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: 2026-10-24 16:40:12 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 — name-level, 2020-2026 - [confirmed] METHODOLOGY: the calendar-year and fiscal-year GDC release series are SEPARATE and must never be summed, interleaved or compared to each other The Georgia Department of Corrections publishes its "Profile of Inmate Releases" in two separate editions: a calendar-year edition covering 1 January to 31 December, and a state fiscal-year edition covering 1 July to 30 June. Because the two editions share six months, a calendar-year figure and a fiscal-year figure must never be added together, placed in one time series or compared with each other. 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 The Georgia Department of Corrections' release type 62, "Death", counts how many people left its custody because they died, and carries no information about how they died. It is an administrative release reason, not a cause or manner of death, and it does not count deaths in county jails, on probation or in detention centers outside the agency's 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 150 releases by death in calendar year 2015: 145 men and 5 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with fiscal-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 151 releases by death in calendar year 2016: 145 men and 6 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with fiscal-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 190 releases by death in calendar year 2017: 176 men and 14 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with fiscal-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 196 releases by death in calendar year 2018: 189 men and 7 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with fiscal-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 176 releases by death in calendar year 2019: 165 men and 11 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with fiscal-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 292 releases by death in calendar year 2020: 287 men and 5 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with fiscal-year figures. 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 — name-level, 2020-2026 - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2021: 259 (246 male, 13 female) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 259 releases by death in calendar year 2021: 246 men and 13 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with fiscal-year figures. 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 — name-level, 2020-2026 - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2022: 252 (241 male, 11 female) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 252 releases by death in calendar year 2022: 241 men and 11 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with fiscal-year figures. 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 — name-level, 2020-2026 - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2023: 257 (250 male, 7 female) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 257 releases by death in calendar year 2023: 250 men and 7 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with fiscal-year figures. 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 — name-level, 2020-2026 - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2024: 333 (325 male, 8 female) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 333 releases by death in calendar year 2024: 325 men and 8 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with fiscal-year figures. 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 — name-level, 2020-2026 - [confirmed] GDC calendar-year releases by death, CY2025: 301 (289 male, 12 female) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 301 releases by death in calendar year 2025: 289 men and 12 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with fiscal-year figures. 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 — name-level, 2020-2026 - [confirmed] GDC fiscal-year releases by death, FY2016: 151 (141 male, 10 female) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 151 releases by death in state fiscal year 2016 (1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016): 141 men and 10 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with calendar-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 160 releases by death in state fiscal year 2017 (1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017): 150 men and 10 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with calendar-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 221 releases by death in state fiscal year 2018 (1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018): 212 men and 9 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with calendar-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 169 releases by death in state fiscal year 2019 (1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019): 163 men and 6 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with calendar-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 218 releases by death in state fiscal year 2020 (1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020): 208 men and 10 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with calendar-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 286 releases by death in state fiscal year 2021 (1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021): 280 men and 6 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with calendar-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 264 releases by death in state fiscal year 2022 (1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022): 249 men and 15 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with calendar-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 252 releases by death in state fiscal year 2023 (1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023): 243 men and 9 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with calendar-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 285 releases by death in state fiscal year 2024 (1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024): 278 men and 7 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with calendar-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 325 releases by death in state fiscal year 2025 (1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025): 316 men and 9 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with calendar-year figures. 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) The Georgia Department of Corrections recorded 309 releases by death in state fiscal year 2026 (1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026): 294 men and 15 women. It counts releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be added to or compared with calendar-year figures. 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 From 2020 through 2025, the Georgia Department of Corrections' calendar-year count of releases by death agreed with GPS's own name-level registry of in-custody deaths to within five in every year and exactly in two, with six-year totals of 1,694 for the agency and 1,702 for the registry. The agency's count for 2025, 301, included the six decedents whose names it refused to release, so the gap in its disclosure is a failure to name the dead, not a failure to count them. These figures count releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death. 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 — name-level, 2020-2026 - [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) For 2015 through 2019, the Georgia Department of Corrections counted 863 releases by death, while the UCLA Law Behind Bars roster names 791 deaths: the roster is short by 72, or 8.3% of the agency's count, and was short in every one of the five years. The agency's figure should be used for any Georgia in-custody death total before 2020, and the UCLA roster for names, facilities and individual circumstances. The UCLA roster must never be added to or compared with GPS's own registry, which covers separate years by a separate method. 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 On the Georgia Department of Corrections' own calendar-year count of releases by death, the annual average rose 63.6%, from 172.6 a year in 2015-2019 to 282.3 a year in 2020-2025, and the highest year before 2020 (196, in 2018) was still below the lowest year from 2020 on (252, in 2022). The count comes from the same office, report and field every year, so the rise does not come from a change in who was counting or how. These are calendar-year counts of releases recorded as deaths, not causes of death, and must not be extended with fiscal-year figures. 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 — name-level, 2020-2026 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 — name-level, 2020-2026, Georgia Prisoners' Speak / GDC Accountability Project, Inc. by Georgia Prisoners' Speak [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/