Georgia families are spending hundreds each month on commissary, phone calls, and visitation just to keep their loved ones alive. These firsthand testimonies reveal the hidden human cost of Georgia’s predatory prison economy.
The DOJ documented 142 homicides in Georgia prisons from 2018-2023. GDC investigated 66 deaths as homicides in 2024, nearly double the previous year, and the real number is likely higher.
This isn’t random violence. It’s the inevitable result of deliberate GDC policy:
→ Zero wages for prisoner labor
→ 1,200 calories/day (half what’s needed)
→ Ramen marked up 350% to $0.90
→ Ibuprofen marked up 1,076% to $4.00
The equation is impossible: You cannot earn money. The food provided cannot sustain life. The prices are unaffordable.
What would you do?
Kitchen workers steal food to survive. Prisoners make alcohol for $150/bottle. Gangs charge $0.90 for shower access. Underground “medics” treat stab wounds to hide violence from guards.
And GDC policy criminalizes ALL of it – even trading soup for clean laundry.
This is forced criminality: survival strategies the state makes mandatory, then punishes.
Read how Georgia’s zero-wage policy creates the violence it claims to address.
Georgia has the world’s highest incarceration rate – achieved by systematically criminalizing poverty through cash bail, court fines, and predatory fees.
Boys from Georgia’s poorest families face 20x higher incarceration rates than those from middle and upper-class households.