Maria Montalvo, Sheila Denton, Dasha Fincher: across arson, bite marks, and field drug tests, junk forensic science continues to convict the innocent. Georgia is the national outlier — and almost nothing in state law lets the courts correct the record.
In less than three months, Warden Kendric Jackson transferred 87 lifers out of Calhoun State Prison — 79% to close-security facilities. GPS data reveals a systematic population swap: stable, long-term inmates shipped to Level 5 prisons while younger short-timers arrive from those same facilities. No other medium-security prison in Georgia is doing anything close to this.
Georgia spent $50 million deploying phone-blocking technology at 35 prisons. Homicides quadrupled. At every facility where GPS confirmed activation dates, violence erupted within weeks. The crackdown isn’t stopping crime — it’s destabilizing the power structures that kept people alive.
GDC spends $120M on surveillance and $2.6M on rehabilitation — a 46:1 ratio. That’s $52 per person per year. Meanwhile, 12,000 people return to Georgia communities every year worse off than when they entered prison.
More than 80% of American voters support prison reform. A landmark Brennan Center study proves reform works — with 73% violence reductions, recidivism drops of one-third, and renovations under budget. Georgia is one of two states explicitly called out for refusing to try. This companion report to the “No Way Out” series holds the evidence against what Georgia’s families and incarcerated people are experiencing.
Georgia has identified 315 gangs and 15,200 gang-affiliated prisoners — 31% of its population — yet has no separation strategy, no exit program, and no management plan. Texas, Arizona, and California solved this problem decades ago. Georgia chose to do nothing. The death toll proves it.
GDC’s own statistics report 301 people died while serving state sentences in 2025. But the official mortality name list contains only 295 names. When GPS asked who the six missing people were, GDC responded with bureaucratic doublespeak — and a bill.
Two federal judges. The U.S. Department of Justice. State legislators. A U.S. Senator. The press. Georgia’s Department of Corrections has stonewalled, obstructed, deceived, or defied every institution meant to hold it accountable — and paid no price. GPS traces the documented pattern.
Christian Krauch was tortured for three weeks at Macon State Prison in June 2024 — bound, stabbed, burned, and left under a bunk while GDC submitted 168 phantom inmate counts. He lost his right hand and leg to amputation. The state said nothing. No arrests were made.
A comprehensive guide for families seeking prison records in Georgia. Learn who creates and controls records, how to use the Open Records Act, navigate the “confidential state secrets” exemption, and request information from GDC, GBI, coroners, and hospitals.