GPS Research Library
A structured, citation-backed knowledge base of verified facts, statistics, legal standards, and policy analysis covering every major issue in Georgia’s prison system — and beyond.
Most prison reform data exists in scattered reports, paywalled journals, and dense government filings. The GPS Research Library changes that. We extract, verify, and structure the most critical facts from hundreds of sources — academic studies, DOJ reports, court filings, investigative journalism, legislative records, and our own original research — into a single searchable knowledge base.
Every data point is tagged by type, linked to its original source, and assigned a confidence level. Every named entity — every person, organization, facility, court case, and piece of legislation — is cataloged and cross-referenced. The result is a research infrastructure that powers GPS’s investigative reporting, our AI tools, and is freely accessible to anyone working on criminal justice issues.
What's Inside
Every item is extracted from primary sources, verified, and structured for research use.
Statistics & Findings
Verified numbers, percentages, dollar amounts, and research conclusions — each with source attribution and confidence level.
Legal Facts & Policy
Constitutional standards, court rulings, legislative provisions, and correctional policies documented with case citations.
Named Entities
Organizations, people, facilities, court cases, legislation, and programs — cross-referenced across all collections.
Cited Sources
Academic studies, official reports, journalism, legal documents, data portals, and GPS original research — each rated by reliability.
Case Details & Quotes
Specific incidents, documented cases, and direct quotes from reports, testimony, and official proceedings.
Data Gaps & Trends
Identified gaps in public data, emerging patterns, and methodology notes documenting what we know — and what's been hidden.
15 Research Collections
Each collection is a deep study on a specific issue, built from dozens of verified sources.
Brown v. Plata: The Legal Blueprint for Court-Ordered Prison Population Reduction
Brown v. Plata (2011) is the landmark Supreme Court case affirming court-ordered prison population reduction as a constitutional remedy for Eighth ...
EIGHTH AMENDMENT STANDARDS & EVOLVING CASE LAW
Georgia's prison system operates under legal standards that systematically shield officials from accountability while leaving incarcerated people v...
Families as the Hidden Tax Base: How Incarceration Costs Are Shifted to Families
This GPS research document quantifies how mass incarceration shifts enormous financial costs onto families, estimating the total annual burden at n...
Georgia Prison Drug Research
Georgia’s prison system is saturated with illicit drugs despite being ostensibly drug-free, driven by a multi-layered contraband pipeline that in...
Georgia’s Prison Commissary Extraction Machine
Georgia's prison commissary system systematically extracts an estimated $8-15 million annually from incarcerated people and their families through ...
Lead poisoning drove America\\\'s crime epidemic
Between 1960 and 1991, U.S. violent crime rates nearly quintupled, rising from 160.9 to 758.1 per 100,000.
Prison Classification Systems & Violence: Misclassification, Overclassification, and Safety Failures
This GPS research document comprehensively examines prison classification systems, documenting how both overclassification and underclassification ...
Prison Communications & Financial Exploitation: The Extraction Economy Behind Bars
Georgia's prison communications system is a $1.4 billion national extraction economy concentrated in the hands of two companies—Securus Technolog...
Prison Healthcare & Medical Neglect: Constitutional Standards, Privatization Failures, and Systemic Crisis
This document synthesizes constitutional standards, privatization failures, and systemic crisis in prison healthcare, drawing on multiple research ...
Prison Labor & Wage Exploitation in Georgia
Georgia operates a systematic labor extraction economy that has persisted for 160 years by adapting its mechanisms of coercion rather than abolishi...
Prison Malnutrition Crisis: Health Costs, Violence, and Economic Impact
Prison Malnutrition CrisisThe U.S. prison system faces a severe malnutrition crisis that drives escalating healthcare costs while simultaneousl...
Prison Mortality & Deaths in Custody: Data Gaps, Misclassification, and Accountability Failures
This document comprehensively examines prison mortality data gaps, cause-of-death misclassification, and accountability failures at both federal an...
Solitary Confinement & Restrictive Housing
Georgia's Special Management Unit represents one of the most extreme examples of prolonged solitary confinement in the United States, with 78 perce...
Staffing Crisis & Correctional Officer Turnover
Georgia's prison system has entered what independent consultants call "emergency mode," with understaffing now functioning as the primary driver of...
Truth in Sentencing & Fiscal Impact: The $40 Billion Story
Georgia's embrace of truth-in-sentencing policies in the 1990s exemplifies a catastrophic fiscal miscalculation at the state level: the federal gov...
How to Access the Research Library
Three ways to use the data — no coding or technical skills required.
GPS Lighthouse AI
The fastest way. Ask Lighthouse any question and it searches the full Research Library along with all GPS data, investigations, and resources. Just type your question in plain English.
Open Lighthouse AI →Machine-Readable Data Page
Paste the Research Library’s data URL into any AI tool — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot — and ask questions about it. The AI reads the structured data and responds instantly.
View data page: gps.press/research/ →Full Data Guide
Not sure where to start? Our comprehensive guide walks you through every GPS data page, with example prompts for families, advocates, journalists, and researchers.
Read the guide →How the Library Is Built
Source Diversity
Every collection draws from multiple source types: 104 academic studies, 99 official government reports, 60 investigative journalism pieces, 32 legal documents, 24 GPS original research projects, and more. No single source controls the narrative.
Structured Extraction
Source documents are processed through AI-assisted extraction that identifies atomic facts, statistics, named entities, and citations. Every extracted data point is linked back to its original source with page-level attribution where available.
Verification & Confidence
Each data point carries a confidence rating — confirmed, reported, or estimated — based on source reliability and corroboration. Confirmed facts are backed by primary sources or multiple independent reports.
Continuous Growth
The library grows with every GPS investigation. When we publish new research or identify important reports, the findings are ingested, structured, and cross-referenced with existing collections automatically.
Built for Accountability. Open to Everyone.
Whether you’re a family member looking for answers, a journalist investigating conditions, a researcher studying policy, or a legislator weighing reform — the GPS Research Library gives you the verified facts you need.