Inmate Welfare Fund and commissary money: GDC's $88,944 estimate, and the commissary contract it released

Georgia Department of Corrections · Request R019866-032125 · Filed March 21, 2025 · Fulfilled

We asked the Georgia Department of Corrections for the money flowing into and out of the Inmate Welfare Fund and similar accounts (commissary, package, phone and fee revenue, and how it was spent) for fiscal years 2020 to 2024, and for its contracts with commissary vendors.

GDC estimated that retrieving the financial records would take three to six months of a full-time employee's time, about $88,944 for retrieval alone, before any review. We dropped those items and asked only for the commissary contracts. GDC released the statewide commissary contract (fiscal 2015, with attachments), Amendment 14 (Renewal 10), and a commissary master product list.

Status: Items 4 (commissary contracts) released March 26, 2025. Items 1 to 3 (fund income and spending) not pursued because of GDC's estimate.

Documents as released (3)

DocumentReceivedFile
Commissary contract 46700-019-GDC0000624, Amendment 14 (Renewal 10)
File name as released: 46700-019-GDC0000624_-_Amendment_14_Renewal_10_-_executed.pdf.
July 18, 2026PDF, 2 p., 226 KB
Commissary Master Product List (updated March 25, 2025)
File name as released: MPL_11_15_24.pdf.
July 18, 2026PDF, 12 p., 295 KB
Statewide commissary contract, fiscal 2015, with attachments
File name as released: Statewide_Commissary_Contract_Fy15_with_Attachments.pdf.
July 18, 2026PDF, 87 p., 5.2 MB

What we asked for

Pursuant to the Georgia Open Records Act (O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 et seq.), I am requesting access to and copies of the following public records: 1. All records of income, revenue, or transfers into the Inmate Welfare Fund, Store Account, or any other account used to hold profits or commissions from inmate commissary sales, inmate packages, phone or email communications, or monthly account fees. Please provide this data for fiscal years 2020 through 2024, broken down by source and facility, if available. 2. All records showing expenditures from these accounts, including but not limited to itemized purchases, transfers, or disbursements from the Inmate Welfare Fund or similar accounts, for the same time period (FY 2020–2024). Please include any supporting documentation, such as receipts, approvals, or descriptions of the purpose of each expenditure. 3. Copies of any audits, annual reports, or financial reviews conducted internally or by outside entities regarding the management and use of inmate welfare or commissary-related funds during FY 2020–2024. 4. A copy of the contract(s) or agreement(s) between GDC and Stewart’s Distribution or any other vendor supplying commissary goods, including pricing schedules, markup formulas, and commission structures. If these records are stored electronically, I request that they be provided in digital format (e.g., PDF, Excel, or CSV). If any part of this request is denied, please provide a written explanation of the specific legal exemption(s) relied upon. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please confirm receipt of this request and let me know of any estimated costs associated with producing the records.Please be specific with your request to narrow our search and respond to you quickly and efficiently.

Sent through: GDC Open Records (GovQA portal)

What happened

March 21, 2025Request filed through GDC's Open Records Center; GDC acknowledged it the same day.
March 26, 2025GDC estimated that retrieving the fund records would take three to six months of one person's full-time work at $37.06 an hour: about $88,944 for retrieval alone, not counting review.
March 26, 2025We dropped items 1 to 3 because of the cost and asked GDC to go ahead with item 4, the commissary contracts.
March 26, 2025GDC released the item 4 records through the portal.

Cost

$0.00: No fee for the contracts. GDC estimated about $88,944 (retrieval only, at $37.06 an hour) for the financial records we dropped.

Machine-readable

Records requested under the Georgia Open Records Act (O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 et seq.), by Georgia Prisoners' Speak or, where a page says so, by another person or group who shared them with GPS. Documents marked "as released" are posted exactly as the agency released them. Files marked "prepared by GPS" are GPS's own compilations of those documents, made for convenience; where they differ, the released document governs. A request is published here when GPS cites it or when its records are useful to readers; records about individual deaths are published on GPS's mortality pages, not here.