Investigations & Analysis
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In-depth reporting on Georgia’s prison crisis — data-driven investigations, policy analysis, and the stories that need to be told.
Candidate Profile: Damita Bishop — District 61
Damita Bishop, co-founder of prison reform nonprofit FAIR and author of the Georgia Second Chance and Smart Justice Reform Act, has qualified as a Republican candidate for House District 61. GPS profiles her criminal justice reform platform and its alignment with both the End the Warehouse and Vision 2027 campaigns...
Dunked, Stacked, and Served: Why Georgia Prison Trays Are Making People Sick
Photographs from Johnson State Prison reveal contaminated food trays — the result of broken dishwashers, chemical-barrel washing, and 30 years of deferred maintenance. Three Georgia prisons have failed health inspections since 2022 while the state spends just $0.60 per meal...
The Quiet Purge: Calhoun Edition
In less than three months, Warden Kendric Jackson transferred 87 lifers out of Calhoun State Prison — 79% to close-security facilities. GPS data reveals a systematic population swap: stable, long-term inmates shipped to Level 5 prisons while younger short-timers arrive from those same facilities. No other medium-security prison in Georgia is doing anything close to this...
Monitor, Don’t Block: Georgia’s $50M Phone Fix Is Already Installed
Georgia's prison phone crackdown spent years failing to stop $1.5 million in scams at a single prison — before and after MAS arrived. The $50M blocking system is deaf by design. Georgia already has the hardware, the law, and the precedent to monitor instead. The Commissioner needs to make one decision...
Two Thin Gloves: Georgia Prison Took Ronald Allen’s Hands
Ronald Allen asked for insulated gloves before handling frozen beef patties at GDCP. He got two pairs of disposable ones. Eight weeks of medical neglect later — a doctor who never examined him — Allen lost his dominant hand. His lawsuit names 12 defendants including Commissioner Oliver...
$307.6M Verdict Against Prison Healthcare Giant Corizon
A federal jury awarded $307.6 million to a former Michigan prisoner whose healthcare contractor denied him a colostomy reversal surgery to save money. The verdict in Jackson v. Corizon Health puts the entire for-profit prison healthcare industry on notice — including companies operating in Georgia...
The Crackdown That’s Killing: Georgia’s $50M Phone War Fuels Record Prison Violence
Georgia spent $50 million deploying phone-blocking technology at 35 prisons. Homicides quadrupled. At every facility where GPS confirmed activation dates, violence erupted within weeks. The crackdown isn't stopping crime — it's destabilizing the power structures that kept people alive...
Blood on Blood: Georgia Statewide Prison Lockdown
On April 1, 2026, coordinated Blood-on-Blood gang violence erupted across Georgia's prison system. At least 12 prisons locked down, life flights dispatched to two facilities, stabbings at five. GPS has demanded gang separation for months. Arizona cut violence 50%. Georgia still refuses...
Mission Failure: Georgia Spends $1.8 Billion on Prisons and $52 Per Person on Rehabilitation
GDC spends $120M on surveillance and $2.6M on rehabilitation — a 46:1 ratio. That's $52 per person per year. Meanwhile, 12,000 people return to Georgia communities every year worse off than when they entered prison...
Who Is Responsible for Georgia Prison Violence?
Georgia corrections officials blame younger, more violent inmates for the prison violence crisis. The evidence — from the DOJ, academic research, and Georgia's own data — tells a very different story. Five systemic failures explain the violence. The inmates didn't create any of them...
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