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A proposed class-action lawsuit filed in March 2026 alleges that the Tennessee Department of Correction violated the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause by confiscating tablets from incarcerated people and failing to transfer purchased digital content—including music, emails, and photographs—after switching tablet vendors from JPay to ViaPath. The complaint states that under the new contract, TDOC receives ...

A new article from The Appeal and Truthout reports that incarcerated transgender people face heightened risks of violence and discrimination, with prison policies often exacerbating these dangers. The piece highlights the case of Gia Valentina, a transgender woman in New Jersey who was denied transfer to a women’s prison after undergoing gender-affirming surgery, leaving her ...

A federal judge ruled that conditions on the Farm Line at Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola), where incarcerated workers are forced to labor in extreme heat for as little as zero to four cents an hour, violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. However, citing a recent Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision ...

A recent article highlights the push for Adrienne’s Act in California, which would mandate cooling systems and heat-relief protocols in state prisons following the 2024 heat-related death of incarcerated woman Adrienne Boulware. The bill, which has passed committee stages, would require the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to implement plans for cooled living quarters, ...

Voices Donald Tong / Pexels Nick Hacheney, Tomas KeenMay 20, 2025 Share Copy Link Email Facebook Twitter Bluesky WhatsApp Reddit LinkedIn Jerry stormed into his cell, shaking with rage. He threw his coat and gloves in a pile on his bunk and looked around for something to smash. It’s futile, and he knows it. The ...

A new Justice Department Inspector General report found that the federal Bureau of Prisons violated its own rules by excessively restraining prisoners, including cases where an individual died after being shackled for over two days and another required a limb amputation due to restraints being applied too tightly. The report reviewed six years of records ...

Credit: Sofi Gratas/GPB News Section Branding Header Content Too few guards and too many drones: Georgia prisons leaders alert lawmakers to dangers Primary Content LISTEN: While the number of prison guards in Georgia prisons is at a 15-year low, corrections officials say the number of people incarcerated in the state is at a 15-year high ...

Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB News Section Branding Header Content Gov. Kemp recommends adding $372 million to shore up Georgia prisons Primary Content Gov. Brian Kemp has released his recommendations for strengthening Georgia’s struggling prison system, which include an additional $372 million in state spending. “We do realize and recognize that this is — I don’t know ...

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 ...

Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB News Section Branding Header Content The federal Department of Justice: ‘deliberate indifference’ to violence in Georgia prisons Primary Content LISTEN: After a yearslong investigation, the Department of Justice says violence in Georgia prisons is at a “crisis level.” GPB’s Grant Blankenship reports. In a blistering, just-released report years in the making, the ...

Several U.S. states, including Pennsylvania and California, are piloting or expanding prison units modeled on Nordic approaches that prioritize rehabilitation over punishment, featuring elements like plants, fish tanks, and vocational training. Pennsylvania announced it will expand its “Little Scandinavia” unit from SCI Chester to three additional facilities after a study showed only one physical altercation ...

This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Sign up for future newsletters. The food on the trays doesn’t even look like food. In photos smuggled out of Georgia’s prisons, what passes for a meal is either grossly inadequate ...

This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. For decades, Louisiana had the nation’s highest rate of incarceration. And — given that the U.S. is among the most carceral countries on the planet — ...

When Andrew Phillips took a job as a corrections officer at Georgia’s Smith State Prison in 2021, he was desperate for work. Shortly after he started, he noticed a problem. The prison housed about 1,500 men, and each shift was supposed to have 30 officers to guard them, but most days there were half that, ...

At a Georgia state House of Representatives hearing on prison conditions in September, a corrections officer called in to testify, interrupting his shift to tell lawmakers how dire conditions had become. On a “good day,” he told lawmakers, he had maybe six or seven officers to supervise roughly 1,200 people. He said he had recently ...

A Macon State Prison inmate, Devito Duran Young, was sentenced to 327 months in federal prison for directing a fentanyl and synthetic cannabinoid trafficking scheme from China into Georgia using a contraband cellphone, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia. Young, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, coordinated ...

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced that a grand jury has indicted 16 inmates following a series of stabbings at Coffee Correctional Facility, a state prison in Coffee County, Georgia. The assaults occurred on Dec. 13, 2025, and investigators stated all defendants are members of the Bloods criminal street gang. Multiple inmates suffered critical injuries ...

The Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) has appointed a general counsel amid an ongoing legal dispute over its policy restricting gender-affirming care for incarcerated transgender individuals, according to Law360. The new general counsel, whose name was not disclosed in the article preview, will oversee the department’s legal affairs as the litigation proceeds. The dispute centers ...

A Georgia grand jury has indicted 16 inmates in connection with a series of stabbings at Coffee Correctional Facility, a state prison in South Georgia. The assaults occurred on December 13, 2025, and left multiple inmates critically injured, requiring life-saving medical care outside the facility. According to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, all defendants are ...

The Georgia Department of Corrections is investigating the death of inmate Mark Rutledge at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Butts County. Rutledge was pronounced dead on Friday, and the official cause of death is unknown, according to the GDC. He was serving time for fleeing/eluding police in Grady County with a maximum ...

Georgia prisoner strike comes out of lockdown By Guest Blogger / December 16, 2010 Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit Share on Facebook More Linkedin Share on Google+ Share via Email By Kung Li Georgia prisoners came out of their cells today, ending the lockdown phase of the largest prison work strike in U.S. history. ...

Georgia Prisoners’ Strike: “We locked ourselves down.” In a protest that appears to be spreading through Georgia’s prison system, inmates are striking for better conditions. One interesting facet of this rare prison strike, which reaches across multiple facilities and across racial and factional lines, is the participants’ use of self-imposed lockdown to serve their own ...

Last week a diverse group of nonviolent protesters across Georgia stood up for their rights, calling for decent wages, better social services and respect for their civil liberties. It didn’t take long for the government to crack down on the demonstrations, however: the protesters were already in prison. The uprising of Georgia inmates on December ...