Truth in Sentencing Broke Parole. Georgia Is Paying the Price.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

In 1994, Georgia adopted the 85% truth-in-sentencing framework — a policy sold as tough, smart, and necessary for public safety.

What the public never saw was the long-term cost: a parole system stripped of purpose, prisons filled beyond capacity, and a level of violence so severe that the U.S. Department of Justice declared Georgia among the worst prison systems in America.

Our main investigation — Georgia’s $40 Billion Mistake — exposed the financial and human catastrophe created by these policies.

This article focuses on one of the central pillars of that failure: how Truth in Sentencing quietly dismantled parole and helped create the crisis Georgia now faces.

What Parole Was Designed to Do

Parole is not leniency — it is a public-safety tool.

It exists to:

• Reward growth, rehabilitation, and program completion

• Reduce recidivism by releasing people with supervision, not abruptly at the door

• Free up prison capacity for those who truly pose a danger

• Help older, low-risk people return to their families

• Incentivize good behavior inside prisons, reducing violence

When used correctly, parole lowers crime, lowers costs, and protects the public.

Georgia once used it that way. Then everything changed.

Truth in Sentencing Took a Sledgehammer to Parole

When Georgia embraced “85% truth in sentencing,” politicians claimed it would deter crime.

In reality, it:

• Delayed parole eligibility for most people

• Eliminated incentives that kept prisons safer

• Created massive backlogs of people stuck years beyond their earliest eligibility

• Increased the average age of the prison population

• Caused medical costs to explode

• Removed the safety valve that kept prisons flexible and manageable

As documented in Georgia’s $40 Billion Mistake, the state traded $82 million in federal incentive grants for a long-term bill approaching $40 billion in incarceration costs.

Georgia locked itself into an aging, overcrowded, violent system — all while disabling the one mechanism built to relieve pressure.

The Domino Effect: What Happens When Parole Stops Working

With eligibility pushed back and the parole board granting fewer releases, the system entered a collapse:

More time served → More violence

People with no hope of parole have nothing to lose. Assaults, extortion, and gang recruitment increase dramatically when incentives disappear.

Older population → Higher medical costs

Georgia now has one of the oldest prison populations in America. Chronic illness, disability, dialysis, cancer treatment — all skyrocketed after TIS.

Overcrowding → Constant lockdowns

With parole throttled, dorms filled well beyond safe levels. Chronic lockdowns became the norm, making rehabilitation impossible.

Collapsed staffing → Zero supervision

As revealed in our reporting on Dooly and Washington State Prisons, many housing units have no officer present for hours, sometimes entire shifts.

Parole hearings became symbolic

Thousands wait years between hearings, and decisions often lack transparency or written justification.

The result: violence climbed, costs exploded, and public safety declined.

The Myth of Safety: Truth in Sentencing Made Georgia Less Safe

TIS was sold as a crime-prevention policy.

But research — and Georgia’s own DOJ-confirmed reality — shows the opposite:

• Long, inflexible sentences do not deter crime

• People released at their max-out date have higher recidivism because they get no supervision

• Violence inside prisons increases when there are no incentives to complete programs

• Overcrowded prisons become training grounds for gangs, not correctional institutions

• States with strong parole systems see better outcomes at lower cost

Georgia didn’t get “tough on crime.”

Georgia got dumber, poorer, and vastly more dangerous.

The Fix Is Clear: Restore Parole as a Safety Valve

Georgia doesn’t need to experiment — the blueprint already exists.

The Georgia Legislature should adopt these reforms:

1. Presumptive Parole

If someone meets behavioral, programming, and risk criteria, release is presumed unless the board proves otherwise.

2. Mandatory Annual Hearings

No more 3–8 year gaps between reviews.

3. Written Decisions

People deserve to know why they were denied and what they must do to succeed.

4. Independent Oversight

A small board operating in complete secrecy cannot be trusted with decisions affecting thousands of families and billions of dollars.

5. Early Release for Elderly and Terminally Ill People

No public-safety benefit exists in keeping them locked in overcrowded dorms.

6. Align Parole With Evidence-Based Risk Assessment

Release decisions should be grounded in data, not politics.

These reforms form the core of our upcoming legislative proposal:

The Second Chance Parole Reform Act of 2026.

Georgia’s 2026 Legislative Session: A Second Chance for Real Parole Reform

Call to Action: Demand a Real Parole System in Georgia

Georgia’s prison crisis is no accident — it is the predictable result of policies that valued politics over people, money over safety, and punishment over reality.

Now it’s time to undo the damage.

Take action right now:

1. Use ImpactJustice.AI to contact decision-makers.

Tell the Georgia Parole Board, Governor Kemp, and your legislators that:

• Parole must be transparent

• Parole must be mandatory and reviewable

• Parole must serve public safety, not political talking points

1. Share this investigation.

Public pressure changes laws.

1. Support parole reform during the 2026 legislative session.

Georgia cannot afford another year of this failure.

Further Reading

To understand how Georgia arrived at this crisis — and what real reform looks like — explore these investigations, policy analyses, and companion reports:

Core GPS Investigations

• Georgia’s $40 Billion Mistake: How Bad Science and Federal Bribes Created a Constitutional Crisis
  The foundational investigation showing how TIS policies and federal incentives destabilized Georgia’s entire corrections system.
• Lethal Negligence: The Hidden Death Toll in Georgia’s Prisons
  Documents how violence, medical neglect, and misclassification are driving unprecedented prison deaths.
• Violence and Corruption Unleashed: The Truth About Washington State Prison
  Exposes chaotic conditions, gang control, and the collapse of staffing and oversight.
• Left for Dead: The Tragic Story of Jamie Shahan
  A breakdown of medical neglect and preventable death inside Georgia’s prisons.
• In and Out: The Lives Destroyed by the GDC
  Shows how neglect and systemic collapse create a revolving door of hospitalization, suffering, and death.
• Buried Truth: The Story of Roy Mason Morris
  A family’s fight for answers after GDC withheld death information for over a year.

Policy & Reform Context

• Fixing Georgia’s Parole System: The Ultimate Plan for Justice
  Explains how a modern parole system should function and proposes concrete legislative solutions.
• Why Georgia Must Create a Liberty Interest in Parole
  Makes the constitutional case for transparency, oversight, and due process in release decisions.
• Prisneyland: What Prison Should Be
  Explores Scandinavian and California-style normalization models that drastically reduce violence and recidivism.
• Georgia’s Cell Phone Crackdown: Security or Silence?
  Shows how communication restrictions harm safety and block transparency.

Authoritative External Sources

• U.S. DOJ Findings Report on Georgia Prisons (2024)
  The federal investigation documenting unconstitutional violence, medical neglect, and the collapse of basic operations.
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution Investigative Series on Georgia Prison Violence
  Independent reporting on homicides, protective custody failures, and staffing shortages.
• National Institute of Justice: Research on Deterrence & Sentencing
  Evidence showing why longer sentences do not reduce crime.