Who Is Really to Blame for Violence in Georgia’s Prisons? The Evidence Points to the State, Not the People Inside

TL;DR

Georgia prison officials say violence is caused by younger, more violent people. The evidence says otherwise. More than half of all guard jobs sit empty. People get just $0.60 worth of food per meal. The state spends almost nothing on classes or job training. Other states that fixed these problems saw violence drop by 40% to 73%. The people locked inside did not create these conditions. The state of Georgia did.

Why This Matters

If your loved one is in a Georgia prison, this matters to you right now.

Prison killings almost doubled in just a few years. In 2024, 333 people died in Georgia prisons. That is more than died even during COVID.

The state says this is because the people inside are more violent. But the facts tell a different story. The state has let prisons fall apart. Guards are gone. Food is not enough. There is nothing for people to do all day.

When the state blames the people inside, it avoids fixing the real problems. That means your loved one stays in danger. Understanding the real causes is the first step toward real change.

Key Takeaway: The state blames people in prison for the violence. But the evidence shows state failures are the real cause.

The Death Toll Is Rising Fast

People are dying in Georgia prisons at a shocking rate.

• 2018–2020: 48 people were killed
• 2021–2023: 94 people were killed — a 95.8% increase
• 2023: At least 38 killings — the most in the South
• 2024: 333 total deaths — up 27% from the year before

The numbers may be even worse than we know. In 2024, the state reported 66 killings. But GPS tracked 100 killings that same year. That’s 34 more deaths than officials reported.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) found that the state “inaccurately reports these deaths both internally and externally.” The DOJ called the conditions “among the most severe violations” it has ever found in any prison system.

Key Takeaway: Prison killings nearly doubled in three years, and the state hides the true numbers.

What Georgia Officials Claim

Georgia prison officials say the violence comes from a new wave of younger, more violent people.

A state Senate report pointed to a 12% increase in the share of people in prison for violent crimes since 2012.

Research does show that younger people may break rules more often. But that’s only part of the story.

Every prison system in America has young people. Not every system has Georgia’s death rate. The thing that makes Georgia different is not who is inside. It is how badly the state runs its prisons.

Key Takeaway: Every state has young people in prison. Only Georgia has this level of failure.

The Real Cause: Prisons With Almost No Guards

The biggest cause of violence is simple. There are almost no guards.

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

The safe limit is no more than 10% empty. Georgia is five times over that limit.

It gets worse at some prisons:

• 20 out of 34 state prisons are at crisis-level staffing
• 10 prisons have more than 70% of guard jobs empty

When guards are gone, gangs take over. The DOJ found that gangs “effectively run” some prisons. They control who sleeps where. They control who gets to shower.

New guards don’t stay, either. 82.7% of new guards quit within their first year. In one six-month period, 800 people applied. Only 118 were hired. And most of those left quickly.

Key Takeaway: More than half of all guard jobs are empty. Gangs fill the gap the state created.

The Real Cause: Packed Prisons and Broken Buildings

Some prisons hold far more people than they were built for.

One example: prisons built for 750 people now hold 1,700 — that’s 226% of what they were designed for.

The state says the system overall is at 70.6% full. But that number hides the truth. Some prisons are dangerously packed. Others sit mostly empty.

All told, 50,238 people are in state prison. Another 2,171 people wait in county jails for a prison bed.

The buildings are falling apart. Locks don’t work. People can walk out of their cells at any time. They strip pieces off the walls to make weapons. No one is there to stop them.

Here’s the proof that the building matters, not the people: When Smith State Prison cut its population and moved people to single rooms, violence went down. Same people. Better conditions. Less violence.

Key Takeaway: When one prison reduced crowding and gave people single rooms, violence dropped — proving the environment matters.

The Real Cause: People Are Going Hungry

Georgia spends $1.80 per person per day on food. That is $0.60 per meal.

What does that buy? Not enough.

• Less than 1 serving of vegetables per day
• Only 40% of the protein people need
• Only 35% of the dairy people need
• Meals are spaced 10 to 14 hours apart

People describe real meals as “a single sandwich, a scoop of starch, and water with floating debris.” Staff even have a name for cutting portions short — “shaking the spoon.” They do it to save money and earn bonuses.

Research shows that hunger makes people more tense. It leads to fights. When the state starves people, it feeds the violence.

Key Takeaway: At $0.60 per meal, the state feeds people less than half of what they need — and hunger fuels violence.

The Real Cause: Nothing to Do, All Day, Every Day

Georgia spends $172,000 total on job training for people in prison. The total prison budget is $1.48 billion. That means job training gets just 0.012% of the money.

To put it plainly: for every $10,000 the state spends on prisons, just over one penny goes to job training.

People sit idle for 16 hours a day or more. Research says this leads to “extreme stress, anger, and frustration.”

Georgia is also one of only two states that block people in prison from getting state money for school.

In 2024, Georgia State University shut down its prison classes. It said the costs were too high.

Other states prove that classes and training reduce violence:

• Maine added classes, job training, and mental health support. Violence fell 40%.
• South Carolina added programs. Violence reports fell 73%. Solitary stays fell 83%.
• College programs cut the rate of people going back to prison by 43% (RAND study).
• Every $1 spent on prison classes saves $4 to $5 later.

Key Takeaway: Georgia spends almost nothing on classes or training, while other states prove these programs cut violence by up to 73%.

Georgia’s Aging Prison Population Proves the State Wrong

The state says younger people cause the violence. But look at who is actually inside.

• 8,028 people serve life sentences with a chance for parole. Their average age is 48.3 years.
• 2,314 people serve life without parole. Their average age is 44.8 years.
• Over 40% of lifers are age 50 or older

Research shows that as people age, they become far less likely to commit crime.

• By ages 50–65, the arrest rate drops to about 2%
• After age 65, it nearly reaches zero

These people are not driving the violence. But they are living — and dying — in a system that has collapsed around them.

Key Takeaway: Thousands of people in Georgia prisons are aging and pose almost no risk, yet they suffer in a system the state has let fail.

If the State Were Right, What Would We See?

If the problem were really younger, more violent people, we would expect to see certain things. None of them are true.

Every part of the state’s story falls apart when tested.

Key Takeaway: Every prediction based on the state’s claim fails when checked against real-world evidence.

Who Is Responsible?

The evidence points to a clear chain of blame:

1. The Georgia Department of Corrections — for failing to keep enough guards, food, programs, and safe buildings
2. The Georgia General Assembly — for years of underfunding prisons, classes, and building repairs
3. The Governor’s Office — for slow action on a crisis known since at least 2021
4. Private prison companies — like CoreCivic, which profit from the system while conditions worsen

The people inside did not create a 56% guard shortage. They did not set a food budget of $0.60 per meal. They did not defund classes. They did not let locks break and walls crumble.

The violence in Georgia’s prisons is not caused by who is inside. It is caused by what the state has done — and failed to do.

Key Takeaway: The state created these conditions. The state must fix them.

Glossary

• GDC — Georgia Department of Corrections. The state agency that runs Georgia’s prisons.
• DOJ — U.S. Department of Justice. The federal agency that looked into Georgia’s prisons.
• Vacancy rate — The share of guard jobs that are empty. The safe limit is 10% or less.
• LWOP — Life Without Parole. A life sentence with no chance of release.
• Recidivism (re-SID-ih-vizm) — When someone who got out of prison gets arrested or locked up again.
• Restrictive housing — Solitary confinement (being locked alone in a cell). Often used as punishment.
• Shaking the spoon — Prison slang for when staff give people less food on purpose, often to save money and earn bonuses.
• Importation model — The idea that violence comes from who people were before prison.
• Deprivation model — The idea that violence comes from bad prison conditions.
• Integrated model — The current expert view: both matter, but conditions are what the state can control.

Read the Source Document

📄 Read the full analysis: “Who Is Responsible for Violence in Georgia’s Prisons?” (PDF — Georgia Prisoners’ Speak, March 2026)

Other Versions of This Report

We have written this report for different audiences:

• 📋 Legislator Brief — For state lawmakers and staff
• 📰 Media Summary — For reporters and editors
• 📢 Advocate Toolkit — For organizers and allies
• 👨‍👩‍👧 Family & Public Explainer — You are reading it now