Board of Corrections meeting, September 30, 2026 (Valdosta): slides, Board packet and agenda
We asked the Georgia Department of Corrections for what was presented to the Board of Corrections at its public meeting of September 30, 2026 in Valdosta: every slide, the packet given to Board members, and the agenda. GDC released all three two days later, at no charge. They include GDC's count of validated gang members (security threat groups): 15,020 statewide (30.61%) on one slide and 15,732 (32%) in the October 2026 overview, 3,253 among FY26 admissions, and 678 at Valdosta State Prison (61.64% of the people held there). Also: the Commissioner's data update (beds, jail backlog, admissions, contraband, staffing), the Valdosta State Prison update (population, gang groups, staffing and vacancies, medical and food service contracts, projects) and an education update. GDC lists the Bloods as separate sets; by GDC's own Nation labels, Blood sets total 3,683 statewide (more than the 3,481 Gangster Disciples) and 174 at Valdosta.
Status: All three items released November 9, 2026: the slides (38 pages), the full Board packet (68 pages) and the agenda (1 page). Nothing was withheld.
Documents as released (3)
| Document | Received | File |
|---|---|---|
| Slides shown to the Board of Corrections, September 30, 2026 As released. Data update (Cliff Hogan, Director, Data Management and Research), Valdosta State Prison update (Warden Kendric Jackson) and education update. | November 9, 2026 | PDF, 38 p., 6.1 MB |
| Full Board packet, September 30, 2026 As released. Agenda and Board members, minutes of the September 3, 2026 meeting, the October 2026 agency overview (population, admissions and releases, assaults, deaths, contraband, arrests, programs), the slides, the Tift Academy education update, three property resolutions (Arrendale State Prison red barn demolition; an easement at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison for Georgia Transmission's Rum Creek - Tomochichi line; Georgia State Prison houses 127 and 128 demolition) and the Board calendar for October to December 2026. | November 9, 2026 | PDF, 68 p., 27.6 MB |
| Agenda, September 30, 2026 As released. | November 9, 2026 | PDF, 1 p., 215 KB |
Prepared by GPS from these records (8)
Our compilations, made for convenience. Where they differ from the documents as released, the released documents govern.
| Document | Received | File |
|---|---|---|
| Gang members by nation, Bloods combined (GPS totals, CSV) GPS added up GDC's own group counts by the Nation label GDC printed beside each group. Statewide (slide 3, no date printed): the five groups GDC labels BLOOD (Sex-Money-Murder 1,200, 93 Gangster Blood 835, Bloods 794, Piru 432, Neighborhood Rolling 20s 422) total 3,683, 24.52% of the 15,020 validated members, against 3,481 for Gangster Disciples (FOLK), the largest single group. GDC lists only its ten largest groups, so each nation total is a minimum. Valdosta State Prison (slide 23, as of 9/18/2026): Blood sets 174 against Gangster Disciples 161; GDC's own slide 24 chart says "All Blood Sects - 234". Among FY26 admissions GDC itself counts by nation: Blood 948, Folk 626 (slide 6). Arithmetic is GPS's; every count is GDC's. | November 9, 2026 | CSV, 3 KB |
| Gang (security threat group) figures (CSV) 125 values: statewide validated STG members by group (slide 3), STG among FY26 admissions by group and nation (slide 6), Valdosta State Prison by group (slide 23, as of 9/18/2026, and the slide 24 chart), and the October 2026 overview's statewide count (packet page 7). GDC's own figures differ between slides: 15,020 statewide on slide 3 against 15,732 in the October overview, and Gangster Disciples at Valdosta 161 on slide 23 against 132 on slide 24. Both are kept as printed. GPS transcribed it from the released files (600 dpi OCR plus a reading of every page; each number was checked against the PDF text layer, the OCR or a close re-read). The released documents govern. | November 9, 2026 | CSV, 36 KB |
| Valdosta State Prison figures (CSV) 293 values from Warden Kendric Jackson's presentation: beds and population, security levels, sentence lengths, mental health caseload, gang groups, staffing and vacancy rates, Aramark food service and Centurion medical and mental health staffing. GPS transcribed it from the released files (600 dpi OCR plus a reading of every page; each number was checked against the PDF text layer, the OCR or a close re-read). The released documents govern. | November 9, 2026 | CSV, 75 KB |
| Statewide figures (CSV) 562 values from the Commissioner's data update and the October 2026 agency overview: beds and vacancies, population by race, age, offense and sentence, admissions, jail backlog, contraband, assaults, deaths, arrests, staffing and officer tenure, programs and education. Where GDC prints parts and a total that do not add up, the values are kept as printed and the gap is noted. GPS transcribed it from the released files (600 dpi OCR plus a reading of every page; each number was checked against the PDF text layer, the OCR or a close re-read). The released documents govern. | November 9, 2026 | CSV, 138 KB |
| Every value in the slides, packet and agenda (CSV) All 1,014 printed values, one per row, with file, page, table or chart, label, value as printed, a numeric value, date and how it was checked. GPS transcribed it from the released files (600 dpi OCR plus a reading of every page; each number was checked against the PDF text layer, the OCR or a close re-read). The released documents govern. | November 9, 2026 | CSV, 250 KB |
| Every value (JSON) The same 1,014 values as JSON. | November 9, 2026 | JSON, 508 KB |
| Slide-by-slide transcription All 38 slides: every title, label, table and chart value. GPS transcribed it from the released files (600 dpi OCR plus a reading of every page; each number was checked against the PDF text layer, the OCR or a close re-read). The released documents govern. | November 9, 2026 | TXT, 31 KB |
| Board packet transcription (pages not in the slides) Packet pages 1-9 and 45-68 in full, including the September 3, 2026 minutes, the October 2026 overview, the education update, the resolutions and the calendar. GPS transcribed it from the released files (600 dpi OCR plus a reading of every page; each number was checked against the PDF text layer, the OCR or a close re-read). The released documents govern. | November 9, 2026 | TXT, 75 KB |
What we asked for
Records presented to the Board of Corrections at its public meeting of September 30, 2026, at Wiregrass Technical College in Valdosta. The Board's published summary of that meeting says Commissioner Oliver's report included the Commissioner's Dashboard, a Data Update, a Valdosta State Prison Update and an Education Update.1. The slide presentation or presentations shown at that meeting, every slide, including the Commissioner's Dashboard, the Data Update, the Valdosta State Prison Update and the Education Update, in the electronic form in which they are kept (for example, PowerPoint or PDF).2. The Board packet or other written materials given to Board members for that meeting.3. The agenda for that meeting.These materials were presented at a meeting open to the public. Please provide them electronically. If any record or portion is withheld, please identify the specific exemption for each, as O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(d) requires. We agree to fees up to $25; please let us know before exceeding that amount.In plain terms, what we are looking for: copies of the slides shown to the Board of Corrections at its September 30, 2026 meeting in Valdosta, including the Commissioner's data update and the update on Valdosta State Prison, and the packet Board members received for that meeting.
Sent through: GDC's Open Records Center (GovQA portal), request type "GDC Operational Records", record type "Other"
What happened
| November 7, 2026 | Request filed through GDC's Open Records Center. GDC acknowledged it the same day and gave it reference number R033095-110726. |
| November 9, 2026 | GDC released the slides, the full Board packet and the agenda through the Records Center, at no charge. |
Cost
$0.00: No fee was charged.
Machine-readable
- JSON: https://gps.press/records/r033095-110726/?format=json
- Markdown: https://gps.press/records/r033095-110726.md
- REST API: https://gps.press/wp-json/gps-public-records/v1/requests/R033095-110726
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.