Greetings:
The FBI has disowned three kinds of forensic testimony and sent a letter each time. Georgia’s crime lab read the 2015 hair admission, measured its own error rate at one in twenty, and told no one. The one court door that opened for those people last year is one-shot; the other is closed by a four-year deadline written into O.C.G.A. 9-14-42(c).
That deadline is the single change GPS asks the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee to make. The committee meets September 18 in Milledgeville, and GPS filed 45 pages of written materials plus a 63-page review answering fifteen questions for every state on how convictions can be challenged after trial.
Elsewhere the same pattern holds: a tactical squad left Wilcox State Prison at noon, the coroner was called at two, and the Department’s policy has four pages on the squad and none for the hour after.
This period GPS filed 224 open records requests with the GBI, began a 246-request statewide homicide series, and extended its Parole Board corpus back to 1989 unbroken.
| 9 articles · 934 emails · 8 new advocates |
New from GPS
Inside a three-man cell: a 3-D scan you can walk through
GPS published an interactive 3-D scan of a three-man Georgia prison cell (12 ft 8 in by 7 ft 8 in, about 27 square feet of open floor for three men) and reorganised End the Warehouse into a multi-page section: overview, the cell, what works, the legal pathway, real rehabilitation, what GPS is doing, and the receipts. English and Spanish.
Spanish Vision 2027 front door rebuilt
The Spanish-language Vision 2027 page was restructured section for section to mirror the English front door, with every link pointing to its Spanish twin and the corrected figures carried over.
Significant work this period
What Georgia said it would take to run seven prisons, against who actually works there
GPS published the staffing figures the State wrote into its own budgets when these prisons opened, set against the Department’s August 2026 roster. Hays was authorized 399 positions and now has 133 people on its roster and holds 2.5x the men it was designed for. Many prisons are at 300%+ the original design capacity.
Georgia built prisons for 21,339. They warehouse 52,270. 228% average over capacity prison by prison.
Written materials filed with the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee
GPS submitted its written materials to the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Criminal Post-Conviction Litigation ahead of the committee’s September 18 meeting in Milledgeville. The submission opens with a one-page letter to the chairman and members and runs to 45 pages: a committee paper on why Georgia’s four-year habeas deadline should go, the supporting paper revised from August, a model bill, and a note on other issues. It travels with a 63-page fifty-state review answering fifteen questions for every state on post-conviction deadlines, counsel, the trial record and capital counsel, each answer sourced to a statute, rule or decision. GPS asks for one change: repeal of the four-year limitation on habeas corpus petitions, O.C.G.A. 9-14-42(c), with merit as the test for whether a claim is heard. The papers are published at gps.press/brc/.
The fifty-state post-conviction survey, published in full
GPS merged three research passes into a single fifty-state survey of post-conviction procedure: fifteen questions, 750 cells, 734 of them verified against the statute, rule or decision they rest on. The full record and the analysis are both public, and the survey goes to the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee.
Twelve Georgia newsrooms briefed on the Wilcox killing
After a man was killed at Wilcox State Prison, GPS published its reporting and sent a documented brief to twelve newsrooms, including every outlet already covering the death. The brief sets out what the state’s own tactical-squad and media policies do and don’t require, and lists the records any reporter can request. GPS asked the Department for comment first.
Death records requested for three more prisons, and a statewide homicide series begun
GPS filed 224 open records requests with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation this week: the official records of death for every death recorded at Macon, Baldwin and Valdosta state prisons, the remainder of the set for Johnson, and the first of a statewide series covering deaths Georgia recorded as homicides. The homicide series runs to 246 requests and is being filed in batches. Separately, GPS filed 114 requests with the GBI for the records of deaths at Coastal and Johnson state prisons, part of the effort to establish a cause of death for every person who has died in Georgia’s prisons.
Georgia Archives corrections holdings catalogued
GPS catalogued every prison, parole and corrections record series held at the Georgia Archives, 104 series with box numbers, and pulled the downloadable public record around it: state annual reports back to 1944, 82 State Auditor reviews of the Department of Corrections from 2004 to 2025, and federal criminal-justice archive holdings. We are currently adding the data to our open records api and MCP servers so that the public and researchers have easy access.
Upcoming events
Blue-Ribbon Committee on Criminal Post-Conviction Litigation, public meeting
Friday, 18 September, 9:00 a.m., Old Capitol Building, Milledgeville. The Georgia House committee meets in Milledgeville, and the public may attend. The committee is examining how people convicted in Georgia can challenge a conviction after trial, and it is taking testimony from the public as it goes. GPS spoke at the August meeting in Ellijay, where members said they rarely hear from people who have recently been inside, and GPS was asked to return in September. The committee’s notice asks anyone who wants to give testimony to contact the committee office in advance. If you or someone in your family has been through Georgia’s post-conviction process, this is a room where that experience is being asked for.
Featured story
The FBI has disowned three kinds of forensic testimony and sent letters each time. Georgia’s crime lab read the 2015 hair admission, measured its own error rate at one in twenty, and told no one. The one court door that opened last year is one-shot. The other is closed by the four-year habeas deadline.
Have a story from inside, or a loved one who does? Share it through Tell My Story, and refer someone inside who should be heard.
Articles published
9 articles this period, and 8 Spanish editions.
Nobody Told Them: Georgia Convicted People on Science the FBI Disowned, Then Shut the Courthouse Door (September 12)
(Above)
“Contained to One Dorm”: The Squad Left Wilcox at Noon. The Coroner Was Called at Two. (September 8)
A tactical squad spent five hours turning out F2 dorm at Wilcox State Prison, then left at noon. The men were let out to shower. By two the coroner was called. GDC’s own policies have four pages on the squad and no page for the hour after.
What the Videos Don’t Show (September 7)
The prison videos on your feed aren’t proof that the men in them can’t be reached. Federal investigators read the same clips as proof of what a housing unit becomes when the state leaves it.
The Amplifier: How Five Unelected Officials Turned Georgia’s Prisons Into a Constitutional Crisis (September 7)
Georgia’s legislature wrote the sentences. Five appointees nobody elected decided how much of them people serve, and three times they turned the dial up. The result is a prison system the DOJ says is unconstitutional.
When Nobody Comes: Surviving Georgia’s Prisons (September 6)
Nine contributors describe what daily survival requires inside Georgia custody: boots worn into the shower, lunch carried back from breakfast, a fire alarm ringing into an empty post, and medication missed behind a locked door. Much of what keeps people alive is done by other prisoners.
Twenty Percent of the Jail (September 5)
Georgia now reimburses rural county jails when more than 20 percent of their capacity is filled by people charged with delivering contraband to state prisons. Two sheriffs are in open revolt over the cost.
10 Lessons from Frederick Douglass: How a Man Forbidden to Read Taught Himself Anyway (September 5)
Frederick Douglass was legally forbidden to read. He traded bread for lessons, learned his letters off shipyard timber, and taught himself to write in the margins of a discarded copybook. Ten lessons from the man who wrote down exactly how he did it.
Bolted In: Georgia Prisons Lock the Fire Exits, and the State’s Own Inspectors Keep Finding Them Locked (September 2)
State fire inspectors found barrel bolts on every fire exit at Ware State Prison in June and told GDC to remove them. In August they found the bolts still there, new ones on the dorm doors, empty control rooms and staff without keys.
10 Lessons from The Brothers Karamazov: Justice, Mercy, and Who You Choose to Become (August 29)
Dostoevsky wrote The Brothers Karamazov after four years in a Siberian prison camp, and it shows. Ten lessons on justice, mercy, wrongful conviction, and refusing to become the man the court describes.
Emails sent on your behalf
934 emails were sent this period: 926 Legislative and 8 Advocacy.
Open records requests
805 open records requests were made this period, to 9 different agencies or offices. This figure comes from the GPS open-records registry, which records every request GPS files whether through an agency portal, by email, or as certified mail.
New advocates
8 new advocates joined this period. Welcome.
Explore GPS
Two corners of GPS worth a look:
GPS Action Center
One page that turns concern into action: current campaigns, who to contact, and exactly what to say.
Submit a Report
Witnessed or experienced something inside a Georgia prison? Send it to GPS securely. Every report strengthens the record.
The GPS Team, accountability@gps.press