The U.S. Government Found Georgia Prisons Are Dangerously Violent and Failing to Protect People

TL;DR

The U.S. Department of Justice looked into Georgia’s prisons. They found the state is failing to keep people safe. From 2018 to 2023, 142 people were killed in Georgia prisons. About half of all guard jobs are empty. Weapons, drugs, and gangs fill the prisons with little control. LGBTI people face extra danger from sexual abuse. The DOJ says Georgia has known about these problems for years and has not done enough to fix them.

Why This Matters

If someone you love is in a Georgia prison, this report confirms what many families already know: the state is not keeping them safe.

This is the federal government saying Georgia breaks the law. The DOJ found that Georgia violates the Eighth Amendment. That means the state inflicts cruel and unusual punishment by failing to protect people from harm.

This matters for families because:

• Your loved one may be in danger every day. Violence happens at prisons across the whole state — not just one or two.
• Guards are not there to help. More than half of guard jobs sit empty. At some prisons, over 70% of guard spots have no one in them.
• Gangs control many housing units. They decide where people sleep. They beat and rob people. They force families to send money.
• Reporting abuse often leads nowhere. Less than 10% of fights even get looked into. People fear speaking up because nothing changes — or things get worse.
• LGBTI people face even greater risk. Georgia does not screen or house LGBTI people in safe ways. Nearly 35% of transgender people in prison report being sexually harmed.

The state has spent almost $20 million since 2018 to settle claims for deaths and injuries. But money cannot undo the harm already done.

Key Takeaway: The federal government says Georgia is breaking the law by failing to protect people in its prisons from violence and sexual harm.

People Are Being Killed at an Alarming Rate

From 2018 through 2023, 142 people were killed in Georgia prisons. The killings got worse over time:

• 2018: 7 people killed
• 2019: 13 people killed
• 2020: 28 people killed
• 2021: 28 people killed
• 2022: 31 people killed
• 2023: 35 people killed — a record high

Killings nearly doubled from the first three years to the last three years — a 95.8% increase.

In just the first five months of 2024, 18 more people were killed or likely killed.

Georgia’s prison killing rate is almost triple the national average. In 2019, the national rate was 12 per 100,000 people. Georgia’s rate was 34 per 100,000 people. And the numbers have gotten much worse since then.

These deaths happen at prisons across the state. No single prison is “the dangerous one.” Different prisons lead in killings in different years.

Key Takeaway: 142 people were killed in Georgia prisons from 2018 to 2023, nearly triple the national average rate.

Violence Is Constant and Widespread

Killings are just the worst outcome. Violence happens every day.

From January 2022 through April 2023 — just 16 months — there were more than 1,400 reported violent events. These include fights, attacks, hostage events, and killings.

Of those 1,400-plus events:

• 19.7% involved a weapon — about 1 in 5
• 45.1% led to serious injury — almost half
• 30.5% needed outside hospital care — about 1 in 3

And these are only the events that were reported. The DOJ says many attacks go unreported. People don’t report because they don’t think staff will do anything. They also fear payback from attackers.

In interviews at 16 of 17 prisons the DOJ visited, people said they had seen life-threatening violence. They said weapons were everywhere.

Key Takeaway: Over 1,400 violent events were reported in just 16 months — and the real number is likely much higher because many attacks go unreported.

There Aren’t Enough Guards to Keep Anyone Safe

Georgia prisons do not have enough staff. This is the root cause of many problems.

Average guard vacancy rates:

• 2021: 49.3% of guard jobs were empty
• 2022: 56.3% of guard jobs were empty
• 2023: 52.5% of guard jobs were empty

In April 2023, it got even worse. The system-wide vacancy rate hit 60%, with over 2,800 guard jobs sitting empty.

At the most violent prisons, staffing was even worse. In December 2023:

• 18 prisons had vacancy rates above 60%
• 10 prisons had vacancy rates above 70%

What does this mean in real life? It means:

• Housing units go unsupervised for hours
• Guards can’t do required safety rounds or searches
• When someone is attacked, help is slow to come
• There is no one to stop fights before they turn deadly

Since 1990, Georgia’s prison population more than doubled — from about 21,000 to almost 50,000. But staffing went the other way. The state kept adding people to prisons without adding enough guards.

Key Takeaway: More than half of all guard positions are empty across Georgia’s prison system, leaving people unsupervised and unable to get help.

Prisons Are Falling Apart

The average Georgia prison is over 30 years old. The state’s own leader called them “end of life.”

Broken buildings make violence easier:

• Cell door locks are broken or can be opened by hand. People leave their cells at any hour without permission.
• Padlocks are put on cell doors — which is a fire safety danger.
• Cameras are broken or not watched. Attacks happen with no record and no witness.
• Walls and ceilings have holes. Wiring is exposed.

When locks don’t work and no one is watching, people can move freely through prisons at night. This is when many attacks, robberies, and sexual assaults happen.

Key Takeaway: Broken locks, dead cameras, and crumbling buildings make Georgia prisons dangerous places where violence can happen unseen.

Gangs Run the Housing Units

Georgia prisons have over 14,000 confirmed gang members. With so few guards, gangs have taken control of many housing units.

What gang control looks like:

• Gangs decide where people sleep. At one prison, the DOJ found about 67% of people were not in their assigned cells. Gangs had moved them.
• Gangs beat and rob people. They force families to send money through apps like CashApp.
• Gangs target LGBTI people with violence and sexual abuse.
• Gangs run drug and weapon networks inside and outside the prisons.

Only a small number of staff at the main office track all 14,000-plus gang members. That is nowhere near enough.

Key Takeaway: With too few guards, gangs control housing units, deciding where people sleep and using violence and extortion against people and their families.

Weapons and Drugs Flood the Prisons

Between November 2021 and August 2023, Georgia prisons found:

• 27,425 weapons
• 12,483 cellphones
• 2,016 illegal drug items
• 262 drone sightings (drones drop items into prison yards)
• 346 fence-line throw-overs (items thrown over the fence)

These are only the items that were found. The real numbers are higher.

Staff corruption is a big part of the problem. In the past six years, hundreds of guards were arrested for crimes tied to their jobs. Most arrests were for smuggling items into the prisons. Others involved violence, threats, or sexual assault.

Criminal activity inside prisons spills into the community. People have used smuggled cellphones to order shootings and even killings outside prison walls.

Key Takeaway: Over 27,000 weapons were found in Georgia prisons in less than two years, and hundreds of guards have been arrested for criminal conduct.

Georgia Doesn’t Investigate the Violence

When violence happens, Georgia rarely looks into it.

From January 2022 to April 2023, across 22 prisons:

• Less than 10% of fights were sent for review
• Less than 23% of attacks between people were sent for review
• Less than 12% of events with serious injury were sent for review
• Less than 6% of events involving a weapon were sent for review

Even when someone is badly hurt or a weapon is used, the prison almost never forwards the case to be looked into.

The complaint system also fails. In about six months of 2023, people filed 1,481 complaint appeals. Of those, about 480 — roughly 32% — were thrown out for paperwork reasons. The actual safety concerns were never addressed.

This sends a clear message to everyone: violence has no real consequences.

Key Takeaway: Less than 10% of prison fights are even sent for investigation — meaning violence goes unchecked and unpunished.

Sexual Abuse Is a Systemic Failure

Georgia reported hundreds of sexual abuse claims every year:

• 2019: 653 claims
• 2020: 702 claims
• 2021: 639 claims
• 2022: 635 claims

In 2022, there were 456 claims of sexual abuse between people in prison. Only 35 were found to be real by the state — about 7.7%.

But the DOJ says these numbers are far too low. Nationally, only 21% of sexual assaults are reported to police. In prison, fear of payback makes reporting even rarer.

When claims are looked into, the work is poor. In May 2022, outside reviewers checked 388 sexual abuse cases. Not a single one — zero out of 388 — met all the required standards.

Victims who do report are often put in isolation (locked alone in a cell for 22 or more hours a day). This punishes the victim, not the attacker. It scares others away from reporting.

Key Takeaway: Zero out of 388 sexual abuse investigations met required standards, and victims who report are often punished with isolation.

LGBTI People Face Extra Danger

People who are LGBTI face greater risk of sexual violence in prison. National data shows:

• 12.2% of non-straight people in prison report being sexually harmed by another person in prison. For straight people, that number is 1.2% — ten times lower.
• Nearly 35% of transgender people in prison report being sexually harmed.

Georgia makes this worse by:

• Housing transgender women with men based only on their body parts, not their gender identity
• Not tracking LGBTI people well enough to keep them safe
• Not screening people at intake to find out who may be at risk
• Not training staff on how to protect LGBTI people

Gangs in housing units often target LGBTI people. Some LGBTI people told the DOJ they were beaten and stabbed because of who they are. Others said they were threatened and told to leave their housing unit.

One case shows how the system fails: In May 2022, a gay man reported that his cellmate — acting on gang orders — stabbed him with a shank, tied him up, and raped him. Georgia said the claim was “not proven.” They took no further action, even though both men confirmed the victim was tied up and that sexual contact happened.

Key Takeaway: LGBTI people face dramatically higher rates of sexual violence, and Georgia fails to screen, track, or house them safely.

The State Has Known for Years and Done Too Little

The DOJ says Georgia is “deliberately indifferent” to these dangers. That is a legal term. It means the state knows about serious risks and chooses not to act.

The problems are not new. The staffing crisis goes back decades. Since the 1980s, Georgia has grown its prison population without hiring enough guards.

Georgia has taken some small steps:

• Raised guard starting pay
• Run ads to hire more staff
• Sent teams into some prisons for large searches
• Closed or fixed up some old prisons

But the DOJ says these steps are not enough. Violence keeps rising. People keep dying.

Georgia has spent almost $20 million since 2018 to settle legal claims for deaths and injuries. But settling lawsuits does not fix the root problems.

GDC operates on a $1.2 billion budget. It holds almost 50,000 people in 34 state prisons and 4 private prisons. Almost 10,000 people are serving life sentences. The average sentence for everyone else is about 26 years.

These are people who will be in this system for a long time. The state has a duty to keep them alive and safe.

Key Takeaway: Georgia has known about these deadly conditions for years and has a legal duty to act — but has failed to take adequate steps.

What Happens Next

This DOJ report is a formal legal finding. It is the first step toward possible federal action.

The DOJ has laid out steps Georgia must take. These include short-term and long-term changes to:

• Staffing: Hire and keep enough guards
• Safety systems: Fix locks, cameras, and security equipment
• Housing: Make sure people are in their assigned cells
• Gang control: Build a real plan to manage gang activity
• Contraband: Stop the flow of weapons and drugs
• Investigations: Actually look into violence and hold people accountable
• Sexual safety: Protect LGBTI people and investigate abuse properly

If Georgia does not make changes, the DOJ can take the state to court.

What families can do:

• Keep records of any harm your loved one reports
• Contact advocacy groups like Georgia Prisoners’ Speak for support
• Share this information with others who have loved ones inside
• Contact your state elected officials and demand action

Key Takeaway: The DOJ can take Georgia to court if the state does not fix these problems — and families can push for change by speaking up and staying informed.

Glossary

• DOJ (Department of Justice): The main law enforcement agency of the U.S. federal government. They did this investigation.
• GDC (Georgia Department of Corrections): The state agency that runs Georgia’s prisons.
• Eighth Amendment: Part of the U.S. Constitution. It says the government cannot use cruel and unusual punishment. This includes a duty to keep people in prison safe.
• Deliberate indifference: A legal term. It means officials know about a serious danger and choose to ignore it.
• CRIPA: A federal law that lets the DOJ investigate conditions in state prisons and jails.
• PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act): A federal law that requires prisons to have zero tolerance for sexual abuse and to follow strict rules to prevent it.
• LGBTI: Stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex. Includes people who are gender non-conforming or queer.
• Vacancy rate: The share of jobs that have no one in them. A 50% vacancy rate means half the jobs are empty.
• Close security: The highest regular security level. People at this level need constant guard supervision.
• Medium security: The largest group. People at this level need constant supervision but may have fewer restrictions.
• Contraband: Any item not allowed in prison — weapons, drugs, cellphones, etc.
• STG (Security Threat Group): The prison system’s term for gangs.
• OPS (Office of Professional Standards): The part of GDC that is supposed to investigate serious events like killings and assaults.
• Restrictive housing / isolation: Being locked in a cell for 22 or more hours per day, separated from everyone else.
• Throw-over: A package of banned items thrown over a prison fence from outside.
• Shakedown: A thorough search of a prison area to find banned items.

Read the Source Document

Read the full DOJ Investigation of Georgia Prisons report (PDF) →

This report was published on October 1, 2024 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Georgia.

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