GPS RESEARCH LIBRARY: GDC Release-by-Death: a single-methodology in-custody death series for Georgia (CY2015-CY2025, FY2016-FY2026) ============================================================ Georgia Prisoners' Speak — gps.press Generated: 2026-09-14 13:24:13 EDT Research Date: 2026-09-13 Topic: Mortality/Deaths in Custody Date Range: 2015-01-01 to 2026-06-30 JSON: https://gps.press/research-data/gdc-release-by-death-single-methodology-series/?format=json SUMMARY ---------------------------------------- A single-methodology, GDC-sourced annual in-custody death count for Georgia, read directly out of GDC's own "Profile of Inmate Releases" reports (actual release type code 62, Death), and validated against GPS's two independent death rosters. TWO SEPARATE SERIES, NEVER TO BE MIXED: calendar-year editions CY2015-CY2025 (11 years) and state-fiscal-year editions FY2016-FY2026 (11 years). The two cover overlapping periods and must never be summed, averaged together, interleaved, or compared to each other. Every datapoint in this collection names its own period type. WHY IT EXISTS: GPS's post-2020 death figures come from its own registry; its pre-2020 figures come from the UCLA Law Behind Bars roster. Those are two different counting methods, so a rise measured across the 2020 boundary could always be waved away as "better counting, not more dying." The GDC release-by-death series is ONE count produced the same way by the same office every year, which retires that objection. Validated: it agrees with the GPS registry to within 5 in each of the six overlapping years (2020-2025), exactly at 333 in 2024 and exactly at 301 in 2025. ⛔ Every figure here is an administrative release-reason count, never a cause of death. METHODOLOGY NOTES (3) ---------------------------------------- - [confirmed] METHODOLOGY: the GDC release-by-death series is ONE consistent GDC-produced count, which is what makes it usable for trend analysis Georgia's in-custody death figures have until now come from two different counting methods stitched together at 2020: the UCLA Law Behind Bars roster for 2015-2019 and GPS's own registry for 2020 onward. Any rise measured ACROSS that seam is contestable as an artifact of method — better counting rather than more dying. The GDC release-by-death series has no such seam. Every figure in it is produced by the same office (GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section), in the same report series ("Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During "), from the same field (actual release type code 62, Death), in the same table, on roughly the same page, every year from CY2015 to CY2025. Male, female and total are printed separately and male+female sums to the stated total in all 22 reports examined — no figure in this collection is inferred. That single-methodology property is the entire point. A trend computed within this series is a trend in deaths. A trend computed by splicing the UCLA roster to the GPS registry is a trend in deaths plus a trend in record-keeping, and the two cannot be separated after the fact. GDC also has a statutory duty to count deaths in its custody. Concealment is therefore possible but bounded: the six deaths GDC refused to NAME in 2025 were still inside the 301 it COUNTED. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Tags: death,methodology,trend,GDC,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2015; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2025; UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project — Georgia individual-level COVID-era death roster (GA-Individual.csv); GPS in-custody death registry (wp_gps_mortality_deaths) - [confirmed] METHODOLOGY: the calendar-year and fiscal-year GDC release series are SEPARATE and must never be summed, interleaved or compared to each other GDC publishes the "Profile of Inmate Releases" twice for overlapping ground: a CALENDAR-year edition (produced each January, covering 1 January - 31 December) and a state-FISCAL-year edition (produced each July, covering 1 July - 30 June). GPS holds CY2015-CY2025 and FY2016-FY2026. A CY figure and an FY figure for nominally the same year cover different twelve-month windows and double-count the six months they share. They are two independent series, not two readings of one. ⛔ Never add a CY figure to an FY figure. ⛔ Never place them in one time series or one chart axis. ⛔ Never describe an FY figure as a calendar-year total or the reverse. ⛔ Never compute a change between a CY figure and an FY figure. Every statistic datapoint in this collection names its period type in its own title and text for exactly this reason. In the database, wp_gps_release_statistics.period (cy|fy) carries the distinction; the column named `fiscal_year` there is the report YEAR and is not always a fiscal year. For trend work against GPS's own rosters, use the CALENDAR-year series — GPS's registry and the UCLA roster are both calendar-year. Tags: death,methodology,CY-vs-FY,data-hygiene Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2025; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2026 - [confirmed] METHODOLOGY: release type 62 "Death" is an administrative release reason, not a cause or manner of death This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. The figure answers one question only: how many people left GDC custody because they died. It carries no information about how they died, whether an autopsy was performed, whether the GBI investigated, or whether the death was classified as natural, homicide, suicide, overdose or undetermined. ⛔ Never present a release-by-death figure as an autopsy or cause finding, and never let it stand in for one. Cause and manner come from coroner and medical-examiner records and from GPS's own registry fields, not from this series. The series is also a count of DEATHS OF PEOPLE IN GDC CUSTODY as GDC records custody — it is not a count of deaths in county jails, on probation, or in detention centers outside GDC custody. Tags: death,methodology,cause-of-death,prohibition Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2025 STATISTICS (22) ---------------------------------------- - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2015: 150 (145 male, 5 female) GDC recorded 150 releases from its custody in calendar year 2015 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 145 male and 5 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: CALENDAR YEAR 2015 (1 January - 31 December 2015). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", CALENDAR-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ Not comparable to, and never to be summed with, the fiscal-year edition of the same series. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2015", produced 2016-01-02 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 33, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2015/download Context from the same table: 17,888 total reported releases in CY2015. VALIDATION: GPS's comparator for 2015 is the UCLA Law Behind Bars roster, which names 143 deaths — +7 against GDC's count, i.e. the compiled roster is short of GDC's own aggregate by 7. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 150 deaths (GDC releases by death, CY) (vs. 143 UCLA Law Behind Bars named-death roster, 2015) Date: 2015-12-31 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,calendar-year,CY2015,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2015; UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project — Georgia individual-level COVID-era death roster (GA-Individual.csv) - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2016: 151 (145 male, 6 female) GDC recorded 151 releases from its custody in calendar year 2016 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 145 male and 6 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: CALENDAR YEAR 2016 (1 January - 31 December 2016). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", CALENDAR-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ Not comparable to, and never to be summed with, the fiscal-year edition of the same series. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2016", produced 2017-01-02 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 33, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2016/download Context from the same table: 16,939 total reported releases in CY2016. VALIDATION: GPS's comparator for 2016 is the UCLA Law Behind Bars roster, which names 138 deaths — +13 against GDC's count, i.e. the compiled roster is short of GDC's own aggregate by 13. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 151 deaths (GDC releases by death, CY) (vs. 138 UCLA Law Behind Bars named-death roster, 2016) Date: 2016-12-31 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,calendar-year,CY2016,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2016; UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project — Georgia individual-level COVID-era death roster (GA-Individual.csv) - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2017: 190 (176 male, 14 female) GDC recorded 190 releases from its custody in calendar year 2017 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 176 male and 14 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: CALENDAR YEAR 2017 (1 January - 31 December 2017). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", CALENDAR-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ Not comparable to, and never to be summed with, the fiscal-year edition of the same series. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2017", produced 2018-01-09 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 35, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2017/download Context from the same table: 17,268 total reported releases in CY2017. VALIDATION: GPS's comparator for 2017 is the UCLA Law Behind Bars roster, which names 175 deaths — +15 against GDC's count, i.e. the compiled roster is short of GDC's own aggregate by 15. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 190 deaths (GDC releases by death, CY) (vs. 175 UCLA Law Behind Bars named-death roster, 2017) Date: 2017-12-31 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,calendar-year,CY2017,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2017; UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project — Georgia individual-level COVID-era death roster (GA-Individual.csv) - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2018: 196 (189 male, 7 female) GDC recorded 196 releases from its custody in calendar year 2018 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 189 male and 7 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: CALENDAR YEAR 2018 (1 January - 31 December 2018). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", CALENDAR-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ Not comparable to, and never to be summed with, the fiscal-year edition of the same series. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2018", produced 2019-01-02 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 33, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2018/download Context from the same table: 18,527 total reported releases in CY2018. VALIDATION: GPS's comparator for 2018 is the UCLA Law Behind Bars roster, which names 175 deaths — +21 against GDC's count, i.e. the compiled roster is short of GDC's own aggregate by 21. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 196 deaths (GDC releases by death, CY) (vs. 175 UCLA Law Behind Bars named-death roster, 2018) Date: 2018-12-31 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,calendar-year,CY2018,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2018; UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project — Georgia individual-level COVID-era death roster (GA-Individual.csv) - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2019: 176 (165 male, 11 female) GDC recorded 176 releases from its custody in calendar year 2019 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 165 male and 11 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: CALENDAR YEAR 2019 (1 January - 31 December 2019). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", CALENDAR-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ Not comparable to, and never to be summed with, the fiscal-year edition of the same series. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2019", produced 2020-01-02 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 33, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2019/download Context from the same table: 18,008 total reported releases in CY2019. VALIDATION: GPS's comparator for 2019 is the UCLA Law Behind Bars roster, which names 160 deaths — +16 against GDC's count, i.e. the compiled roster is short of GDC's own aggregate by 16. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 176 deaths (GDC releases by death, CY) (vs. 160 UCLA Law Behind Bars named-death roster, 2019) Date: 2019-12-31 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,calendar-year,CY2019,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2019; UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project — Georgia individual-level COVID-era death roster (GA-Individual.csv) - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2020: 292 (287 male, 5 female) GDC recorded 292 releases from its custody in calendar year 2020 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 287 male and 5 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: CALENDAR YEAR 2020 (1 January - 31 December 2020). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", CALENDAR-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ Not comparable to, and never to be summed with, the fiscal-year edition of the same series. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2020", produced 2021-01-02 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 33, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2020/download Context from the same table: 18,303 total reported releases in CY2020. VALIDATION: GPS's own registry independently counts 294 deaths for 2020 — a difference of -2, within single digits. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 292 deaths (GDC releases by death, CY) (vs. 294 GPS in-custody death registry, 2020) Date: 2020-12-31 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,calendar-year,CY2020,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2020; GPS in-custody death registry (wp_gps_mortality_deaths) - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2021: 259 (246 male, 13 female) GDC recorded 259 releases from its custody in calendar year 2021 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 246 male and 13 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: CALENDAR YEAR 2021 (1 January - 31 December 2021). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", CALENDAR-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ Not comparable to, and never to be summed with, the fiscal-year edition of the same series. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2021", produced 2022-01-02 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 35, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2021/download Context from the same table: 13,783 total reported releases in CY2021. VALIDATION: GPS's own registry independently counts 257 deaths for 2021 — a difference of +2, within single digits. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 259 deaths (GDC releases by death, CY) (vs. 257 GPS in-custody death registry, 2021) Date: 2021-12-31 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,calendar-year,CY2021,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2021; GPS in-custody death registry (wp_gps_mortality_deaths) - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2022: 252 (241 male, 11 female) GDC recorded 252 releases from its custody in calendar year 2022 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 241 male and 11 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: CALENDAR YEAR 2022 (1 January - 31 December 2022). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", CALENDAR-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ Not comparable to, and never to be summed with, the fiscal-year edition of the same series. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2022", produced 2023-01-19 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 34, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2022/download Context from the same table: 13,362 total reported releases in CY2022. VALIDATION: GPS's own registry independently counts 255 deaths for 2022 — a difference of -3, within single digits. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 252 deaths (GDC releases by death, CY) (vs. 255 GPS in-custody death registry, 2022) Date: 2022-12-31 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,calendar-year,CY2022,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2022; GPS in-custody death registry (wp_gps_mortality_deaths) - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2023: 257 (250 male, 7 female) GDC recorded 257 releases from its custody in calendar year 2023 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 250 male and 7 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: CALENDAR YEAR 2023 (1 January - 31 December 2023). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", CALENDAR-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ Not comparable to, and never to be summed with, the fiscal-year edition of the same series. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2023", produced 2024-01-02 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 34, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2023/download Context from the same table: 13,307 total reported releases in CY2023. VALIDATION: GPS's own registry independently counts 262 deaths for 2023 — a difference of -5, within single digits. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 257 deaths (GDC releases by death, CY) (vs. 262 GPS in-custody death registry, 2023) Date: 2023-12-31 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,calendar-year,CY2023,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2023; GPS in-custody death registry (wp_gps_mortality_deaths) - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2024: 333 (325 male, 8 female) GDC recorded 333 releases from its custody in calendar year 2024 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 325 male and 8 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: CALENDAR YEAR 2024 (1 January - 31 December 2024). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", CALENDAR-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ Not comparable to, and never to be summed with, the fiscal-year edition of the same series. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2024", produced 2025-01-02 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 33, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2024/download Context from the same table: 13,583 total reported releases in CY2024. VALIDATION: GPS's own registry independently counts 333 deaths for 2024 — exact agreement. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 333 deaths (GDC releases by death, CY) (vs. 333 GPS in-custody death registry, 2024) Date: 2024-12-31 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,calendar-year,CY2024,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2024; GPS in-custody death registry (wp_gps_mortality_deaths) - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2025: 301 (289 male, 12 female) GDC recorded 301 releases from its custody in calendar year 2025 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 289 male and 12 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: CALENDAR YEAR 2025 (1 January - 31 December 2025). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", CALENDAR-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ Not comparable to, and never to be summed with, the fiscal-year edition of the same series. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2025", produced 2026-01-02 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 39, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2025/download Context from the same table: 13,724 total reported releases in CY2025. VALIDATION: GPS's own registry independently counts 301 deaths for 2025 — exact agreement. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 301 deaths (GDC releases by death, CY) (vs. 301 GPS in-custody death registry, 2025) Date: 2025-12-31 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,calendar-year,CY2025,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2025; GPS in-custody death registry (wp_gps_mortality_deaths) - [confirmed] GDC fiscal-year releases by death, FY2016: 151 (141 male, 10 female) GDC recorded 151 releases from its custody in state fiscal year 2016 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 141 male and 10 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: STATE FISCAL YEAR 2016 (1 July 2015 - 30 June 2016). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", FISCAL-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ This is NOT a calendar-year figure. It is not comparable to, and must never be summed or interleaved with, the calendar-year edition of the same series, nor with GPS's registry or the UCLA roster, both of which are calendar-year. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2016", produced 2016-07-14 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 33, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2016/download Context from the same table: 18,131 total reported releases in FY2016. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 151 deaths (GDC releases by death, FY) Date: 2016-06-30 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,fiscal-year,FY2016,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2016 - [confirmed] GDC fiscal-year releases by death, FY2017: 160 (150 male, 10 female) GDC recorded 160 releases from its custody in state fiscal year 2017 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 150 male and 10 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: STATE FISCAL YEAR 2017 (1 July 2016 - 30 June 2017). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", FISCAL-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ This is NOT a calendar-year figure. It is not comparable to, and must never be summed or interleaved with, the calendar-year edition of the same series, nor with GPS's registry or the UCLA roster, both of which are calendar-year. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2017", produced 2017-07-13 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 33, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2017/download Context from the same table: 16,458 total reported releases in FY2017. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 160 deaths (GDC releases by death, FY) Date: 2017-06-30 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,fiscal-year,FY2017,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2017 - [confirmed] GDC fiscal-year releases by death, FY2018: 221 (212 male, 9 female) GDC recorded 221 releases from its custody in state fiscal year 2018 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 212 male and 9 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: STATE FISCAL YEAR 2018 (1 July 2017 - 30 June 2018). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", FISCAL-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ This is NOT a calendar-year figure. It is not comparable to, and must never be summed or interleaved with, the calendar-year edition of the same series, nor with GPS's registry or the UCLA roster, both of which are calendar-year. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2018", produced 2018-07-12 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 33, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2018/download Context from the same table: 18,326 total reported releases in FY2018. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 221 deaths (GDC releases by death, FY) Date: 2018-06-30 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,fiscal-year,FY2018,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2018 - [confirmed] GDC fiscal-year releases by death, FY2019: 169 (163 male, 6 female) GDC recorded 169 releases from its custody in state fiscal year 2019 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 163 male and 6 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: STATE FISCAL YEAR 2019 (1 July 2018 - 30 June 2019). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", FISCAL-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ This is NOT a calendar-year figure. It is not comparable to, and must never be summed or interleaved with, the calendar-year edition of the same series, nor with GPS's registry or the UCLA roster, both of which are calendar-year. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2019", produced 2019-07-11 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 33, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2019/download Context from the same table: 18,030 total reported releases in FY2019. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 169 deaths (GDC releases by death, FY) Date: 2019-06-30 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,fiscal-year,FY2019,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2019 - [confirmed] GDC fiscal-year releases by death, FY2020: 218 (208 male, 10 female) GDC recorded 218 releases from its custody in state fiscal year 2020 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 208 male and 10 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: STATE FISCAL YEAR 2020 (1 July 2019 - 30 June 2020). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", FISCAL-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ This is NOT a calendar-year figure. It is not comparable to, and must never be summed or interleaved with, the calendar-year edition of the same series, nor with GPS's registry or the UCLA roster, both of which are calendar-year. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2020", produced 2020-07-09 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 33, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2020/download Context from the same table: 19,202 total reported releases in FY2020. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 218 deaths (GDC releases by death, FY) Date: 2020-06-30 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,fiscal-year,FY2020,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2020 - [confirmed] GDC fiscal-year releases by death, FY2021: 286 (280 male, 6 female) GDC recorded 286 releases from its custody in state fiscal year 2021 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 280 male and 6 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: STATE FISCAL YEAR 2021 (1 July 2020 - 30 June 2021). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", FISCAL-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ This is NOT a calendar-year figure. It is not comparable to, and must never be summed or interleaved with, the calendar-year edition of the same series, nor with GPS's registry or the UCLA roster, both of which are calendar-year. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2021", produced 2021-07-08 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 34, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2021/download Context from the same table: 15,413 total reported releases in FY2021. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 286 deaths (GDC releases by death, FY) Date: 2021-06-30 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,fiscal-year,FY2021,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2021 - [confirmed] GDC fiscal-year releases by death, FY2022: 264 (249 male, 15 female) GDC recorded 264 releases from its custody in state fiscal year 2022 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 249 male and 15 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: STATE FISCAL YEAR 2022 (1 July 2021 - 30 June 2022). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", FISCAL-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ This is NOT a calendar-year figure. It is not comparable to, and must never be summed or interleaved with, the calendar-year edition of the same series, nor with GPS's registry or the UCLA roster, both of which are calendar-year. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2022", produced 2022-07-01 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 34, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2022/download Context from the same table: 13,375 total reported releases in FY2022. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 264 deaths (GDC releases by death, FY) Date: 2022-06-30 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,fiscal-year,FY2022,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2022 - [confirmed] GDC fiscal-year releases by death, FY2023: 252 (243 male, 9 female) GDC recorded 252 releases from its custody in state fiscal year 2023 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 243 male and 9 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: STATE FISCAL YEAR 2023 (1 July 2022 - 30 June 2023). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", FISCAL-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ This is NOT a calendar-year figure. It is not comparable to, and must never be summed or interleaved with, the calendar-year edition of the same series, nor with GPS's registry or the UCLA roster, both of which are calendar-year. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2023", produced 2023-08-17 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 34, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2023/download Context from the same table: 13,462 total reported releases in FY2023. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 252 deaths (GDC releases by death, FY) Date: 2023-06-30 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,fiscal-year,FY2023,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2023 - [confirmed] GDC fiscal-year releases by death, FY2024: 285 (278 male, 7 female) GDC recorded 285 releases from its custody in state fiscal year 2024 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 278 male and 7 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: STATE FISCAL YEAR 2024 (1 July 2023 - 30 June 2024). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", FISCAL-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ This is NOT a calendar-year figure. It is not comparable to, and must never be summed or interleaved with, the calendar-year edition of the same series, nor with GPS's registry or the UCLA roster, both of which are calendar-year. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2024", produced 2024-07-01 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 33, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2024/download Context from the same table: 13,164 total reported releases in FY2024. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 285 deaths (GDC releases by death, FY) Date: 2024-06-30 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,fiscal-year,FY2024,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2024 - [confirmed] GDC fiscal-year releases by death, FY2025: 325 (316 male, 9 female) GDC recorded 325 releases from its custody in state fiscal year 2025 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 316 male and 9 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: STATE FISCAL YEAR 2025 (1 July 2024 - 30 June 2025). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", FISCAL-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ This is NOT a calendar-year figure. It is not comparable to, and must never be summed or interleaved with, the calendar-year edition of the same series, nor with GPS's registry or the UCLA roster, both of which are calendar-year. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2025", produced 2025-07-24 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 39, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2025/download Context from the same table: 13,523 total reported releases in FY2025. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 325 deaths (GDC releases by death, FY) Date: 2025-06-30 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,fiscal-year,FY2025,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2025 - [confirmed] GDC fiscal-year releases by death, FY2026: 309 (294 male, 15 female) GDC recorded 309 releases from its custody in state fiscal year 2026 under actual release type code 62, "Death" — 294 male and 15 female. Male plus female sums to the stated total. PERIOD TYPE: STATE FISCAL YEAR 2026 (1 July 2025 - 30 June 2026). SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", FISCAL-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ This is NOT a calendar-year figure. It is not comparable to, and must never be summed or interleaved with, the calendar-year edition of the same series, nor with GPS's registry or the UCLA roster, both of which are calendar-year. Source: GDC, "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2026", produced 2026-07-01 by the GDC Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section; page 39, "Actual release type" table, row "62 Death". https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2026/download Context from the same table: 14,028 total reported releases in FY2026. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Value: 309 deaths (GDC releases by death, FY) Date: 2026-06-30 Tags: death,GDC,release-by-death,fiscal-year,FY2026,single-methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2026 FINDINGS (2) ---------------------------------------- - [confirmed] VALIDATED: GDC's aggregate death count agrees with GPS's independent registry in all six overlapping years, 2020-2025 — the gap in GDC's disclosure is a NAMING gap, not a counting gap Compared year by year against GPS's own name-level in-custody death registry, GDC's calendar-year release-by-death count agrees to within five in every one of the six overlapping years, and exactly in two of them. 2020: GDC 292 vs registry 294 (-2); 2021: GDC 259 vs registry 257 (+2); 2022: GDC 252 vs registry 255 (-3); 2023: GDC 257 vs registry 262 (-5); 2024: GDC 333 vs registry 333 (+0); 2025: GDC 301 vs registry 301 (+0). Six-year totals: GDC 1,694, GPS registry 1,702 — a difference of -8 across 1,702 deaths, 0.47%. The largest single-year disagreement is 5. Two years match exactly: CY2024 at 333 and CY2025 at 301. THE FINDING: GDC's aggregate count of deaths in its custody is substantively complete, including in the very year it refused to release six of the decedents' names. Those six were inside the 301 it published. The deficiency in GDC's disclosure is therefore a failure to NAME the dead, not a failure to COUNT them — a distinction that matters, because it means GDC's own published aggregates can be used as an independent, agency-sourced check on GPS's roster, and can carry a trend back before GPS's registry begins. Both series here are CALENDAR-year. PERIOD TYPE: CY. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Date: 2025-12-31 Tags: death,validation,GDC,registry,naming-gap,calendar-year Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2020; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2021; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2022; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2023; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2024; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2025; GPS in-custody death registry (wp_gps_mortality_deaths) - [confirmed] MEASURED: the UCLA Law Behind Bars Georgia roster is short of GDC's own count by 72 deaths across 2015-2019 (8.3% of the GDC total) GDC's calendar-year release-by-death counts for 2015-2019 are higher than the UCLA Law Behind Bars named-death roster in every one of the five years. 2015: GDC 150 vs UCLA 143 (+7); 2016: GDC 151 vs UCLA 138 (+13); 2017: GDC 190 vs UCLA 175 (+15); 2018: GDC 196 vs UCLA 175 (+21); 2019: GDC 176 vs UCLA 160 (+16). Five-year totals: GDC 863, UCLA 791 — GDC is 72 higher, 8.3% of GDC's count, averaging 14.4 deaths a year and ranging from 7 to 21. THE FINDING, stated straight: the pre-2020 roster GPS has been relying on is incomplete, and this exercise measures by how much instead of speculating about it. UCLA's is a compiled, name-level roster assembled from outside the agency; GDC's is the agency's own aggregate, and on the 2020-2025 evidence the agency's aggregate is the more complete count. Wherever a pre-2020 Georgia in-custody death TOTAL is needed, the GDC release-by-death figure should be used, and the UCLA roster should be used for what it is good for: names, facilities and individual circumstances. Note also what this does NOT do. Correcting 2015-2019 upward makes the pre-2020 baseline HIGHER, which makes the post-2020 rise smaller than an uncorrected UCLA-to-registry splice would suggest — and the rise survives anyway. See the trend datapoint. PERIOD TYPE: CY on both sides. ⛔ Never sum or compare the UCLA historical roster with the GPS registry — they are separate series covering separate years with separate methods, and that mixing hazard is what this collection exists to retire. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Date: 2019-12-31 Tags: death,validation,UCLA,data-gap,calendar-year,measured-gap Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2015; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2016; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2017; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2018; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2019; UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project — Georgia individual-level COVID-era death roster (GA-Individual.csv) TRENDS (1) ---------------------------------------- - [confirmed] TREND: on GDC's single, consistent count, Georgia's annual in-custody deaths rose 64% from the 2015-2019 average to the 2020-2025 average — the rise is real, not an artifact of counting method Within ONE series — GDC's calendar-year release-by-death count, same office, same report, same field, every year — the annual figures run: CY2015 150 CY2016 151 CY2017 190 CY2018 196 CY2019 176 CY2020 292 CY2021 259 CY2022 252 CY2023 257 CY2024 333 CY2025 301 2015-2019 average: 172.6 deaths a year (863 over five years). 2020-2025 average: 282.3 deaths a year (1,694 over six years). Increase in the annual average: 63.6%. The separation is clean at the extremes: the WORST pre-2020 year in the series (196 in CY2018) is still below the BEST post-2020 year (252 in CY2022). There is no overlap between the two periods at all. CY2024, at 333, is the series maximum and 2.2 times CY2015's 150. The single largest year-on-year jump is CY2019 to CY2020, 176 to 292 (+66%). WHY THIS SETTLES THE METHOD OBJECTION: no part of this comparison crosses a change in who was counting or how. The caveat that part of the apparent post-2020 jump might be "better counting, not more dying" does not apply to this series, and can be retired when the series is the one being cited. Deaths per year also rose while total releases FELL — 17,888 reported releases in CY2015 against 13,724 in CY2025 — so a death count expressed against any shrinking denominator would rise more steeply still. No rate is asserted here: the release total is not a population, and a per-capita rate needs GDC's year-end custody counts as its denominator (available, see the data_gap datapoint on further reach). PERIOD TYPE: CALENDAR YEAR throughout. SERIES: GDC "Profile of Inmate Releases", CALENDAR-year edition — actual release type code 62 "Death". ⛔ Do not extend this trend with fiscal-year figures. This is an administrative RELEASE-REASON count produced by GDC's Data Management Section — the number of people whose release from GDC custody was recorded as release type 62, Death. It is NOT an autopsy finding, NOT a cause-of-death determination and NOT a manner-of-death classification. Date: 2025-12-31 Tags: death,trend,GDC,calendar-year,single-methodology,post-2020-rise Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2015; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2016; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2017; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2018; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2019; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2020; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2021; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2022; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2023; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2024; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2025 DATA GAPS (2) ---------------------------------------- - [confirmed] DATA GAP: the GDC release-by-death series reaches back only to CY2015; nothing earlier is in the corpus, and the monthly profiles cannot supply it The single-methodology series stops at CY2015 (calendar) and FY2016 (fiscal). What was checked and what it yielded: 1. "Profile of Inmate Releases" — 22 documents, and only 22: CY2015-CY2025 and FY2016-FY2026. No CY2014 or earlier edition, and no FY2015 or earlier edition, is present under any report type or title in the GDC report corpus. This is the binding limit. 2. The MONTHLY Inmate Statistical Profiles are the WRONG SOURCE, confirmed on two grounds. (a) They are standing-POPULATION snapshots ("All Inmates", "Lifers", "LWOP", and so on), not release cohorts. Their "release type" section — held in wp_gps_gdc_profile_distribution, section_key='release_type', covering 2013-2026 — carries the labels "Maxout with/without probation to follow", "Paroled with/without probation to follow" and "Life, LWOP or death sentence". That is the anticipated release ROUTE of the people currently incarcerated, classified by sentence type. There is no "Death" release-reason row in it at all, so it cannot yield a death count for any year. (b) Separately, all 316 monthly All-Inmates documents (2000-2026) are indexed by title and URL only — no local PDF and no extracted text — so nothing could be read from them without a web fetch in any case. 3. The GDC ANNUAL FISCAL REPORTS (11 documents, 2014-2025, full text extracted) contain no release-by-death or total-deaths figure. Every "death" mention in them is a death SENTENCE — population under life, LWOP or death sentence. One partial exception: the FY2018 report carries a "Mortality" infographic reading Homicides 23 / Suicides 23. That is manner-specific rather than a total, and the PDF's text layer is badly mangled (overlapping layered text), so it is not usable as extracted and is recorded here only as a possible future manner-of-death cross-check for FY2018. 4. "Year-End Population Since 1925" holds year-end custody counts from 1925 to the present but no deaths. WHAT AN ORR WOULD HAVE TO ASK FOR, to push the series back before CY2015: (i) archived "Profile of Inmate Releases" / "Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During" editions for calendar years before 2015 and fiscal years before 2016, if GDC retains them; or, more directly and more likely to succeed, (ii) a single aggregate count of releases recorded under actual release type code 62 (Death), by calendar year, male and female, for every year GDC's offender-management system holds — this is the same one-field aggregation GDC's Data Management Section already performs to produce the annual profile, so it is neither novel nor burdensome, and the request should say so. Ask in the request that the response identify the system queried and the release-type code used, so the pre-2015 figures are demonstrably the SAME methodology as CY2015-CY2025 rather than a new count. Date: 2015-01-01 Tags: death,data-gap,ORR,corpus,pre-2015,methodology Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2015; GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2016 - [confirmed] DATA GAP: the series carries no names, no causes and no facilities — and GDC's refusal to name six of the 301 it counted in 2025 is the gap that remains The GDC release-by-death series is an aggregate. It gives a count and a male/female split and nothing else: no names, no ages, no facilities, no dates within the year, no causes, no manners of death, no autopsy status. It cannot support any claim about an individual, about a particular prison, or about how anyone died. What this exercise establishes is that GDC's COUNT is substantively complete — it matches GPS's independent registry to within five in every overlapping year and exactly in 2024 and 2025. What remains missing is identification. In 2025 GDC published 301 and declined to name six of those people. The six are inside the count. So the outstanding demand is not "tell us how many" — GDC has answered that, and answered it consistently for eleven years — but "tell us who," and then cause, facility and date for each. Framing note for any published use: GDC has a statutory duty to count deaths in its custody, and on this evidence it discharges the counting duty. Arguing that GDC is hiding large numbers of deaths is not supported here and should not be asserted; the supported claim is narrower, harder and better — GDC knows exactly how many people die in its custody, publishes the number every January, and withholds the identities. Date: 2025-12-31 Tags: death,data-gap,naming-gap,GDC,transparency,framing Sources: GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2025; GPS in-custody death registry (wp_gps_mortality_deaths) SOURCES (24) ---------------------------------------- - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2015, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2016-01-02) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2015/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2016, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2017-01-02) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2016/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2017, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2018-01-09) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2017/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2018, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2019-01-02) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2018/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2019, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2020-01-02) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2019/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2020, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2021-01-02) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2020/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2021, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2022-01-02) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2021/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2022, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2023-01-19) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2022/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2023, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2024-01-02) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2023/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2024, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2025-01-02) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2024/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During CY2025, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2026-01-02) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-cy-2025/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2016, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2016-07-14) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2016/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2017, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2017-07-13) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2017/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2018, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2018-07-12) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2018/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2019, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2019-07-11) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2019/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2020, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2020-07-09) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2020/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2021, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2021-07-08) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2021/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2022, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2022-07-01) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2022/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2023, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2023-08-17) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2023/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2024, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2024-07-01) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2024/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2025, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2025-07-24) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2025/download - GDC, Inmate Statistical Profile — Inmates Released During FY2026, Georgia Department of Corrections by Georgia Department of Corrections, Office of Information Technology, Data Management Section (2026-07-01) [official_report, primary] URL: https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/annual-statistical-reports/profile-inmate-rel-fy-2026/download - GPS in-custody death registry (wp_gps_mortality_deaths), Georgia Prisoners' Speak / GDC Accountability Project, Inc. [gps_original, primary] URL: https://gps.press/datasets/ - UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project — Georgia individual-level COVID-era death roster (GA-Individual.csv), UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project [academic, secondary] URL: https://uclacovidbehindbars.org/