TORPY: Inhumanity rules at Georgia’s prisons. But does anyone care? The conditions in Georgia’s prison system are anything but humane. But the humans involved are convicted criminals, so that largely draws shrugs. In October, federal investigators released a report that “lays bare the horrific and inhumane conditions” inside Georgia’s prisons. “Our statewide investigation exposes long-standing, …
The Georgia Department of Corrections is receiving yet another slate of recommendations to improve its ability to operate secure and safe facilities. A Georgia Senate study committee said at its final meeting on Friday, Dec. 13, that it wants the General Assembly to raise correctional officer salaries, increase mental health services, audit vendor contracts and …
Georgia prison system engages in deception as crisis builds U.S. District Judge Marc T. Treadwell had seen enough. The defendants in a long-running civil case had come into his courtroom and repeatedly claimed to have lived up to the terms of a settlement when they clearly had not. He did not mince words. “The Court …
Former Gov. Zell Miller is most often remembered for the monumental HOPE Scholarship that sent more Georgia students to college at a minimal cost. A report on the school-to-prison pipeline released Tuesday contends Miller also sent more teens to prison as a result of changes to the juvenile justice system that remain in place today. …
ATLANTA — Georgia Department of Corrections officials began laying the groundwork Wednesday for an infusion of state funding to beef up staffing, replace aging infrastructure, and improve inmate health care. The state’s workforce of correctional officers plummeted during the COVID pandemic and has yet to fully recover, Georgia Commissioner of Corrections Tyrone Oliver told members …
As an ER doctor, I see it all in the prison-hospital-prison pipeline All we had was this empty hall spot. The 4-foot barrier separating the gurneys from the computer workstations had a few opened apple juice containers on top of it from the previous patient. I grabbed them and tossed them in the trash and …
Rare killings of women come to light as Georgia prisons set homicide record When a prisoner at Lee Arrendale State Prison was found dead in her cell this spring, Hallie Reed called her mother in a panic. Reed was in the same mental health unit as the dead woman, Sherry Joyce, and she told her …
Death behind bars: Here’s how Georgia prisoners are being killed Georgia prisons saw an unprecedented 38 homicides in 2023, topping the previous record of 31 the year before. This year’s death toll has already set another horrific record. At least 44 people have been homicide victims so far in 2024. Among the recent homicides is …
A Baldwin County jury found three former correctional officers guilty Wednesday in a trial that exposed a scheme to smuggle drugs and cellphones into a privately operated state prison. Natashia Seals, Tierra Harrison and Shanell Brown, who all worked at Riverbend Correctional Facility in Milledgeville, were found guilty of trading with inmates, making a false …
Georgia preps for fight as feds expose horrific prison conditions One by one they stepped to the podium in a spare room at the Richard Russell federal building in Atlanta, the Justice Department’s top civil rights official and all three of Georgia’s U.S. attorneys. They used different words and offered up their own disturbing examples, …