A heavy two weeks: GPS published 11 articles — including a new multi-part series on victims inside Georgia prisons, a deep dive on the state’s 1897 gang-separation law, and two pieces on this month’s sixth statewide lockdown — while sending 451 advocacy emails to legislators.
Featured StoriesMay 22 · Featured Article A sixth statewide lockdown began after deadly gang violence at Ware State Prison. Georgia Prisoners’ Speak has demanded gang separation for fifteen months — a reform that costs almost nothing and that Texas, Arizona, and California proved cuts violence. Georgia keeps choosing the body count instead. | May 22 · Featured Article Georgia has commanded its prison system to separate dangerous inmates since 1897, and the legislature declared every person’s right to be safe from gang violence — yet the state enforces neither. The fix isn’t a new law. It’s finishing the one already on the books. | May 21 · Featured Article Christian Krauch was tortured for three weeks under a bunk at Macon State Prison while GDC filed 168 paper counts saying he was accounted for. He survived. Part 2 of the GPS series Who Are the Victims documents what Georgia does to the people who enter its prisons as victims first — and the federal record now in place. | May 18 · Featured Article On January 5, 2026, Nicole Boynton walked free after twenty-three years inside. Georgia’s Survivor Justice Act recognized her as a victim — twenty-three years too late. A new GPS series asks who else qualifies as a victim under Georgia law, and why the state has chosen to look away. | May 17 · Featured Article Georgia spends $1.60 a day to feed 53,000 incarcerated adults — about 13,000 of them over fifty, some on these trays for decades. The bodies arrive at the morgue marked cardiac arrest, organ failure, natural causes. The medical literature, going back eighty years, calls it starvation. | May 16 · Featured Article On May 13, a Georgia grand jury indicted former Smith State Prison Warden Brian Adams on RICO and bribery charges. He’s the latest output of a closed promotion pipeline that has produced 43 of 43 current state wardens — and the agency cannot explain why pay raises haven’t fixed it. |
Tell My Story — Reader AccountsThis period’s TellMyStory submissions cover a 1998 prison escape, the 1996 Hays State Prison raid under Commissioner Wayne Garner, a mother’s 27-year fight for her wrongfully convicted son, and COVID-19 conditions at Macon State Prison. Read them below — and if you or a loved one inside has a story to tell, submit it at gps.press/tell-my-story/. May 20 · Tell My Story In 1998, two inmates at Georgia State Prison orchestrated a daring escape using dummy heads and wire cutters, only to be recaptured hours later. This narrative contrasts the humane conditions under federal control with the deterioration that followed when the state regained operational control. | May 20 · Tell My Story In 1996, newly appointed GDC Commissioner Wayne Garner responded to a published inmate letter by systematically removing prison amenities and allegedly authorizing a violent raid on Hays State Prison. This account details the removal of equipment, alleged beatings, and subsequent cover-up attempts that led to Garner’s removal. | May 19 · Tell My Story For 27 years, a mother has watched her son serve time for a crime he didn’t commit, repeatedly denied parole despite completing every program and excelling at work. She shares the emotional toll of the system and questions: how much time is enough? | May 16 · Tell My Story In March 2020, a 58-year-old inmate was locked down with 63 other men in a cramped concrete dormitory at Macon State Prison during the COVID-19 outbreak. This firsthand account reveals the prison’s failure to provide basic health protections, medical testing, and adequate staffing — and how a journalist’s investigation briefly exposed the system’s deadly negligence. |
Also PublishedMay 10 · Education Marcus Aurelius ruled the Roman Empire while writing private notes about how to live well. Eighteen centuries later, his wisdom offers prisoners and their families ten practical lessons for navigating difficult people, controlling anger, building an inner refuge, and finding freedom of mind even in the most restrictive circumstances. |
Emails Sent on Your Behalf473 total emails sent this period. - 451 — Advocacy emails to legislators
- 22 — Welcome emails to new advocates
New Advocates22 new advocates joined the GPS Action Network this period.
The GPS Team — accountability@gps.press |