The Board That Stopped Saying Yes: Georgia's Lifer Parole Collapse, in Its Own Numbers
The Board's own reports show lifer parole grants fell from 1 in 5 to 1 in 20 since 2001. GPS compiled all 24 annual reports — every number page-cited.
Help spread the word — here's how:
- Scroll down to Copy a Caption and hit Copy on the one you want
- Scroll back up and click the Share on Facebook button for your favorite quote image
- On Facebook, paste the caption into your post — or write your own
Copy a Caption
Twitter/X
In FY2024, Georgia's parole board reviewed 2,046 lifers and granted 93 — a 4.5% rate. A generation ago it was one in five. The Board's own numbers show the collapse. https://gps.press/the-board-that-stopped-saying-yes-georgias-lifer-parole-collapse-in-its-own-numbers/
Facebook
Georgia's parole board granted parole to 93 of 2,046 lifers in fiscal year 2024 — a 4.5 percent grant rate. Two decades ago, the same board approved more than one in five life-sentence cases. GPS compiled 24 years of the Board's own annual reports to document the collapse, and the numbers show something the Board has never announced: more lifers than ever are eligible for review, yet fewer are walking out. The people the Board does release succeed at rates above 70 percent, year after year.
If parole works when it's used, why has Georgia's board nearly stopped using it?
Instagram
In fiscal year 2024, Georgia's parole board said yes to 93 lifers out of 2,046 reviewed — a 4.5 percent grant rate. From 2001 to 2014, the same board granted parole in 20.8 percent of life-sentence cases. A lifer denied today may wait eight years for another look. The Board's own numbers tell the story: the door out of a life sentence in Georgia has nearly closed.
#GAPrisons #PrisonReform #GeorgiaPrisonerSpeak #Parole #CriminalJustice #Georgia
LinkedIn
GPS has compiled 24 years of the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles' own annual reports to document a policy shift the Board has never publicly acknowledged: life-sentence parole grants fell from a 20.8 percent rate (FY2001–FY2014) to 4.5 percent in FY2024, even as the number of lifers eligible for review tripled. Critically, the Board's own supervision data undercuts any safety-based justification — over 70 percent of Georgia parolees successfully complete supervision each year, yet the Board released just 93 lifers in FY2024.
As Georgia legislators study the state's post-conviction system, this data raises a policy question that demands an answer: if parole succeeds when granted, why has the Board's discretion collapsed to one in twenty? The full dataset, with citations to every report and page, is available in the article.