Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison: the public record, 2015 to 2026

On January 6, 2023, a Lieutenant at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (GDCP) responded to a housing unit and found two wounded incarcerated people: one with an apparent broken ankle after jumping from the upper-level walkway to escape an assault, the other with a jaw laceration. Six other incarcerated persons from that housing unit also had assault wounds including stabbings and lacerations. In all, six individuals were hospitalized that evening from attacks involving gang members attacking rival gang members.

In a startling assessment of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, consultants hired by Gov. Kemp wrote that almost every part of the facility has been vandalized by prisoners; window coverings have been turned into weapons or shields, and plumbing is not functional in some areas.

Staffing vacancies for correctional officers at 20 of Georgia's 34 prisons had reached 'emergency levels,' making it impossible to keep up with even basic protocols such as routine counts of prisoners, according to consultants hired by Gov. Brian Kemp to evaluate the Department of Corrections.

DOJ's findings report describes a case in which an incarcerated person's March 2020 assault of another person at Coastal State Prison was referred to the Office of Professional Standards (OPS) for investigation, but no record of an investigation could be located. The same individual reentered the prison system in 2022 and strangled his cellmate to death at GDCP.

U.S. District Judge Marc T. Treadwell issued an August order stating: "The Court has long passed the point where it can assume that even sworn statements from the defendants are truthful."

In a 100-page order, Chief U.S. District Judge for Georgia's Middle District Marc Treadwell describes officials at the SMU as obstinately disobedient, making no real effort to affect change at all.

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison had a correctional officer vacancy rate of 72.96% and held 2,777 inmates, including eight cellblocks, seven dormitories, 256 general population inmates, a medical unit, a 17-bed S.T.E.P. (Segregated Transition Education Unit), death row, and a Special Management Unit with 192 beds.

In April, Judge Treadwell issued a contempt order citing GDC for making false statements or misrepresentations about its efforts to comply with a settlement of a lawsuit over conditions in the agency's supermax prison, writing: "As the end of the injunction's term neared, it became clear to the Court that the defendants, in effect, were running a four-corner offense and had no desire or intention to comply with the Court's injunction; they would stall until the injunction expired."

Judge Treadwell found that GDC falsified records purporting to show that SMU prisoners were receiving regular reviews to chart their progress toward leaving the unit, citing testimony of a counselor who refused to sign review forms because she was asked to sign for prisoners who weren't present.

A PREA auditor's summary report for Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison found that none of the cell locks in two of the facility's large housing units, A and B, were working, allowing inmates to roam freely through the housing unit; with one staff on duty and the layout of the housing unit, the officer had no way of knowing what was going on.

DOJ's findings report on Georgia prisons states that investigators received consistent reports at GDCP that staff frequently fail to lock cell doors in segregation, and that even when doors are locked they are reportedly not secure, with one incarcerated individual at GDCP admitting to "popping" out of his cell one morning because he did not receive a breakfast tray.

DOJ's findings report on Georgia prisons states that incarcerated individuals at GDCP reported that they spent weeks in segregation without being afforded out-of-cell recreation.

DOJ's findings report on Georgia prisons states that in March 2023 a man with serious mental illness at GDCP was found catatonic with a large bruise on his head and his boxers, which were covered in blood, pulled down below his knees, and that the investigative files failed to discuss interviews or review of surveillance footage to determine whether a sexual assault might have occurred.

DOJ's findings report on Georgia prisons states that a man who assaulted a cellmate at Coastal State Prison (an incident that DOJ found no record was ever investigated) reentered the prison system in 2022 and strangled his cellmate to death at GDCP.

DOJ's findings report on Georgia prisons states that since 2019 GDC has been subject to a consent decree in a civil rights class action challenging conditions of confinement in the Special Management Unit, and that in April 2024 the court overseeing the consent decree held GDC in contempt for failing to comply with court orders and imposed monetary sanctions until GDC comes into compliance.

The autopsy found roughly 60 lacerations on Brandon Burrell's body, and the GDC's Office of Professional Standards was conducting an investigation into Burrell's death that was not yet complete.

The autopsy report for 31-year-old Brandon Burrell suggests hours went by until guards found his body at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, and medics found rigor mortis had already begun and he was cold to the touch, with stab wounds all over his body.

In a consultants' assessment of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, hired by Gov. Kemp, the consultants wrote that almost every part of the facility has been vandalized by prisoners, with window coverings turned into weapons or shields, plumbing not functional in some areas, showers that can't be turned off, cameras damaged and blocked, and electrical systems that have been altered.