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 Governor’s Budget Report, FY 2027 (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:

Legislative Policy Briefs

The GPS Research Division produces in-depth analysis of systemic issues inside Georgia’s corrections system. Each research topic is translated into a legislative policy brief written specifically for members of the General Assembly: data-driven findings, fiscal impact analysis, taxpayer cost breakdowns, and actionable policy recommendations.

Current topics include:

• Healthcare privatization failures — death rates up to 58% higher in privatized facilities, contractors filing bankruptcy to dodge accountability
• Prison classification breakdowns — misclassification driving a five-fold increase in homicides
• Zero-wage labor exploitation — Georgia pays incarcerated workers nothing while extracting hundreds of millions in labor value
• Commissary markup schemes — an estimated $8–15 million extracted annually from families through systematic two-tier pricing
• Wrongful convictions — an estimated 2,500 innocent people imprisoned at a cost of $75,000 per person per year, with conviction integrity units covering only 3 of 159 counties
• Infrastructure crisis — the $600 million emergency plan confronting decades of state neglect
• Parole system collapse — 42% fewer people released as costs soar
• Incarceration trends — population data, demographic analysis, and projections

New briefs are published regularly as GPS research is completed. All materials are free to use.

GPS Data & Statistics

GPS maintains the largest independent, publicly accessible database on Georgia prison conditions. The following resources are available to all legislators and staff, updated regularly from GDC’s own published reports, court filings, and independent verification.

Official Documents & External Sources

All GPS research is grounded in verifiable primary sources. The following official documents and external analyses are referenced throughout this page:

Who We Are

Georgia Prisoners’ Speak (GPS) is an independent investigative organization documenting conditions inside the Georgia Department of Corrections. We are nonpartisan and work with legislators, staff, and advocates across all political backgrounds.

Our research draws from:

• GDC’s own published data (Friday Reports, Monthly Reports, Annual Statistical Reports)
• Governor’s budget recommendations and GBPI fiscal analyses
• U.S. Department of Justice investigation findings
• Court filings, open records requests, and public documents
• Direct communication with incarcerated individuals and their families
• Academic research and Bureau of Justice Statistics data

GPS maintains the largest independent, publicly accessible database on Georgia prison conditions, including 1,736+ documented deaths, 114 facility profiles, population statistics, and investigative case files.

Our Approach

GPS is nonpartisan. We work with legislators of all political backgrounds who share a commitment to constitutional governance, fiscal responsibility, and basic human dignity inside Georgia’s prisons.