Conditions & Operations

GDC Staffing Crisis: Vacancy Rates, Turnover & Workforce Challenges

59 Data Points 13 Sources 38 Entities Research Date: Feb 24, 2026

This compilation documents Georgia Department of Corrections' severe staffing crisis, with nearly 50% of correctional officer positions vacant system-wide and eight facilities exceeding 70% vacancy rates. The crisis drives dangerous conditions including unsupervised housing units, gang control of facilities, and massive overtime costs that ballooned 11-fold during 2019-2022. Governor Kemp proposed over $600 million in additional corrections funding in January 2025, while the DOJ found in October 2024 that grossly inadequate staffing directly contributes to violence and leaves incarcerated persons unsupervised. The February 2024 Board of Corrections meeting minutes detail recruitment campaigns, budget proposals, and legislative efforts including enhanced contraband penalties under Senate Bill 159.

Where this research is used

This page is a research collection: individual facts drawn from the sources listed further down, each traced to where it came from. A research topic brings many collections together into one overview of an issue. The facts on this page feed these 8 topics; open one to see how they fit with the rest of the evidence.

Budget & Spending

Georgia's prison budget rose from $1.53 billion in fiscal 2024 to an all-time peak of $1.91 billion in fiscal 2025, then settled near $1.79 billion for fiscal 2027. Across that arc the money moved toward health contracts, private beds and surveillance technology while the state-operated prison program, food service and education shrank. GPS's own budget series has since corrected several of its earlier headline claims, and the gap between what the state appropriates and what it can show for it remains the central accountability problem.

11,375 data points

Communications & Technology

Georgia's prison communications system runs through a single vendor family — Securus Technologies for phone calls, its subsidiary JPay for tablets, email and money transfers — under a contract that pays the state 59.6 percent of gross call revenue. Families pay per-minute charges, per-stamp email fees, transfer fees and tablet content prices that bear little relation to consumer telecom costs, while the state simultaneously spends roughly $50 million on managed access systems meant to block the contraband phones that compete with that paid network. GPS's research finds the blocking approach has not reduced phone-related incidents, has produced no accountability for staff smuggling, and rests on tens of millions of dollars in procurement that left no public paper trail.

3,852 data points

Facility Conditions & Infrastructure

Georgia's prison system is physically failing: a stock of buildings whose average age exceeds 30 years and whose design life the state's own commissioner puts at 15 to 20, run at multiples of their original design capacity, with locks that do not lock, plumbing that does not drain, mold that is not removed and housing that is not cooled. A 2024 federal findings report, a 2024 Senate study committee and a December 2024 consultant assessment all reached the same conclusion in different words — that the physical plant is an emergency. The state's answer has been a $600 million construction-and-repair program whose own timelines, the commissioner has said, will run years past the funding window.

11,131 data points

Oversight & Accountability

Georgia operates one of the largest prison systems in the United States with no independent body empowered to inspect it, investigate it, or publish what it finds. Every accountability mechanism that exists — the Office of Professional Standards, the internal grievance process, the PREA audit cycle, the state's own ombudsman line — sits inside the Georgia Department of Corrections and answers to its Commissioner. This page documents that vacuum, the federal and judicial oversight that has episodically filled it, the data systems that keep its failures invisible, and the reform models that 19 to 20 other states and the District of Columbia have already adopted.

5,913 data points

Policy & Advocacy

Georgia's policy and advocacy landscape is defined by a paradox: a decade of bipartisan sentencing reform that measurably reduced incarceration and racial disparity, followed by a sharp reversal toward prison construction, surveillance technology, and record spending attached to no independent oversight. Legislative victories on wrongful conviction compensation, survivor justice, and out-of-time appeals sit alongside bills that died in the last minutes of session — an independent prison ombudsman, restrictive housing limits, parole transparency — and a post-conviction system the Chief Justice of Georgia calls 'a mess' that only the legislature can fix. The 2026 statewide elections and an unresolved federal investigation are the two live pressure points advocates are organizing around.

7,412 data points

Prison Labor & Economics

Georgia operates one of the largest uncompensated prison labor systems in the United States: roughly 80% of able-bodied incarcerated people work, and the state pays $0 for routine assignments. The savings are captured by state and county government while the costs are pushed onto the families of incarcerated people, who fund commissary purchases at markups documented between 67% and 1,150% above retail. In 2024 alone Georgia extracted $18.76 million in commissary profit from people who work for free — and then raised prices roughly 30% in November 2025.

3,864 data points

Staffing Crisis

Georgia's prison system has run correctional officer vacancy rates above 50 percent since 2021, with ten of its largest facilities above 70 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's October 2024 findings and the state's own budget testimony. Turnover compounds the shortfall: 82.7 percent of officers hired between January 2021 and November 2024 left within a year, and Georgia ranks last among the 50 states in correctional officer pay. Federal investigators, state-hired consultants and the Georgia Senate Study Committee have each identified staffing as the primary mechanism behind the violence, delayed medical response and unchecked gang control documented inside the system.

9,994 data points

Violence & Safety

Georgia's prisons kill people at a rate the U.S. Department of Justice measured as almost triple the national average in 2019 and roughly eight times the national rate by 2024, with 142 homicides reported between 2018 and 2023 alone. A three-year federal civil rights investigation concluded in October 2024 that the State violates the Eighth Amendment by failing to protect incarcerated people from violence and sexual abuse, in a system where correctional officer vacancies near 50 percent have let gangs control housing units and weapons are recovered by the tens of thousands. This page sets out the homicide data, the federal findings, the case-level record of how the violence happens, and the accounting failures that keep the official numbers low.

8,606 data points

5,991 Total budgeted corrections officer positions 2,985 GDC vacant corrections officer positions 50% GDC system-wide CO vacancy rate approximately 50% 8 Eight GDC facilities exceed 70% CO vacancy rate 10 Ten GDC facilities exceed 70% vacancy rates 18 18 prisons exceed 60% vacancy rate

Key Findings

The most impactful data from this research collection. Tap a card for the full finding, GPS commentary on why it matters, and its source.

All Data Points

59 verified data points extracted from primary sources.

Total budgeted corrections officer positions Statistic

GDC has 5,991 total budgeted corrections officer positions.

5,991 positions

staffing budget

GDC vacant corrections officer positions Statistic

2,985 corrections officer positions are vacant, representing nearly 50% of all budgeted CO positions.

2,985 vacant positions vs. 5,991 total budgeted positions

staffing

GDC system-wide CO vacancy rate approximately 50% Statistic

The system-wide correctional officer vacancy rate is nearly 50%.

50%

staffing

Eight GDC facilities exceed 70% CO vacancy rate Statistic

Eight GDC facilities have correctional officer vacancy rates of 70% or more.

8 facilities

staffing facilities

Ten GDC facilities exceed 70% vacancy rates Statistic

10 facilities exceed 70% vacancy rates.

10 facilities

staffing facilities

18 prisons exceed 60% vacancy rate Statistic

18 prisons report vacancy rates exceeding 60%.

18 prisons

staffing facilities

Valdosta State Prison 80% CO vacancy rate Statistic

Valdosta State Prison has 80% of correctional officer positions vacant as of April 2024. It houses the highest percentages of both gang members and mental health inmates.

80%

staffing facilities gangs mental_health

GDC FY2022 turnover rate 47% Statistic

Fiscal year 2022 correctional officer turnover rate was 47%.

47%

staffing

Projected FY2024 turnover rate 32% Statistic

Projected turnover rate by end of fiscal 2024 is 32%, down from 47% in FY2022.

32% vs. 47 FY2022 turnover rate

staffing

80% of applicants fail to complete hiring process Statistic

80% of applicants fail to complete the hiring process for correctional officer positions.

80%

staffing

670 COs hired since November 2022 Statistic

670 corrections officers have been hired since November 2022.

670 officers hired

staffing

Job applications more than doubled after media campaign Statistic

Job applications before media campaign averaged approximately 300 per month. After the campaign, applications exceeded 700 per month, more than doubling.

700 applications per month vs. 300 applications per month before campaign

staffing

Additional recruitment funding requested: $2.5 million Statistic

GDC requested an additional $2.5 million in recruitment funding for the next fiscal year.

$2.5M

staffing budget

Proposed total recruitment budget: $6.1 million Statistic

The proposed total recruitment budget is $6.1 million.

$6.1M

staffing budget

Minimum-security CO starting salary: $40,000 Statistic

Minimum-security correctional officer starting salary is $40,000.

$40,000

staffing budget

Maximum-security CO starting salary: $43,000 Statistic

Maximum-security correctional officer starting salary is $43,000.

$43,000

staffing budget

Georgia has one of the lowest CO wages nationally Finding

Georgia has one of the lowest correctional officer wages in the nation.

staffing budget

Requested salary increase: $3,000 per officer + 4% for all prison employees Policy

GDC requested a salary increase of $3,000 per officer plus a 4% increase for all prison employees.

staffing budget policy

Requested bonus: $1,000 per employee Policy

GDC requested a $1,000 bonus per employee.

staffing budget policy

Overtime spending exceeded $4 million (2019-2022) Statistic

Overtime spending ballooned to more than $4 million during the period 2019-2022.

$4M

staffing budget

Overtime spending 11 times pre-pandemic levels Statistic

Overtime spending was 11 times as high as pre-pandemic levels during 2019-2022.

11.0x times pre-pandemic levels

staffing budget

Officers working 16-hour days, 5 days a week Finding

Correctional officers are often working 16-hour days, 5 days a week due to staffing shortages.

staffing conditions

Smith State Prison staffing: half of required officers most days Case detail

Smith State Prison: each shift is supposed to have 30 officers for approximately 1,500 men, but most days had half that number.

staffing facilities

Nearly 52,000 inmates across Georgia prisons Statistic

Nearly 52,000 inmates are housed across Georgia prisons.

52,000 inmates

demographics

15,000 verified gang members in GDC custody Statistic

15,000 verified gang members are in GDC custody.

15,000 gang members

gangs demographics

14,000 inmates receiving mental health treatment Statistic

14,000 inmates are receiving mental health treatment in Georgia prisons.

14,000 inmates

mental_health medical demographics

~19,000 inmates receiving chronic illness treatment Statistic

Approximately 19,000 inmates are receiving chronic illness treatment.

19,000 inmates

medical demographics

99,000+ monthly prescriptions dispensed Statistic

More than 99,000 prescriptions are dispensed monthly across Georgia prisons.

99,000 prescriptions per month

medical

DOJ: Grossly inadequate staffing leaves incarcerated persons unsupervised Finding

The DOJ found that GDC's grossly inadequate staffing leaves incarcerated persons unsupervised and hampers staff's ability to respond to violence. Correctional officers are often responsible for monitoring hundreds of people with no backup.

staffing violence conditions

DOJ: Staff frequently work mandatory overtime due to chronic shortages Finding

The DOJ found that staff frequently work mandatory overtime due to chronic shortages.

staffing

DOJ: Many posts go unfilled during shifts Finding

The DOJ found that many posts go unfilled during shifts, leaving housing units unsupervised.

staffing conditions

DOJ: Response times to violent incidents dangerously slow Finding

The DOJ found that response times to violent incidents are dangerously slow due to staffing shortages.

staffing violence

DOJ: Staff shortages contribute to gang control of housing units Finding

The DOJ found that staff shortages contribute directly to gang control of housing units.

staffing gangs violence

DOJ: New officers receive inadequate training and mentoring Finding

The DOJ found that new officers receive inadequate training and mentoring.

staffing

DOJ: Experienced officers leave due to burnout, low pay, safety concerns Finding

The DOJ found that experienced officers leave due to burnout, low pay, and safety concerns.

staffing

Governor Kemp: $600M+ additional corrections funding Policy

Governor Kemp called for more than $600 million in additional corrections funding in January 2025.

budget policy

Kemp: 4% salary increase for all CO staff Policy

Governor Kemp called for a 4% salary increase for all correctional officer staff to achieve parity with neighboring states.

staffing budget policy

Kemp: 8% salary increase for behavioral health counselors Policy

Governor Kemp called for an 8% salary increase for behavioral health counselor positions.

staffing mental_health budget policy

Kemp: Hiring 330 additional workers Policy

Governor Kemp's corrections funding plan includes hiring 330 additional workers.

staffing policy

Kemp: Adding 446 prison beds + modular correctional units Policy

Governor Kemp's plan includes adding 446 prison beds plus modular correctional units.

facilities policy

Kemp: Marketing initiative, new training curriculum, lock repair team Policy

Governor Kemp's corrections funding proposal includes a marketing initiative to recruit correctional officers, a new training curriculum, and a statewide lock repair team.

staffing policy facilities

Senate Committee: Staffing is single greatest challenge facing GDC Finding

The Senate Study Committee found that staffing remains the single greatest challenge facing GDC.

staffing

Senate Committee: High vacancy rates directly correlate with increased violence Finding

The Senate Study Committee found that high vacancy rates directly correlate with increased violence.

staffing violence

Senate Committee: Compensation does not compete with comparable law enforcement Finding

The Senate Study Committee found that GDC compensation does not compete with comparable law enforcement positions.

staffing budget

Senate Committee: Rural prison locations create recruitment challenges Finding

The Senate Study Committee found that rural prison locations create additional recruitment challenges.

staffing facilities

Senate Committee: Staff wellness and mental health support inadequate Finding

The Senate Study Committee found that staff wellness and mental health support is inadequate.

staffing mental_health

SB 159: Enhanced penalties for employee/contractor contraband introduction Legal fact

Senate Bill 159 specifies penalties for employees or contractors introducing contraband into a prison or jail. Employees or contractors convicted of introducing contraband shall be sentenced to a term of 10 years; any person convicted of introducing contraband shall be sentenced to a term of 5 to 10 years.

contraband corruption legal policy

Board meeting: One-time $1,000 salary supplement for statewide recommendation Policy

Commissioner Oliver discussed statewide recommendations including one-time salary supplements of $1,000, cost-of-living adjustments of 4% up to $3,000, and salary enhancement of $3,000 for POST-certified law enforcement officers.

staffing budget policy

New state prison construction planned in Washington County Policy

Capital outlay proposals include new state prison construction in Washington County.

facilities budget policy

Capital outlay: Replace 218 vehicles and 10 buses statewide Policy

GDC capital outlay proposals include replacing 218 vehicles statewide and 10 buses statewide.

budget operations

GDC privatizing food service at 4 facilities Policy

GDC budget proposals include privatizing food service at 4 facilities.

conditions policy budget

GDC private prisons bed capacity increase proposed Policy

GDC budget recommendations include a private prisons bed capacity increase.

facilities policy budget

Additional weekend meals for offenders proposed Policy

GDC Food and Farm Operations budget proposal includes additional offender meals on weekends.

conditions policy

Chandley Communications recruitment campaign targeting 18 facilities Case detail

The Chandley Communications recruitment campaign targeted 18 GDC facilities: Baldwin State Prison, Hancock State Prison, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, Hays State Prison, Whitworth Women's Facility, Coastal State Prison, Ware State Prison, Smith State Prison, Washington State Prison, Johnson State Prison, Valdosta State Prison, Autry State Prison, Dodge State Prison, Pulaski State Prison, Wilcox State Prison, Telfair State Prison, Macon State Prison, and Calhoun State Prison.

staffing facilities

Closure of HR recruitment centers proposed Policy

GDC state prisons budget proposals include closure of human resources recruitment centers as a cost-saving measure.

staffing budget policy

Trend: Declining turnover rate from 47% (FY2022) to projected 32% (FY2024) Trend

GDC correctional officer turnover rate declined from 47% in fiscal year 2022 to a projected 32% by end of fiscal year 2024, suggesting some improvement from recruitment and retention efforts.

staffing

Replacing basic CO training notebooks with Chromebooks Policy

GDC state prisons budget proposal includes replacing basic correctional officer training notebooks with Chromebooks.

staffing policy

Virtual courts technology efficiencies proposed Policy

GDC offender management budget proposal includes virtual courts technology efficiencies.

legal policy

GDC Georgia Prison Warden's Association scholarship goal: $1,500 Case detail

The Board of Corrections yearly scholarship collection for the Georgia Prison Warden's Association Board of Corrections scholarship fund has a goal of $1,500.

policy

Sources

13 cited sources backing this research.

Primary Official report

Chandley Communications Recruitment Campaign Strategy and Analysis Overview

Robin Chandley — Chandley Communications (Jan 1, 2024)

Primary Official report

Corrections1 / GDC Commissioner Reports, 2024

— Corrections1 / Georgia Department of Corrections (Jan 1, 2024)

Primary Official report

DOJ Findings on Staffing (October 2024)

— U.S. Department of Justice (Oct 1, 2024)

Primary Official report

DOJ Findings on Staffing, October 2024

— U.S. Department of Justice (Oct 1, 2024)

Primary Official report

GDC Board of Corrections Meeting Minutes (February 1, 2024)

Simone Juhmi (Board Liaison), Larry Haynie (Chairman), J.C. 'Spud' Bowen (Secretary) — Georgia Department of Corrections Board of Corrections (Feb 1, 2024)

Primary Official report

GDC Board of Corrections Meeting Minutes, February 2024

Simone Juhmi — Georgia Board of Corrections (Feb 1, 2024)

Primary Official report

GDC Official Staffing Data (Corrections1 / GDC Commissioner Reports, 2024)

— Corrections1 / Georgia Department of Corrections (Jan 1, 2024)

Primary Press release

Governor Kemp's Response to Corrections Crisis (January 2025)

Governor Brian Kemp — Office of Governor Brian Kemp (Jan 1, 2025)

Primary Press release

Governor Kemp's Response, January 2025

— Office of the Governor of Georgia (Jan 1, 2025)

Primary Official report

Inmate Services Fiscal Year 2023 Impact Report

Jay Sanders — Georgia Department of Corrections, Inmate Services Division (Jan 1, 2023)

Primary Legislation

Senate Bill 159 (Georgia) - Contraband Penalties

— Georgia General Assembly (Jan 1, 2024)

Primary Official report

Senate Study Committee Findings on Staffing (December 2024)

— Georgia State Senate (Dec 1, 2024)

Primary Official report

Senate Study Committee Findings on Staffing, December 2024

— Georgia Senate (Dec 1, 2024)

Key Entities

Organizations, people, facilities, and other named entities referenced in this research.

Ahmed Holt [person]

Alan Watson [person]

Andrea Shelton [person]

Autry State Prison [facility]

Baldwin State Prison [facility]

Board of Corrections [organization]

Calhoun State Prison [facility]

Chandley Communications [organization]

Coastal State Prison [facility]

Dodge State Prison [facility]

Donna Tebought [person]

Georgia Department of Corrections [organization]

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison [facility]

Governor Brian Kemp [person]

Hancock State Prison [facility]

Hays State Prison [facility]

Jay Sanders [person]

Jennifer Ammons [person]

Johnson State Prison [facility]

Komola Edwards [person]

Larry Haynie [person]

Macon State Prison [facility]

Matthew Wolfe [person]

Pulaski State Prison [facility]

Randy Sauls [person]

Rob Thrower [person]

Robin Chandley [person]

Senate Bill 159 [legislation]

Senate Study Committee [organization]

Simone Juhmi [person]

Smith State Prison [facility]

Telfair State Prison [facility]

Tyrone Oliver [person]

U.S. Department of Justice [organization]

Ware State Prison [facility]

Wayne Dasher [person]

Whitworth Women's Facility [facility]

Wilcox State Prison [facility]