# Nothing to Do > In a typical Georgia prison dorm, one television serves dozens of people and almost no one has work or class. Georgia removed the programs that once kept people occupied — and both the research and the men living it say enforced idleness is precisely how rehabilitation fails. **Published**: 2026-05-24 **Source**: https://gps.press/nothing-to-do/ **Author**: Leo Alexander --- A man who served time in a Georgia prison decades ago remembers a different institution than the one that exists today. There were programs, and they ran on schedule — enough of them, run consistently enough, to keep the people inside, in his words, "constructively occupied." The emphasis then, he writes, "was on rehabilitation, not just on warehousing for profits." [The Great Escape — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/the-great-escape/) That phrase, *warehousing for profits*, is his characterization, not ours. But the underlying observation — that something was deliberately taken out of these prisons — recurs across story after story written by the people living inside them now. The question this article asks is simple: what happens to a person, and to a system, when you remove nearly every reason to get up in the morning? ## The void today By one inside account, the turn came around 2005. Chaplain hours were cut. The position of recreational *director* was replaced with a recreational *officer* — a small bureaucratic edit that signaled what the institution had decided recreation was now for. Before that, the same writer recalls, "there was much much much more to do. Recreation, educational and vocational programs, work details." [They Have Hope So I Play My Part — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/they-have-hope-so-i-play-my-part/) Here is what remains. In a typical dormitory, a single television serves somewhere between forty and sixty people. Three or four out of every hundred have a work assignment — a "detail," in the Department's language. In a prison holding 1,600 to 1,700 people, you might find twenty or thirty enrolled in GED classes, and, at a small number of facilities, another ten or twenty working toward an associate's degree. The yard or the gym comes perhaps once every couple of weeks. As one man describes it, a prisoner with no detail and no class gets a single hour of recreation outside the cellhouse, and "aside from that hour, prisoners sit with nothing to do." [They Have Hope So I Play My Part — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/they-have-hope-so-i-play-my-part/) The scale is not small. More than 52,000 people are held across Georgia's prison system — state prisons, private prisons, county facilities, and transitional centers combined — with thousands more stacked up in the county jail backlog. [GPS Statistics Data](https://gps.press/statistics-data/) On any given day, the overwhelming majority of them have nothing productive to do. ## What idleness does to a person Enforced idleness is not a neutral condition. It is a slow erosion, and the people living it describe it in almost clinical terms. > "I am a man who, at this moment, has no purpose to his existence on this earth." The writer who set that down added that if he died in his sleep, he would know he had "fully wasted this time in this human body." [Let Me Go or Just Execute Me — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/let-me-go-or-just-execute-me/) Another, who describes himself as "formerly a productive member of society," writes that there is "really nothing to do," and that he passes the hours sitting and staring at the wall. [We Are People Not Statistics — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/we-are-people-not-statistics/) The same image — a person with empty hands, simply staring — appears again and again. [Three Weeks with a Broken Hand — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/three-weeks-with-a-broken-hand/) These are not men asking to be coddled. They are describing what it is to be stored. ## Different things for different people Meaning is not one program. People differ, and what gives a life direction differs from person to person — work for one, a classroom for another, faith, music, or the plain dignity of being useful. Georgia has dismantled the whole portfolio. - **Work.** A detail is more than a chore; it is structure, identity, and a reason to move. One writer keeps his dormitory clean for everyone else, "especially those that are gone to details most of the day" — the small contribution left to a man the system gave no job. [B Natural B Sharp Never B Flat — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/b-natural-b-sharp-never-b-flat/) The vocational programs that once trained people for that work, another notes, "are mostly gone." [Nature of Crime — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/nature-of-crimelet-the-truth-shine-even-in-dark-times/) - **Education.** Where it survives, people seize it. One mother describes a son who earned his GED, completed two years of University of Ohio correspondence courses, and holds a welding diploma from Central Georgia Technical College — a man who has "completed every program and class the Georgia Department of Corrections offers." [How Much Time Is Enough — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/how-much-time-is-enough/) Another is working through online college courses from inside. [Magazines Wrapped Around My Chest — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/magazines-wrapped-around-my-chest/) The demand is not the problem; the supply is. - **Faith and creativity.** For one man, signing up for programs and working through Bible-study courses by mail was the thing that gave his sentence structure and meaning. [Time Is the Most Valuable Thing You Have — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/time-is-the-most-valuable-thing-you-have/) For another, music is the entire point — the discipline that keeps him a person rather than a number. [B Natural B Sharp Never B Flat — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/b-natural-b-sharp-never-b-flat/) Take all of it away at once, and what remains is the dormitory with one television and forty restless people. ## What the evidence says This is where the testimony meets the research — and the research is unusually consistent. Start with the stakes. Nationally, of the state prisoners released in 2005, 76.6 percent were rearrested within five years and 83 percent within nine. [BJS 2018 Update on Prisoner Recidivism nine-year follow-up](https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/18upr9yfup0514.pdf) Georgia's headline number looks better — the Council of State Governments puts the state's three-year felony reconviction rate near 27 percent [Council of State Governments Georgia reconviction reported via WJBF](https://www.wjbf.com/news/georgia-news/new-data-shows-1-in-4-people-leaving-georgias-justice-system-reoffend/amp/) — but that figure excludes technical violations and anyone who reoffends after the three-year window, so it measures less than it appears to. [Georgia Department of Corrections 3-Year Reconviction Statistical Trend Reports](https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/statistical-trend-reports/3-year-reconviction-calendar-years/download) Tellingly, the state's recidivism rate sat near 30 percent and barely moved for a decade even as corrections spending doubled — by the Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform's own acknowledgment. [Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform reported via Grady Newsource](https://gradynewsource.uga.edu/number-of-georgia-offenders-returning-to-prison-decreasing/) More money did not buy better outcomes. Something else does. What does the research say works? - **Education.** RAND's analysis of 57 studies found that people who took part in correctional education had roughly 43 percent lower odds of returning to prison and higher odds of finding work afterward — and that every dollar spent on prison education saves four to five dollars in reincarceration costs. [Davis et al. Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education RAND 2013](https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html) - **Cognitive-behavioral programs.** A meta-analysis of 58 studies found recidivism roughly 25 percent lower for participants than for controls. [Landenberger and Lipsey 2005 meta-analysis of CBT](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11292-005-3541-7) - **Therapeutic communities.** Across dozens of evaluations, structured treatment communities consistently reduced reoffending and drug use, and the effect holds even in the most rigorous randomized trials. [Mitchell Wilson and MacKenzie Campbell Systematic Review](https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/84_1_1_0.pdf) [Beaudry et al. 2021 Lancet Psychiatry](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8376657/) - **The arts and mentoring.** California's Arts-in-Corrections participants showed favorable parole outcomes at far higher rates than the general parole population, [California Arts-in-Corrections 1987 evaluation via CJCJ](https://www.cjcj.org/media/import/documents/brewster_prison_arts_final_formatted.pdf) and credible-messenger mentoring programs such as New York's Arches have been linked to reconviction rates more than 50 percent lower at two years. [Lynch et al. Urban Institute 2018 Arches evaluation via Harvard IOP](https://iop.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/2023-02/IOP_Policy_Program_2019_Reentry_Policy.pdf) Notice what every one of those has in common: each is a structured way of giving a person something meaningful to do. Criminologists who study desistance find the same pattern — people pull away from crime when they build a new sense of purpose around legitimate roles and a desire to contribute. [Shadd Maruna Making Good 2001](https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/making-good-how-ex-convicts-reform-and-rebuild-their-lives) Tony Ward's Good Lives Model builds rehabilitation around helping people pursue legitimate goods — knowledge, work, mastery, relationships — rather than merely managing their risks. [Tony Ward The Good Lives Model](https://safersociety.org/press/the-good-lives-model/) And beneath all of it sits the argument Viktor Frankl drew from the Nazi camps in Man's Search for Meaning: that the search for meaning is a primary human drive, and that a person who has a "why" to live can endure almost any "how." A serious account has to name what the evidence does not show. Almost all of the hard outcome data measures participation — in school, in work, in treatment — not "purpose" as something directly measured. [Davis et al. Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education RAND 2013](https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html) No large study has yet tracked incarcerated people's measured sense of purpose forward to see whether it predicts who reoffends. [Reker 1977 Purpose in Life test in inmates](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/893692/) Some celebrated program results are inflated by comparing graduates with dropouts, and the Good Lives Model in particular still lacks strong randomized evidence. [Mallion Wood and Mallion 2020 GLM systematic review](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359178920302147) Purpose alone cannot overcome the housing, employment, and structural barriers people meet on release. [Fergus McNeill A Desistance Paradigm for Offender Management 2006](https://www.sccjr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/A_Desistance_Paradigm_for_Offender_Management.pdf) The fair conclusion is calibrated: the case that purpose drives rehabilitation is strong in theory, moderate through its proxies, and not yet proven by direct measurement. It is the best-supported bet in corrections — not a guarantee. ## The demand is already there The cruelest detail is that the people inside are not waiting to be motivated. They are motivating themselves, against the grain of the institution. The man who completed every class his prison offered did so anyway. [How Much Time Is Enough — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/how-much-time-is-enough/) The student pursuing a college degree does so anyway. [Magazines Wrapped Around My Chest — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/magazines-wrapped-around-my-chest/) What they meet is indifference. "I've become a better person," one writes, "but no one in the GDC cares." [No Matter How Good I Am — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/no-matter-how-good-i-am/) A system that wanted rehabilitation would treat that drive as its most valuable raw material. Georgia squanders it. ## A choice, not an accident Idleness on this scale is not weather. It is the cumulative result of decisions — to cut the chaplain's hours, to downgrade the recreation director to an officer, to let the vocational programs lapse. [They Have Hope So I Play My Part — Georgia Prisoners Speak](https://gps.press/they-have-hope-so-i-play-my-part/) Georgia's own data offers the quiet confirmation: its transition centers, built around work and structured reentry, post three-year felony reconviction rates of roughly 12 to 20 percent, while its private prisons run near 32 percent. [Georgia Department of Corrections 3-Year Reconviction Statistical Trend Reports](https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/statistical-trend-reports/3-year-reconviction-calendar-years/download) The more a setting gives people to do, the fewer of them come back. The Department already knows what works. It has chosen, across two decades, to do less of it. ## What restoration looks like The path is neither mysterious nor expensive. The evidence points to a sequence: anchor any serious effort in education, cognitive-behavioral programming, and structured peer mentoring that follows a person from inside the wall to the far side of it — the three interventions with the strongest support — and then, unlike every program before it, actually measure whether it builds purpose, using validated scales at intake and release. [Davis et al. Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education RAND 2013](https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html) At four to five dollars saved for every dollar spent on education alone, the question is not whether Georgia can afford to give people something meaningful to do. It is why it decided they should do nothing. --- ## Call to Action: What You Can Do Awareness without action changes nothing. Here's how you can help push for accountability and real reform: **Join the GPS Advocacy Network** — Sign up at [https://gps.press/become-an-advocate/](https://gps.press/become-an-advocate/) and we'll advocate on your behalf every week. GPS identifies your state legislators, crafts personalized letters on the most pressing prison issues, and sends them directly to the representatives who represent you. You receive a copy of every letter. It takes two minutes to sign up — we handle the rest. **Tell My Story** — Are you or a loved one affected by Georgia's prison system? GPS publishes first-person accounts from incarcerated people and their families. Submit your story at [https://gps.press/category/tellmystory/](https://gps.press/category/tellmystory/) and help the world understand what's really happening behind the walls. **Contact Your Representatives** — Your state legislators control GDC's budget, oversight, and the laws that created these failures. Find your Georgia legislators at [https://gps.press/find-your-legislator/](https://gps.press/find-your-legislator/) or call Governor Kemp at (404) 656-1776 or the GDC Commissioner at (478) 992-5246. **Demand Media Coverage** — Contact newsrooms at the AJC, local TV stations, and national criminal justice outlets. More coverage means more pressure. **Amplify on Social Media** — Share this article and tag @GovKemp, @GDC_Georgia, and your local representatives. Use #GAPrisons, #PrisonReform, #GeorgiaPrisonerSpeak. **File Public Records Requests** — Georgia's Open Records Act gives every citizen the right to request incident reports, death records, staffing data, medical logs, and financial documents at [https://georgiadcor.govqa.us/WEBAPP/_rs/SupportHome.aspx.](https://georgiadcor.govqa.us/WEBAPP/_rs/SupportHome.aspx.) **Attend Public Meetings** — The Georgia Board of Corrections and legislative committees hold public meetings. Your presence is noticed. **Contact the Department of Justice** — File civil rights complaints at [https://civilrights.justice.gov.](https://civilrights.justice.gov.) Federal oversight has forced abusive systems to change before. **Support Organizations Doing This Work** — Donate to or volunteer with Georgia-based prison reform groups fighting for change on the ground. **Vote** — Research candidates' positions on criminal justice. Primary elections often determine outcomes in Georgia. **Contact GPS** — If you have information about conditions inside Georgia's prisons, reach us securely at GPS.press. --- ## Part of Something Bigger This article is part of the [GPS Reform Agenda](/our-vision/) — two active campaigns to transform Georgia's criminal justice system. **[End the Warehouse](/end-the-warehouse/)** THIS SERIES Transform Georgia's prisons from punishment to rehabilitation. Two tracks: litigation to reduce overcrowding + evidence-based programs that work. **[Vision 2027](/vision2027/)** Three model bills for the 2027 Georgia legislature. The legislature doesn't need new laws — it needs to [enforce two dormant statutes](/the-sleeping-giants/) it already passed. [Read the full GPS Reform Agenda →](/our-vision/) --- ## Further Reading **[Mission Failure: Georgia Spends $1.8 Billion on Prisons and $52 Per Person on Rehabilitation](https://gps.press/mission-failure-georgia-spends-1-8-billion-on-prisons-and-52-per-person-on-rehabilitation/)** *The budget math behind the warehouse: how a $1.8 billion system spends almost nothing on the programs that actually reduce reoffending.* **[Breaking Free with MOOCs: Education Empowers Prisoners and Families](https://gps.press/breaking-free-with-moocs-education-empowers-prisoners-and-families/)** *What becomes possible when incarcerated people gain access to real education — and why so few in Georgia do.* **[The Reform That Worked — and the Governor Who Killed It](https://gps.press/the-reform-that-worked-and-the-governor-who-killed-it/)** *Georgia once led on evidence-based reform; the story of how that momentum was abandoned.* **[Georgia's Corrections Spending vs Public Safety: A Costly Imbalance](https://gps.press/georgias-corrections-spending-vs-public-safety-a-costly-imbalance/)** *Where Georgia's corrections dollars actually go — and what that reveals about the state's priorities.* **[Let Them Go Home: Georgia Spends Its Most Expensive Dollars on the People Least Likely to Reoffend](https://gps.press/let-them-go-home/)** *The economics of warehousing the people the evidence says are most ready to return to their communities.* --- ## GPS Intelligence System The GPS Intelligence System maintains living research profiles that aggregate data, news, settlements, and analysis on Georgia's prisons and the issues defining them. The profiles below provide deeper context for the issues raised in this article: **[End the Warehouse](https://gps.press/intelligence/issue/end-the-warehouse/)** *The living profile tracking Georgia's shift from rehabilitation to warehousing, and the campaign to reverse it.* **[Conditions](https://gps.press/intelligence/issue/conditions/)** *Aggregated reporting on the day-to-day conditions inside Georgia's prisons, including the idleness documented here.* --- ## Explore the Data GPS makes GDC statistics accessible to the public through several resources: - **[GPS Statistics Portal](https://gps.press/gdc-statistics/)** — Interactive dashboards translating complex GDC reports into accessible formats, updated within days of official releases. - **[GPS Lighthouse AI](https://gps.press/ask-ai/)** — Ask questions about Georgia's prison system and get answers drawn from GPS's investigative archive and data analysis. - **[GPS llms.txt](https://gps.press/llms.txt)** — A single machine-readable index of every GPS data resource, published using the open llms.txt standard. Point any AI tool (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity) at this URL and the model can navigate to facility profiles, intelligence briefs, mortality records, statistics, and the full investigative archive — no other configuration needed. It is the fastest way to ground an AI conversation in verified GPS data. For a walkthrough of how to put these resources to work with AI, see **[How to Use GPS Data with AI Tools](https://gps.press/how-to-use-gps-data-with-ai-tools/)** — a step-by-step guide for researchers, advocates, families, and journalists analyzing Georgia prison conditions, statistics, and policy with tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Contact GPS at media@gps.press for access to underlying datasets used in this analysis. --- ## About Georgia Prisoners' Speak (GPS) Georgia Prisoners' Speak (GPS) is a nonprofit investigative newsroom built in partnership with incarcerated reporters, families, advocates, and data analysts. Operating independently from the Georgia Department of Corrections, GPS documents the truth the state refuses to acknowledge: extreme violence, fatal medical neglect, gang-controlled dorms, collapsed staffing, fraudulent reporting practices, and unconstitutional conditions across Georgia's prisons. Through confidential reporting channels, secure communication, evidence verification, public-records requests, legislative research, and professional investigative standards, GPS provides the transparency the system lacks. Our mission is to expose abuses, protect incarcerated people, support families, and push Georgia toward meaningful reform based on human rights, evidence, and public accountability. Every article is part of a larger fight — to end the silence, reveal the truth, and demand justice. ![GPS Footer](https://gps.press/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/GPS-Ad2.jpg) ---