-quote and a QR code to the full story, delivered as physical mail so lawmakers can’t look away from what’s happening in their prisons. Have a story that belongs in a legislator’s hands? Share it at gps.press/tellmystory.
Emails sent on your behalf
662 emails total: Legislative — 649; Advocacy — 13.
New advocates
5 new advocates joined GPS this period. Welcome.
Explore GPS
Two corners of GPS worth a look:
Become an Advocate
Sign up and GPS finds your legislators and sends them a personalized letter on a pressing prison issue every week — you get a copy of each one. Two minutes to join.
GPS Action Center
One page that turns concern into action — current campaigns, who to contact, and exactly what to say.
— The GPS Team — accountability@gps.press