Research explainers formatted for journalists and media outlets.
Georgia forces 80% of its 47,000 incarcerated people to work for $0 or pennies per hour, generating $164M+ annually — a system scholars trace directly to the convict leasing era.
Every recent Georgia exoneration occurred beyond the state’s 4-year habeas corpus deadline. Under strict application of the law, none would have been possible.
Families of incarcerated people bear a $350 billion annual burden — nearly 4x taxpayer prison spending — through inflated commissary prices, phone kickbacks, and fees in 48 states.
GPS analysis maps the legal strategy behind the largest court-ordered prison population reduction in U.S. history and identifies direct parallels to Georgia’s current prison crisis.
More than 5,000 deaths in U.S. custody went uncounted. GPS research reveals Georgia misclassified at least 44 deaths. Only one state reports complete data.
Drug overdose deaths in Georgia prisons surged 2,350% while GDC concealed at least 44 deaths through systematic misclassification. A new GPS report documents the crisis.
Only 3 of Georgia’s 159 counties have Conviction Integrity Units. A GPS analysis reveals how legal barriers close the courthouse door on wrongful conviction claims.
An estimated 2,500 innocent people are imprisoned in Georgia. A GPS analysis documents 610 years of wrongful imprisonment, systemic racial disparities, and the state failures driving wrongful convictions.
Georgia forces incarcerated people to work for zero pay, then charges their families markups up to 1,150% on necessities. GPS maps the full extraction system.
142 people killed. A five-fold surge in homicides. Georgia’s broken prison classification system places people in the wrong facilities — and the DOJ calls it among the worst it has ever seen.