This is the category for the Tell My Story system.
Next month marks 26 years incarcerated for a 67-year-old man who maintains his innocence and has received only one disciplinary report. Despite certifications, work history, and family support, he faces his fifth parole hearing with little hope—never having met the board members who decide his fate.
I was 39 when my wife was murdered. Police built their case on coerced witness statements and an impossible timeline—claiming I was in two places at once. Twenty-six years later, despite witnesses recanting, new evidence, and a TV investigation confirming the timeline doesn’t work, I’m still fighting for freedom.
He went into the system a healthy young man. After seven months of ignored medical pleas, he is now a quadriplegic. Staff moved him away from the nurses’ station so they wouldn’t hear him calling for help. When they finally sent him to a hospital, he had double pneumonia, kidney cancer, and had lost all muscle function.
After 14 years in the Georgia Department of Corrections with 16 more to go, this father shares what keeps him going: the hope of reuniting with his now-teenage children. His story reveals staff retaliation, dangerous living conditions, and the daily struggle to stay out of trouble in an increasingly difficult system.
In 2008, a judge handed down 25 years without parole. What followed was entry into Georgia’s prison system through dehumanization at Jackson, placement among violent offenders despite no prior record, and the crushing realization that no amount of rehabilitation would reduce the sentence.
After 20 months of daily contact with her son in county jail, a mother describes the sudden silence that followed his transfer to Jackson prison three weeks ago. She shares her experience of living with fear, navigating impossible parole requirements, and preparing a room for a son she can no longer reach.
After eight years at Dooly State Prison in Georgia, what haunts most isn’t the violence—it’s the medical neglect. This is the story of watching a cellmate die from untreated cancer over two years, receiving only Tylenol until a lawyer’s threat finally prompted action—too late.
The Georgia Department of Corrections isn’t interested in rehabilitation—it’s creating a cycle that guarantees more crime and more victims. Taxpayers fund a system that returns people to communities more damaged and dangerous than when they entered, ultimately victimizing the public that pays for it.
At 69, after serving 45 years in Georgia prisons, he lives with prostate cancer, constant violence, and seven parole denials. In a cell with over 100 combined years of incarceration, he and two other elderly men face the daily reality of aging behind bars with no end in sight.
Sentenced to life in 1996, this narrator has witnessed Georgia’s prison system transform from a structured, program-rich environment to a dangerous, gang-dominated warehouse. Through budget cuts, short-staffing, and mass punishment policies, he explains why the system has become more violent—and why it’s not lifers causing the problems.