State fire inspectors found padlocks and slide bolts on cell doors in four housing units at Washington State Prison in September. Broken locks, the warden said. Georgia has been buying new ones for more than a decade, and this year it set aside another $84,596,895.
Nine contributors describe what daily survival requires inside Georgia custody: boots worn into the shower, lunch carried back from breakfast, a fire alarm ringing into an empty post, and medication missed behind a locked door. Much of what keeps people alive is done by other prisoners.
State fire inspectors found barrel bolts on every fire exit at Ware State Prison in June and told GDC to remove them. In August they found the bolts still there, new ones on the dorm doors, empty control rooms and staff without keys. Inside Georgia’s prisons, the same hardware is on the cell doors.