Governance/Oversight
Georgia Board of Corrections meeting record 2015-2026 (corpus)
This corpus description documents the Georgia Board of Corrections meeting record from 2015-2026, comprising 207 documents (109 minutes, 98 summaries) spanning 113 meeting dates and 496 pages. The analysis reveals significant gaps in the published record—31 gap months including an unexplained four-month hole from April to July 2020—and shows that Board votes are almost entirely procedural, with only one denied motion and one recorded dissent in eleven years. Notably, the terms 'design capacity' and 'overcrowding' never appear across all 496 pages, suggesting the Board's published record systematically avoids addressing prison population conditions.
Key Findings
The most impactful data from this research collection.
May 2023 Meeting Never Published
Data gapOnly One Denied Motion in 11 Years
QuoteOnly One Recorded Dissent in 11 Years
QuoteOvercrowding Absent from Board Record
Data gapAll Data Points
26 verified data points extracted from primary sources.
Total Board of Corrections documents in corpus Statistic
The corpus contains 207 documents: 109 minutes and 98 summaries.
207 documents
Distinct Board meeting dates in corpus Statistic
The corpus covers 113 distinct meeting dates, from 15 January 2015 to 3 June 2026.
113 meeting dates
Total pages in Board of Corrections corpus Statistic
The corpus contains 496 pages of text, with page boundaries preserved so a citation is a page.
496 pages
Attendance rows in Board of Corrections corpus Statistic
The corpus contains 6,877 attendance rows covering 979 names exactly as the documents print them.
6,877 attendance rows
Unique names in Board of Corrections attendance records Statistic
The 6,877 attendance rows cover 979 unique names exactly as the documents print them.
979 names
Parsed motions in Board of Corrections corpus Statistic
The corpus contains 450 parsed motions, each holding the motion sentence and the vote sentence verbatim.
450 motions
Gap months in Board of Corrections published record Statistic
Of the 141 months from January 2015 to September 2026, 31 hold neither a minutes document nor a summary.
31 months vs. total months
Unexplained gap months in Board record Finding
Six gap months carry no cancellation anywhere in the corpus: April, May, June and July 2020, May 2023, and May 2025 (which the record explains as a move rather than a cancellation).
April-July 2020 gap in Board record Data gap
April to July 2020 is the largest hole in the published record. The March 2020 minutes announce the next meeting and the next published document is the August 2020 minutes.
May 2023 meeting scheduled but never published Data gap
May 2023 runs the other way: a meeting was scheduled and named, and no record of it was ever published. The April 2023 minutes, page 4, print: 'Corrections meeting is on May 4, 2023, at Telfair State Prison, in Helena, Georgia.'
Motions approving minutes Statistic
Of 450 motions across eleven years, 108 concern approving the minutes.
108 motions vs. total motions
Motions approving the agenda Statistic
Of 450 motions across eleven years, 107 concern approving the agenda.
107 motions vs. total motions
Motions concerning resolutions Statistic
Of 450 motions across eleven years, 80 concern a resolution.
80 motions vs. total motions
Motions concerning personnel appointments Statistic
Of 450 motions across eleven years, 23 concern a personnel appointment.
23 motions vs. total motions
Motions concerning executive session Statistic
Of 450 motions across eleven years, 19 concern an executive session.
19 motions vs. total motions
Motions concerning property items Statistic
Of 450 motions across eleven years, 16 concern a property item.
16 motions vs. total motions
Motions concerning contracts Statistic
One motion in eleven years concerns a contract.
1 motion vs. total motions
Motions concerning construction Statistic
One motion in eleven years concerns construction.
1 motion vs. total motions
Board votes are almost entirely procedural Finding
Of 450 motions across eleven years, 108 concern approving the minutes, 107 the agenda, 80 a resolution, 23 a personnel appointment, 19 an executive session and 16 a property item. One concerns a contract. One concerns construction. Contracts, constr…
Only denied motion in eleven years Quote
1 September 2016, page 3: 'Mr. Duke Blackburn made the motion to disapprove the appointment, which was seconded by Mr. Tommy Rouse, and the appointment was voted denied by the Board.'
Only recorded dissent in eleven years Quote
2 November 2023, page 4: 'Ms. Andrea Shelton made the motion to approve, which was seconded by Mr. Lou Solis Jr. Ms. Janelle King opposed with no discussion; however, since the rest of the Board approved, the vote to approve all five individuals' em…
Design capacity and overcrowding absent from Board record Data gap
Across all 496 pages, from January 2015 to June 2026, neither 'design capacity' nor 'overcrowding' appears once. The word 'capacity' appears on 13 pages, in contexts such as bed capacity in private prisons and dorm capacity. This is a statement abou…
Pages containing the word 'capacity' Statistic
The word 'capacity' appears on 13 pages across the corpus, in contexts such as bed capacity in private prisons and dorm capacity.
13 pages
Recent Board documents published on per-meeting event pages Methodology note
GDC files its recent Board documents on the per-meeting event page rather than in the Board of Corrections section. 43 of the 207 documents, covering every meeting from February 2024 to June 2026, are reachable only that way. A search of the Board s…
Board votes to cancel July and August meetings most years Finding
Most gap months are explained by the Board's own record: it votes most years to cancel the July and August meetings for the summer, and says so a meeting or two ahead.
May 2025 gap explained as a move Finding
May 2025 is a gap month that the record explains as a move rather than a cancellation.
Sources
8 cited sources backing this research.
Primary
Official report
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Official report
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Gps original
GPS Board Minutes Corpus Analysis
Key Entities
Organizations, people, facilities, and other named entities referenced in this research.
Andrea Shelton
[person]
Duke Blackburn
[person]
Georgia Board of Corrections
[organization]
Georgia Department of Corrections
[organization]
Janelle King
[person]
Lou Solis Jr.
[person]
Telfair State Prison
[facility]
Tommy Rouse
[person]
Related Topics
Research topics that draw on data from this collection.
Facility Conditions & Infrastructure
Georgia's prison system has run past its design capacity for fifty years, and the physical plant — locks, water, cooling, fire systems, and kitchens — has degraded faster than the state has documented or repaired it. GDC's own PREA audits, the Department of Justice's October 2024 findings, DPH food-safety scores, and the December 2024 Guidehouse assessment converge on a facility estate that requires "immediate intervention," while the state's $600 million repair program and a $436.7 million new-build near Washington State Prison move forward without a published facility-by-facility capacity or maintenance inventory.
6,783 data points
Oversight & Accountability
Georgia operates one of the largest prison systems in the country with no independent body empowered to inspect it, compel its records, or publish findings — leaving the authoritative counts of violence, death, and misconduct to federal investigators and outside journalists. The mechanisms the state does have (ACA accreditation, PREA audits, an internal grievance system, an internal OPS investigative arm) reliably produce findings of compliance and rarely produce accountability. What the record shows is a system where authority exists but is discretionary, internal, unpublished, or unenforced.
10,982 data points
Population & Demographics
Georgia holds roughly 47,000 to 53,600 people in state custody depending on which official count is used, at an incarceration rate of 881 per 100,000 residents — among the highest of any American state and above every independent democratic nation. That population is majority Black by a margin state demographics do not explain, aging fast, and increasingly serving life and long-term sentences, while the parole supervision population has fallen by more than half since 2011. That no single consistent public number describes the system's size is itself a central finding.
10,831 data points