Georgia Builds Nation’s First Centralized Prison Surveillance System — at a Cost Exceeding $150 Million

Executive Summary

Georgia is constructing the Overwatch & Logistic (OWL) Unit Command Center — the first centralized prison surveillance system of its kind in the United States. No other state department of corrections operates anything comparable. Key findings for the General Assembly:

• $17.8 million has been appropriated specifically for the OWL Unit across three fiscal years, but the surveillance systems it commands — managed access, drone detection, cameras, body cameras, tablets, mail screening, and a Data Intelligence platform — represent well over $150 million in technology spending. This spending is embedded within a broader $600 million-plus corrections investment.
• The FY2026 budget directs 62 times more funding to technology and security ($50 million) than to vocational education ($805,000) — a disparity that raises serious questions about whether Georgia is investing in surveillance at the expense of rehabilitation.
• Ten distinct technology streams — including military-grade radar with a 15 km detection range, cell phone interdiction across all 35 operational state prisons, Axon’s Fusus real-time intelligence platform, body cameras, and digital mail scanning — converge into a single command hub.
• No civil liberties organization has publicly addressed the OWL system by name, despite its unprecedented scope. Funding was distributed across three fiscal years and multiple budget bills in a manner that obscures the total investment from legislative and public oversight.
• No other state operates a comparable system. Tennessee’s proposed equivalent remains at the proposal stage with a $5 million budget request — a fraction of Georgia’s investment.

Key Takeaway: Georgia is spending over $150 million on an unprecedented centralized prison surveillance system while allocating just $805,000 for vocational education — and the funding structure makes comprehensive legislative oversight extremely difficult.

Fiscal Impact

Direct OWL Appropriations

The OWL Unit itself accounts for approximately $17.8 million over three fiscal years, distributed across multiple budget bills:

Integrated Systems Feeding Into OWL

The command center’s value depends on the surveillance infrastructure it aggregates. Key appropriations:

• $84,661,607 (AFY2026) — Thermal cameras, CCTVs, perimeter security and lighting, statewide
• $35,027,675 (Amended FY2025) — Managed access and drone detection systems
• $7,224,150 (Amended FY2025) — Body cameras and tasers linked to OWL
• $1,950,000 (FY2026) — Annual operations for “Data Intelligence Advanced Integration” system — a program with no public description
• $4,114,511 (FY2026) — Digital Forensics Unit contract

Broader Budget Context

• $345.9 million — Total new GDC funding in Amended FY2025 alone
• $200 million — Total FY2026 corrections spending increase approved by the General Assembly, which was $75 million above the Governor’s recommendation
• 44% — GDC budget increase from FY2022 to FY2026
• $436.7 million — New Washington County (Davisboro) state prison incorporating OWL technology from the design phase, embedding surveillance costs into capital construction budgets

The Spending Disparity

The FY2026 budget allocated $50 million for technology and security improvements but only $805,000 for vocational education programs. This 62:1 ratio reflects a state that is investing massively in watching people in prison while investing minimally in preparing them for successful reentry — a policy choice with direct implications for recidivism and long-term public safety spending.

Key Takeaway: The total technology investment commanded by OWL exceeds $150 million, but the funding was distributed across three fiscal years and multiple budget bills, making it nearly impossible for any single appropriations vote to capture the system’s true cost.

Key Findings

1. First-of-Its-Kind System

An exhaustive search of all 50 state DOC systems and the Federal Bureau of Prisons found no operational equivalent to Georgia’s OWL Unit Command Center. The system integrates ten distinct technology streams into a unified platform: Officer Tablets, AeroDefense/AirWarden drone detection, Managed Access, Electronic Health Records, Taser 10, the OWL Unit itself, Mail Screening, Body Worn Cameras, a Digital Forensics Unit, and the Data Intelligence Advanced Integration system.

2. Continuous Statewide Monitoring

According to Representative Dale Washburn’s March 2025 legislative recap, OWL will “continuously monitor security cameras across the state, enabling a rapid response to disturbances.” At the April 3, 2025 Board of Corrections meeting, Commissioner Tyrone Oliver explicitly paired OWL with Fusus — Axon’s cloud-based platform that aggregates live camera feeds, sensor data, officer GPS locations, and AI-driven alerts into a single map-based interface.

3. Military-Grade Radar Deployed in Civilian Communities

The OWL Command Center incorporates GroundAware radar manufactured by Observation Without Limits, LLC — a joint venture between Dynetics (a wholly owned Leidos subsidiary) and Alabama Power Company (a Southern Company subsidiary). A single radar unit can surveil approximately 2,000 acres and detect drones, humans, and vehicles at ranges up to 15 km — extending well beyond prison perimeters into surrounding communities. As of September 2025, GDC was operating the AeroDefense/AirWarden drone detection system at 25 locations.

4. Three Obscure Vendors Control Cell Phone Interdiction

All 35 operational state prisons are covered by managed access cell phone interdiction, divided among three vendors:
– Trace-Tek LLC / ShawnTech Communications — 28 facilities. ShawnTech claims to hold 86% of FCC-issued CIS licenses nationwide.
– CellBlox / Securus Technologies — 4 facilities (Jimmy Autry, Macon, Smith, Telfair). Securus invested over $40 million in managed access acquisitions.
– Hawks Ear Communications LLC — 3 facilities (Hancock, Phillips, Valdosta). No public website or meaningful corporate disclosure exists.

5. Operation Skyhawk Provided the Justification

A Bureau of Justice Assistance grant (#2020-BX-0002) awarded GDC $420,216 for OWL 3D Radar at Baldwin State Prison. This federally seeded technology enabled Operation Skyhawk (March 2024), which resulted in 150 arrests including eight correctional officers, and confiscation of 87 drones, 273 cell phones, and 22 weapons. In 2019 alone, GDC recovered 3,200 cell phones in its prisons.

6. Funding Structure Obscures the Total Investment

OWL-related spending has been distributed across Amended FY2025 (HB 67), FY2026 (HB 68), and the AFY2026 Governor’s Budget in a manner that makes it nearly impossible to discern the system’s full scope from any single document. The $84.6 million camera infrastructure line item alone dwarfs the $17.8 million OWL command center budget — yet this camera infrastructure is what Fusus aggregates into OWL’s operational picture.

7. Civil Liberties Organizations Have Not Engaged

Despite the system’s unprecedented scope, the ACLU of Georgia, Southern Center for Human Rights, Southern Poverty Law Center, Georgia Justice Project, and Electronic Frontier Foundation have issued no statements, filed no legal challenges, and published no policy analyses about the integrated OWL command center. Georgia-specific advocacy organizations remain heavily focused on the ongoing DOJ investigation into conditions of confinement.

Key Takeaway: Georgia has built the nation’s first statewide centralized prison surveillance command center by distributing funding and construction across multiple budget cycles, effectively preventing comprehensive scrutiny by legislators, civil liberties organizations, or the public.

Comparable States

Georgia’s system is unique in integrating Axon Fusus — a platform that originated in municipal policing real-time crime centers — into a state corrections system at statewide scale. No other state has moved from facility-level security technology to centralized, statewide surveillance infrastructure.

Key Takeaway: No other state operates anything comparable; the closest analog (Tennessee’s proposed CSIC) remains at the proposal stage with a budget one-third the size of Georgia’s OWL-specific funding alone.

Policy Recommendations

1. Require Consolidated Reporting of OWL System Costs

The General Assembly should require GDC to submit a single, comprehensive accounting of all expenditures feeding into the OWL Command Center — including managed access, drone detection, cameras, body cameras, WiFi infrastructure, mail scanning, tablets, digital forensics, and the Data Intelligence Advanced Integration system — as a consolidated line item in annual budget requests. The current practice of distributing these costs across multiple appropriations prevents meaningful legislative oversight of a system exceeding $150 million.

2. Mandate a Civil Liberties Impact Assessment

Before the OWL Command Center becomes operational, the General Assembly should require an independent civil liberties impact assessment addressing:
– The scope of data collection, including whether radar and RF monitoring capture information about non-incarcerated community members within the 15 km detection range
– Data retention policies, access controls, and data-sharing agreements with other law enforcement agencies
– Fourth Amendment implications of community surveillance radiating from prison facilities into surrounding neighborhoods
– Privacy implications of permanent digital archiving of all mail correspondence

3. Establish Legislative Oversight of Corrections Surveillance Technology

Create a standing subcommittee or designate an existing committee to receive quarterly briefings on OWL system deployment, operational capabilities, data governance policies, and vendor contracts. The Data Intelligence Advanced Integration system — funded at $1,950,000 annually with no public description — exemplifies the need for legislative visibility into opaque surveillance programs.

4. Require Public Procurement Transparency for Managed Access Contracts

The specific vendor or vendors awarded the $35,027,675 managed access appropriation could not be identified in publicly available procurement records. The General Assembly should require GDC to publish contract awards, vendor identities, and pricing for all managed access and surveillance technology procurements through Team Georgia Marketplace.

5. Rebalance Investment Between Surveillance and Rehabilitation

The 62:1 spending ratio between technology/security ($50 million) and vocational education ($805,000) represents a policy choice that prioritizes watching people over preparing them for successful reentry. The General Assembly should consider whether this allocation serves long-term public safety goals or creates an unsustainable operational cost structure. Legislators should request a cost-benefit analysis comparing recidivism reduction outcomes from rehabilitation programming against the projected ongoing costs of the OWL surveillance infrastructure.

6. Require Community Notice for Radar Surveillance

The deployment of radar systems with a 15 km detection range at prison facilities across rural Georgia creates de facto community surveillance. The General Assembly should require GDC to provide public notice to communities within radar range and establish a process for community input before activating perimeter surveillance systems that monitor non-incarcerated residents.

Key Takeaway: The General Assembly should require consolidated cost reporting, independent civil liberties review, and procurement transparency for a surveillance system that was built incrementally to avoid comprehensive oversight.

Read the Source Document

Read the full GPS analysis: “Georgia’s Prison Panopticon Takes Shape Behind Closed Doors” (PDF)

Other Versions

This explainer is part of a multi-audience series on Georgia’s OWL surveillance system:

• Public Version — Plain-language overview for Georgia residents and families
• Media Version — Background, sourcing, and key questions for journalists
• Advocate Version — Detailed analysis for attorneys, civil liberties organizations, and policy advocates