Georgia stripped its prisons of work, family, and purpose — and left the gangs as the only institution supplying all three. An investigation into how the state manufactured the vacuum its gangs now fill, from Commissioner Wayne Garner’s 1996 purge to today’s TAC-squad raids, and the body count it refuses to publish.
The DOJ documented 142 homicides in Georgia prisons from 2018-2023. GPS documented 100 homicides in 2024 alone—nearly triple the previous year.
This isn’t random violence. It’s the inevitable result of deliberate GDC policy:
→ Zero wages for prisoner labor
→ 1,200 calories/day (half what’s needed)
→ Ramen marked up 350% to $0.90
→ Ibuprofen marked up 1,076% to $4.00
The equation is impossible: You cannot earn money. The food provided cannot sustain life. The prices are unaffordable.
What would you do?
Kitchen workers steal food to survive. Prisoners make alcohol for $150/bottle. Gangs charge $0.90 for shower access. Underground “medics” treat stab wounds to hide violence from guards.
And GDC policy criminalizes ALL of it – even trading soup for clean laundry.
This is forced criminality: survival strategies the state makes mandatory, then punishes.
Read how Georgia’s zero-wage policy creates the violence it claims to address.