Featured Article Archives

Mass Incarceration Was Not an Accident

Mass incarceration was not a response to crime—it was a political project. From the War on Drugs to Iran–Contra, the federal government made deliberate choices that devastated communities. Georgia inherited this framework and intensified it. This is the history we must confront.

Georgia’s 2026 Candidates on Prison and Parole Reform

Georgia voters will choose a new Governor and Lieutenant Governor in 2026 amid a prison crisis. GPS surveyed candidates on parole reform, prison conditions, and sentencing policy. Only two candidates—Jake Olinger and Josh McLaurin—have detailed positions. Here’s what we found.

The Deterrence Myth: Georgia’s Harsh Sentencing Backfired

Georgia’s harsh sentencing experiment failed to deter crime and fueled a deadly prison crisis. Here’s why the deterrence myth collapsed — and what actually works.

The Human Cost of Georgia’s Prison Extortion

Georgia families are spending hundreds each month on commissary, phone calls, and visitation just to keep their loved ones alive. These firsthand testimonies reveal the hidden human cost of Georgia’s predatory prison economy.

When Innocence Isn’t Enough: How Georgia’s System Turns Pretrial Detention Into a Machine for Guilty Pleas

Sandeep Bharadia’s exoneration after 20 years exposes Georgia’s deeper crisis: most wrongful convictions never reach trial. Dangerous jails, unaffordable bail, and prosecutorial overcharging turn pretrial detention into a machine that coerces guilty pleas—even from the innocent.

Forced Criminality: Inside Georgia’s Prison Violence Factory

The DOJ documented 142 homicides in Georgia prisons from 2018-2023. GPS documented 100 homicides in 2024 alone—nearly triple the previous year.

This isn’t random violence. It’s the inevitable result of deliberate GDC policy:
→ Zero wages for prisoner labor
→ 1,200 calories/day (half what’s needed)
→ Ramen marked up 350% to $0.90
→ Ibuprofen marked up 1,076% to $4.00

The equation is impossible: You cannot earn money. The food provided cannot sustain life. The prices are unaffordable.

What would you do?

Kitchen workers steal food to survive. Prisoners make alcohol for $150/bottle. Gangs charge $0.90 for shower access. Underground “medics” treat stab wounds to hide violence from guards.

And GDC policy criminalizes ALL of it – even trading soup for clean laundry.

This is forced criminality: survival strategies the state makes mandatory, then punishes.

Read how Georgia’s zero-wage policy creates the violence it claims to address.

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

Empty Georgia parole board hearing room symbolizing the collapse of parole under truth in sentencing policies.

Parole was built to manage risk and restore lives. In Georgia, “85% truth in sentencing” turned that safety valve into a death sentence.

Georgia’s $40 Billion Mistake: How Bad Science and Federal Bribes Created a Constitutional Crisis

Georgia prison facility with statistics overlay showing 100 homicides and $40 billion spent

Georgia spent $40 billion on Truth in Sentencing laws that academic research proves make prisons deadlier and increase crime. The policies—rooted in the discredited “superpredator” myth and response to lead poisoning the government allowed for 70 years—created what the DOJ calls “among the most severe constitutional violations” nationwide. One hundred homicides occurred in Georgia prisons in 2024 alone. California and Mississippi reformed similar laws and achieved better safety outcomes at lower cost. The evidence for reform is overwhelming. The question is whether Georgia will act.

America’s Hidden Crime: How the Government Poisoned a Generation, Then Imprisoned Them for It

INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
They called them “superpredators.” Remorseless. Without conscience. Politicians predicted 30,000 new teenage killers by 2000 and passed laws imprisoning millions.
They were catastrophically wrong. Crime collapsed instead.

But there’s a darker truth: The “crime epidemic” was caused by something the government knowingly allowed for 70 years—lead poisoning from gasoline.
Between 1923-1996, 8 million tons of lead were pumped into the environment, systematically poisoning children’s developing brains. By 1980, 88% of American children had neurotoxic lead levels.
Twenty years later, those brain-damaged children became the “crime wave.”

Instead of addressing the environmental poisoning, the government:
• Blamed “moral poverty”
• Imprisoned 2.2 million people
• Spent $40+ billion on corrections
• Targeted Black communities disproportionately affected by lead exposure

Our investigation reveals:
✓ 9 countries show identical lead-crime patterns
✓ Brain scans prove lead causes exact damage linked to violent behavior
✓ Academic studies show “tough on crime” policies made things WORSE
✓ Crime declined because we stopped poisoning kids—not because of mass incarceration
This is the story of America’s greatest environmental crime—and the catastrophic misdiagnosis that followed.

Read the full investigation

The Poverty-to-Prison Pipeline: How Georgia Criminalizes Being Poor

Georgia has the world’s highest incarceration rate – achieved by systematically criminalizing poverty through cash bail, court fines, and predatory fees.

Boys from Georgia’s poorest families face 20x higher incarceration rates than those from middle and upper-class households.