GDC Technology Archives

$150 Million to Watch Them Die: Georgia’s OWL Surveillance Goes Live

On or about June 1, Georgia switches on OWL — the first centralized real-time prison-surveillance hub in American corrections. GPS asks the question the state won’t answer: how does watching reduce a single stabbing, overdose, or suicide, when $150 million bought the eye and $805,000 was left for the classrooms?

The OWL Sees All: Georgia’s $150M Prison Surveillance

Georgia is building the first centralized prison surveillance command center in American corrections — the OWL Unit — integrating cameras, drones, body cams, health records, and cell phone interdiction into one hub. The $150M+ system has no public oversight, no privacy analysis, and no equivalent in any other state. GPS investigates.