Greetings:
On October 3, a woman who entered custody at McRae Women’s Facility and was later moved to Pulaski State Prison was hospitalized. She died of complications of tuberculosis. Families had been warning for ten days. Now the Department says it will test exposed staff, the people held there, and anyone who asks to be screened.
At Valdosta State Prison, the Southern Center for Human Rights sent the Department a 14-page letter describing sewage on cell floors, temperatures above 100 degrees and many cells with no working lights. The group counts 25 people who died there between January 2025 and August 2026.
| 6 articles · 516 stories to legislators · 1,043 emails · 7 new advocates |
In the news
The Department of Corrections released its August 2026 death report: 21 people died in its custody that month. See the Georgia prison death registry
A woman held at Pulaski State Prison died of tuberculosis
WGXA and WSB-TV reported that a woman who entered custody at McRae Women’s Facility, and was later moved to Pulaski State Prison, died of complications of tuberculosis after being hospitalized on October 3. The Department told the outlets it will test exposed staff and people held there, and anyone who asks to be screened. Read more
A death at Macon State Prison is being investigated as a homicide
41NBC News and WGXA reported that the Department is investigating Wednesday’s death of a man held at Macon State Prison as a homicide. The cause of death is still undetermined, and the Department declined to say more while the investigation is open. Read more
Report on Valdosta State Prison: cells without lights, toilets or sinks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the Southern Center for Human Rights sent the Department a 14-page letter describing sewage on cell floors, temperatures above 100 degrees and many cells with no working lights. The group says 25 people died at the prison between January 2025 and August 2026. Read more
Two men in Georgia prisons get federal time for a phone scam
FOX 5 Atlanta reported that a federal judge in Albany sentenced two men held in Georgia prisons to 200 months and 120 months for a jury-duty phone scam run on contraband cellphones. Both sentences run consecutively to the time they were already serving. Read more
A legislative study looks at state-appointed appeal lawyers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on a legislative study of poor lawyering for people who can’t afford an attorney. In one case, the Georgia Supreme Court called a state-appointed lawyer’s errors on appeal “confounding and inexcusable.” Read more
A prison-system employee is charged at Central State Prison
13WMAZ reported that, according to arrest warrants, a prison-system accounting technician was arrested and charged with having sexual relations with a man held at Central State Prison and with illegally giving him food. These are charges, not findings of guilt. Read more
New from GPS
A mother’s account of TB at McRae and Pulaski, sent to every Georgia legislator
Every member of the Georgia General Assembly got a postcard and an email with a Tell My Story account from a mother whose daughter is at McRae Women’s Facility. She writes about tuberculosis at McRae and Pulaski, women refused masks, and women who tested positive sent back into their dorms. The same day, the Department confirmed to WSB-TV that a woman at Pulaski had died of TB. We’ve asked the Department of Public Health and the Department of Corrections for their records.
Prison food: the recipe against the tray
Our food page now sets a photo of a chicken leg quarter served at a Georgia state prison beside GDC’s own recipe card, which calls for a pound of raw chicken per person. It also explains what’s in the chicken bologna and franks: in USDA’s food database, most such products are made with mechanically separated chicken. The state budgeted $1.98 a day for food for its newest prison beds, about 66 cents a meal, and we’ve asked the Department for its own food-cost reports.
Printed habeas papers delivered to the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee
We had our paper for the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Criminal Post-Conviction Litigation and our fifty-state survey printed and bound. A set went to each of the 8 members’ offices at the Capitol.
See each prison from the air, from the 1970s to today
All 35 prison pages on gps.press now have a “Then and now” row of aerial photos of the same ground, from U.S. Geological Survey images of the 1970s and 1980s through 1993, 1999 and today. You can see what a prison looked like when it opened and what was built later.
The Become an Advocate page, our advocacy toolkits, the daily Take Action cards and the grievance builder now work in Spanish. People who sign up in Spanish get their emails in Spanish.
Search what people on Facebook are saying about Georgia’s prisons
GPS’s public data tools now let you search public Facebook posts and comments about Georgia’s prisons, each labeled as a first-hand account, an opinion, an idea for change or news retold. Names of people in custody are removed before anything is shared.
GPS Reports: short news videos on Facebook and Instagram
GPS Reports are short videos built from our published articles, with the source documents on screen. The two so far cover the padlocks state fire inspectors found on cell doors at Washington State Prison, and how a family gets medical information out of a Georgia prison.
Talk to Lighthouse: ask out loud, hear the answer
Lighthouse, GPS’s AI research assistant, now takes questions by voice and answers out loud. Tap the microphone on the gps.press home page, ask in your own words about a prison, a GDC policy or what’s happening this week, and it answers from our records. You can still type if you’d rather.
Upcoming events
Peaceful protest at Macon State Prison
Saturday, November 28 (Thanksgiving weekend), 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 for the people held there, and the public is welcome. GPS encourages you to go. Check the address: the prison isn’t in the city of Macon. It’s in Oglethorpe, about fifty miles southwest. Families, advocates, formerly incarcerated people, faith leaders and community groups are all invited. Bring a sign. The organizers ask everyone to stay in lawful public areas and off prison property, keep roads, gates and entrances clear, and not engage with anyone who tries to start an argument.
Peaceful protest at Ware State Prison
Saturday, December 19, Ware State Prison, 3620 North Harris Road, Waycross, GA 31503. The organizers haven’t announced the time yet; the earlier protests ran from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Everyone is welcome, and the same ground rules apply. The monthly series continues at Valdosta State Prison on Saturday, January 30.
What people are saying
These are people’s own accounts and views from public Facebook posts and comments. GPS has not verified them.
TB and medical care at Pulaski. Many posts in the Ga. Prisons Exposed Facebook group were about the tuberculosis death and conditions at Pulaski and McRae. A woman who says she spent about a year and a half at Pulaski wrote of “people having medical emergencies and no staff around to assist them.”
The death at Macon State Prison. Several people in the group shared news of the death and called on families to check on loved ones held there. Some posts claim details about what happened that GPS cannot confirm.
Food, weight and living conditions. People commenting on GPS’s posts described loved ones losing weight and asked where the food money goes. One wrote: “It’s true someone I know came home 30 pounds lighter and with mental health issues.”
Getting answers from the prison. Family members described calls going nowhere after transfers and injuries. A wife wrote in the group that staff “refuse to even tell me if my husband is still housed there.”
Legislators are writing back
Legislators replied 29 times this period to the letters advocates sent through the Advocacy Network. The letters are reaching real offices.
Join the GPS Advocacy Network
Signing up takes about two minutes. GPS finds your own state legislators, writes a personalized letter on a pressing prison issue each week, sends it to them, and sends you a copy of every letter. This period we sent 1,036 letters to legislators on advocates’ behalf, and 7 people joined.
The Georgia General Assembly’s 2027 session opens in January. The bills on prison conditions, parole and sentencing it will take up are being written now, and legislators answer to the voters in their districts. More advocates means more letters on their desks before the session starts.
Please forward this email to family and friends who care about someone inside, and send them the sign-up link.
Articles published
6 articles published, and 5 Spanish editions.
“There Was No Ordinary Day”: Rachelle Terry on Life Inside Pulaski State Prison
October 24
Eight questions about the dorms, medical care, staffing and classes, answered in her own words beside the state’s own records.
A Woman Died of Tuberculosis at Pulaski State Prison. Families Had Been Warning for Ten Days.
October 23
What the state has said, what families report from McRae and Pulaski, and what GDC’s own TB policy requires.
A Sentence That Isn’t Supposed to Be a Death Sentence
October 23
A mother shares her daughter’s fear of dying in a TB outbreak at McRae Women’s Facility.
“There Is No Good Time”: Georgia’s Prisons Are in Crisis, and the State Won’t Let People Earn Their Way Home
October 18
GDC says programs can shorten a sentence. The Parole Board’s handbook says Georgia has no good time. A law that would let people earn their way home.
Prison Phone Scams Are Adding Years to Georgia Sentences
October 17
Two men at Calhoun State Prison added 26 years and 8 months of federal time on top of their Georgia sentences.
Georgia Can’t Block Its Way Out of Prison Phone Scams. Let the Phones In, and Listen.
October 12
The case for registered, monitored phones inside, with lawyers excluded.
Postal Mailings this period
3 advocacy letters (2 sent certified).
We put 259 firsthand stories from inside directly into Georgia legislators’ hands this period, real accounts mailed as Tell My Story postcards. Each carries a pull-quote and a QR code to the full story.
We also emailed 234 of these firsthand stories, each printed in full, to Georgia legislators and 23 to reporters.
Have a story that belongs in a legislator’s hands? Share it at https://gps.press/tellmystory.
Emails sent on your behalf
1,043 emails sent.
Legislative: 1,036
Advocacy: 7
Open records requests
48 open records requests were made this period, to 6 different agencies or offices.
Explore GPS
Two corners of GPS worth a look:
Research Library
The documents, studies and public records behind GPS’s reporting, searchable, sourced and free to explore. Visit the Research Library
End the Warehouse
GPS’s case that Georgia runs warehouse prisons, built for storage rather than rehabilitation, and what it would take to change that. Read End the Warehouse
The GPS Team, accountability@gps.press