Legionella records for Wilcox and Autry State Prisons: two DPH outbreak reports released, the rest withheld

To the Open Records Officer and the Office of the General Counsel, Georgia Department of Public Health:Pursuant to the Georgia Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 et seq., The GDC Accountability Project, Inc. (Georgia Prisoners' Speak), a Georgia nonprofit investigative journalism organization, submits this request.We are filing it as a new request because the Department has now twice closed an identical request by referring us to another agency, without producing a record, describing a record, or citing an exemption. The history is set out below so that the Department has the full record in front of it, and so that this request does not need to be reconstructed later.WHAT HAS HAPPENED SO FARAugust 7, 2026. We directed a request to the South Health District. That office advised us in writing that district record systems are siloed, and recommended that we file with the state Department. Wilcox State Prison falls within the South Central Health District and Autry State Prison within the Southwest Health District.August 13, 2026. Acting on that advice, we filed with the state Department. The request was docketed as ORR-2026-724 (portal reference R008289-081326).The Department closed it, advising us to contact the Georgia Department of Corrections.We then filed a second request, docketed ORR-2026-740. The Department proposed instead to close the second request and reopen the first, so that the original August 13 filing date would be preserved. We agreed. On August 18, ORR-2026-724 was reopened and shown as In Progress with its August 13 submission date intact, and ORR-2026-740 was closed as the duplicate.August 31, 2026. The Department closed ORR-2026-724 a second time, with the same advice to contact the Department of Corrections. No record was produced. No record was described. No exemption was cited.We want to be plain about what that sequence means in practice. The reopening consumed eighteen days and produced the same non-answer that preceded it.WHY THE DEPARTMENT IS THE CUSTODIANWe ask the Department to consider that four of the six items below cannot be held by the Department of Corrections at all, and that two of them are records the Department necessarily holds in its own files.The Department's own laboratory and assessment records. Legionella sampling results, laboratory reports, environmental assessments and site visits are generated by the Department's Environmental Health program in the exercise of its own statutory function. They are not Department of Corrections records.The Department's own public confirmation. In October 2022 the Department publicly confirmed Legionella associated with Autry State Prison. That confirmation rests on testing and an assessment the Department performed. The records underlying a Department announcement are Department records.The Department's own correspondence. Two items below ask for correspondence between the Department and the Department of Corrections. An agency holds its own side of a correspondence by definition. A referral to the other party to that correspondence cannot be an answer to a request for it.THE RECORDS REQUESTEDWilcox State Prison, Abbeville, Wilcox County: January 1, 2023 to present1. All Legionella sampling results, laboratory reports, and environmental assessment records for any water system at the facility.2. All correspondence between the Department, state or district, and the Georgia Department of Corrections, or the facility itself, concerning Legionella or water quality at the facility.3. Records of any environmental health investigation, site visit, or technical consultation performed at the facility relating to water systems.Autry State Prison, Pelham, Mitchell County: January 1, 2021 to present4. All Legionella sampling results and laboratory reports, including the testing that led to the Department's confirmation reported publicly in October 2022.5. The environmental assessment or outbreak investigation record associated with that confirmation.6. All correspondence between the Department, state or district, and the Georgia Department of Corrections concerning Legionella at the facility, including any recommendations made regarding the transfer of the incarcerated population.We ask that the search include records held by the state Environmental Health program and records held by or accessible from the South Central and Southwest Health Districts.CONFIDENTIALITY, ADDRESSED IN ADVANCEWe understand that individual case reports are confidential under O.C.G.A. § 31-12-2, and we are not requesting identifiable patient information. Where responsive records contain it, aggregate or de-identified figures, such as the number of confirmed legionellosis cases associated with either facility by year, would fully satisfy this request. We welcome any redaction the Department considers necessary.WHAT WE ASK THE DEPARTMENT TO DOIf responsive records exist, produce them.If they exist but cannot be produced within three business days, please provide the description and the timeline required by O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71(b)(1)(A).If the Department withholds any record, please cite the specific Code section, subsection and paragraph that authorizes it, as O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71(d) requires.If the Department holds no responsive record, please say so plainly and in writing, and describe the search performed.A referral to another agency is none of these things, and we ask the Department not to close this request on that basis a third time.We agree in advance to reasonable costs up to $50.00 and ask to be notified before that amount is exceeded. Electronic production to accountability@gps.press is preferred. We are glad to accept records in batches, or to narrow any item, if that makes the search easier. The GDC Accountability Project, Inc. (Georgia Prisoners' Speak) 285 W Wieuca Rd NE, PMB #4153, Atlanta, GA 30342 accountability@gps.press · https://gps.press