Rachelle Terry spent more than two years in Georgia’s women’s prisons. This September she wrote to lawmakers and the Department of Corrections about what she saw. Her letter is published here in full, alongside what the state’s own records show for the two prisons that held her.
A mother asked how to get a medical power of attorney or a HIPAA release for her son in a Georgia prison. Here is the answer from GDC’s own policies and the state’s own forms: two documents he has to sign, and one rule that says the warden is supposed to call you first.
Torrey Wayne Forrester died at 41 in a Georgia prison of cirrhosis caused by chronic hepatitis C — a disease curable since 2014. The Justice Department found Georgia treating roughly ten percent of the people it knew were infected. Georgia’s own profile shows it has not tested more than half the people in its custody.