Eighth Amendment Archives

Decarceration IS Inevitable — Georgia Can Choose How, or Let the Courts Decide

Decarceration is a choice for now. Until the courts get involved.

Georgia’s prison system is collapsing. With 100+ homicides in 2024, record deaths, DOJ findings of unconstitutional conditions, and $700 million in new spending that failed to improve safety, decarceration is no longer optional. Evidence from New York, California, and Europe proves it works.

$700 Million More—And Nothing to Show for It

$700 Million spent, only body bags to show

Georgia added $700 million to its corrections budget between FY 2022 and FY 2026—the fastest spending growth in agency history. Prison homicides rose from 8 annually to 100 in 2024. Staffing remains 50-76% vacant. The DOJ found healthcare unconstitutional. The money bought nothing.

Cruel and Unusual Dentistry: Inside Georgia’s Prison Dental Crisis

Georgia doesn’t treat dental disease in prison.
It removes teeth.

Extraction replaces fillings. Waiting lists replace care. Commissary replaces basic supplies. And the damage follows people home long after their sentence ends.

This is healthcare as punishment.

Brown v. Plata: A Legal Roadmap for Georgia’s Prison Crisis

The Supreme Court’s Brown v. Plata decision forced California to release 46,000 prisoners due to unconstitutional overcrowding. With federal enforcement abandoned, Georgia families must now pursue private litigation using the same legal roadmap.

Normalization: The Principle That Changes Everything

Georgia’s prisons aren’t “broken” — they’re illegal.

The Constitution says the punishment is the loss of liberty, not starvation, violence, neglect, or death.
Yet every day, Georgia piles on punishments no judge ever ordered.

Every other developed nation treats prison as a place for rehabilitation.
Georgia treats it as a dumping ground for suffering.

Normalization is how we realign Georgia with the law, with humanity, and with public safety.

Georgia now faces a choice:
continue running prisons that violate the Constitution, or adopt the normalization model that every safe, sane society already follows.

One path breeds violence.
The other creates redemption.
Only one is legal.