On the Books Since 1897: The Separation Law Georgia Refuses to Enforce

Georgia has had a law requiring prisoner separation since 1897. It enforces none of it. Men died at Ware and Augusta last week. The tool to stop this has been on the books for 125 years. https://gps.press/on-the-books-since-1897-the-separation-law-georgia-refuses-to-...

On May 21, 2026, gang violence locked down every state prison in Georgia. Men were reported dead at Ware and Augusta. Georgia's response was a bulletin — not a policy change. But Georgia already has the policy. A law passed in 1897 requires the Department of Corrections to classify and separate its most dangerous prisoners. It has never been enforced. GPS also documented four medium-security prisons quietly packed with close-security men, carrying homicide rates several times those of properly classified facilities — the exact failure the 1897 statute was written to prevent. Georgia wrote the law. Georgia declared that every person has the right to be safe from gang violence. Georgia enforces neither. The question is not whether the tools exist — it is why the state keeps choosing not to use them. What would it take for Georgia's legislature to finish the sentence it started 125 years ago? https://gps.press/on-the-books-since-1897-the-separation-law-georgia-refuses-to-enforce/

Georgia has had a law requiring the separation of its most dangerous prisoners since 1897. It has never been enforced. On May 21, 2026, gang violence locked down every state prison in the state. Men were reported dead at Ware and Augusta. GPS documented four medium-security prisons carrying homicide rates several times those of properly classified facilities — the precise failure the 125-year-old statute was written to prevent. Georgia also formally declared that every person has the right to be safe from gang violence. It enforces that law nowhere inside its prison fences. This is not a missing tool. It is a tool the state has held for over a century and chosen not to use. https://gps.press/on-the-books-since-1897-the-separation-law-georgia-refuses-to-enforce/ #GAPrisons #PrisonReform #GeorgiaPrisonerSpeak #PrisonViolence #GangViolence #CriminalJusticeReform #GeorgiaPrisons #Accountability #InvestigativeJournalism #HumanRights

Georgia's prison system experienced a statewide lockdown on May 21, 2026, with deaths reported at Ware State Prison and Augusta State Medical Prison. The policy failure driving that violence is not a gap in Georgia law — it is a refusal to enforce law that has existed since 1897. O.C.G.A. § 42-5-52 requires the Department of Corrections to classify and separate incarcerated people by risk category. GPS has documented four medium-security facilities housing close-security populations and recording homicide rates several times those of properly classified prisons. The statute has never been operationalized. Georgia's General Assembly also formally declared, in the Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act, that every person has the right to be protected from gang violence — a declaration the state's own prison system renders meaningless. GPS's analysis identifies a concrete legislative path forward: amending § 42-5-52 to define the classification duty in enforceable terms, mandate gang-affiliation as a housing factor, and require a structured step-down program. Other states, including Texas, have implemented comparable frameworks with documented reductions in homicides and assaults. Georgia does not need new law. It needs the political will to enforce what it already wrote. https://gps.press/on-the-books-since-1897-the-separation-law-georgia-refuses-to-enforce/