Legislative Resource Center

GDC Budget & Fiscal Impact

Georgia’s Department of Corrections is one of the largest line items in the state budget. In FY 2025, actual GDC spending reached $1.91 billion across all fund sources — a $387 million increase (+25.4%) over FY 2024, the largest single-year jump in recent history. Virtually all of it — 99.1% — comes from state general funds, meaning Georgia taxpayers bear nearly the entire cost.

All figures sourced from the HB 974 Conference Committee (FY 2027 Appropriations Act) (Pages 145–152). For additional fiscal context, see the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute’s GDC budget overview.

GPS maintains a complete independent analysis of the GDC budget with line-item breakdowns, year-over-year comparisons, and fiscal context for every major spending category:

Briefing Materials for Legislators

GPS produces two types of briefing materials for the General Assembly: a weekly legislative intelligence brief that synthesizes the most current data on Georgia’s prison system, and policy research briefs that provide deep analysis of specific reform areas with fiscal impact data and actionable recommendations.

Legislative Intelligence Brief

Updated weekly, the GPS legislative intelligence brief compiles verified data from GPS’s tracking systems — mortality trends, facility-level population and overcrowding data, legal settlement exposure, staffing vacancy rates, and reform opportunities with bipartisan precedent in other states. The brief is framed specifically for legislators and staff: fiscal impact to taxpayers, liability exposure from continued inaction, and concrete policy recommendations including GPS’s Vision 2027 reform package and End the Warehouse transformation plan.

Built from 1,770+ independently tracked deaths, 114 facility profiles, 84+ research collections, and verified GDC statistical reports.

Policy Research Briefs

The GPS Research Division produces in-depth policy analysis written for members of the General Assembly: data-driven findings, fiscal impact analysis, taxpayer cost breakdowns, and actionable recommendations. Topics include:

• Healthcare privatization failures — death rates up to 58% higher in privatized facilities
• Classification breakdowns driving violence — misclassification and a five-fold increase in homicides
• Zero-wage labor exploitation — hundreds of millions in extracted labor value
• Post-conviction justice reform — the Vision 2027 legislative package backed by 7 of 9 Georgia Supreme Court justices
• Infrastructure crisis — the $600M emergency plan confronting decades of neglect
• Parole system collapse — 42% fewer releases as costs soar

Vision 2027: The Georgia Post-Conviction Justice Act

On March 3, 2026, seven of nine Georgia Supreme Court justices acknowledged that the state’s post-conviction system is fundamentally broken. Chief Justice Peterson’s concurrence declared it a system “no rational person would have chosen” and called directly on the General Assembly to fix it. (Sanders v. State, No. S26A0222)

GPS has developed a seven-bill legislative package — the Georgia Post-Conviction Justice Act — with complete research, policy briefs, and model legislation for each reform. The 2027 session is the target window. Each brief below is written for legislators and staff:

The full reform package — all seven bills, the 10-part investigative series, and the coalition-building initiative — costs less than 1% of Georgia’s $1.8 billion corrections budget and could recover $59–$172 million per year wasted on wrongful incarceration.