Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Georgia was told a simple story in the 1990s: if we make sentences longer and force people to serve more of their time, crime will fall and communities will be safer.
Three decades later, Georgia’s prisons are some of the deadliest in the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice has intervened, and taxpayers have spent an estimated $30–40 billion on a system that is failing on every level.
Our major investigation, Georgia’s $40 Billion Mistake: How Bad Science and Federal Bribes Created a Constitutional Crisis, showed how “truth in sentencing” and federal incentive grants pushed Georgia toward extreme punishment.
This article focuses on the core lie that upheld those policies: the deterrence myth.
What Deterrence Was Supposed to Mean
Politicians sold harsh sentencing using one word: deterrence.
The promise sounded simple:
- Longer sentences will make people think twice.
- Harsh punishment will scare others away from crime.
- Eliminating parole and requiring 85 percent service will “send a message.”
On paper, it sounds logical.
In real life, it failed.
Most people who commit crimes aren’t weighing sentence lengths. They are acting under addiction, poverty, trauma, desperation, untreated mental illness, or crisis. Many don’t know the law, or the difference between five years and twenty.
“The idea that you can fine-tune crime by ratcheting up sentence lengths ignores everything we know about human behavior, trauma, and opportunity.”
— Georgia Prisoners’ Speak, *Georgia’s $40 Billion Mistake*
What Actually Happened Inside Georgia’s Prisons
Georgia’s harsh sentencing structure — and especially the 85 percent rule — didn’t deter crime. It pushed the prison system toward collapse.
Longer Sentences, More Violence
When hope of release disappears, something else takes its place:
- Less incentive to follow rules
- More power for gangs
- Conflicts that last years instead of months
- Increased fear, tension, and retaliatory violence
Georgia now faces:
- Record levels of homicides and stabbings
- Dorms controlled by gangs instead of staff
- People living in constant survival mode
Violence rose even as sentences got harsher. The system did not become safer — only more volatile.
Aging Population, Soaring Costs
Harsh sentencing didn’t just keep more people locked up. It kept them locked up longer and older.
That means:
- More chronic disease
- More disability
- More emergency medical care
- More expensive hospital transports
- More long-term taxpayer spending
Georgia traded a political slogan for a generational cost burden.
Longer Sentences Did Not Make Georgia Safer
If deterrence worked, Georgia would have seen:
- Lower violent crime
- Safer prisons
- Lower recidivism
Instead:
- Violence inside prisons exploded
- Homicides rose
- Recidivism remained high
- People returned home more traumatized and less stable
Harsh sentencing without treatment, programming, and reentry planning simply warehouses human beings until failure.
Why the Deterrence Myth Endured
If harsh sentencing is ineffective, why is it still politically powerful?
Simplicity Sells
“Do the crime, do the time” fits on a bumper sticker.
Real solutions — mental health care, education, housing, treatment — require investment.
It Shifts Blame Away From the State
Harsh sentencing tells voters the problem is:
- “Criminals,” not poverty
- “Bad people,” not underfunded schools
- “Danger,” not lack of mental health care
It diverts responsibility away from policymakers.
It Created Profitable Systems
As documented in Georgia’s $40 Billion Mistake, mass incarceration fuels entire industries:
- Prison construction
- Telecom contracts
- Commissaries
- Private medical providers
- Prisoner transport
When punishment becomes profitable, facts no longer matter.
What Works Better Than Harsh Sentencing
Decades of research — and examples from other states and nations — show that certainty and speed of consequence matter far more than sentence length.
Effective approaches include:
- Diversion and treatment courts
- Swift, modest sanctions
- Education and vocational training
- Evidence-based parole
- Early release tied to program completion
- Normalization models focused on reentry
Georgia could fund all of these strategies for less than the cost of its current failing system.
What Georgia Must Do Next
Georgia now faces the consequences of decades of bad policy:
DOJ investigations, lawsuits, extreme staffing shortages, collapsing dorms, and more than 100 homicides inside prisons in a single year.
The truth is unavoidable:
- Harsh sentencing did not deter crime
- Truth in sentencing helped create a constitutional crisis
- Continuing these policies guarantees more death, more cost, and more instability
Georgia must:
- Repeal or restructure truth-in-sentencing laws
- Restore meaningful, evidence-based parole
- Invest in programming and reentry
- Establish independent oversight of GDC and the Parole Board
Georgia has paid the price for believing in the deterrence myth.
Now it must invest in what actually works.
Call to Action: Help Force Real Reform
Real change only happens when the public demands it.
Contact Your Legislators
Tell them Georgia must end deadly prison conditions, restore parole, and rebuild a justice system rooted in safety and dignity.
Find your representative: https://openstates.org
Contact the Media
Ask reporters to continue covering Georgia’s prison crisis:
- @ajc
- @wsbtv
- @11Alive
- @WABE
- @AtlantaNewsFirst
Use ImpactJustice.AI
Generate personalized, evidence-based letters to lawmakers and agencies:
Share This Investigation
Public pressure forces action. Silence protects the system — not the people suffering inside it.
About Georgia Prisoners’ Speak (GPS)
Georgia Prisoners’ Speak (GPS) is a nonprofit investigative newsroom built in partnership with incarcerated reporters, families, advocates, and data analysts. Operating independently from the Georgia Department of Corrections, GPS documents the truth the state refuses to acknowledge: extreme violence, fatal medical neglect, gang-controlled dorms, collapsed staffing, fraudulent reporting practices, and unconstitutional conditions across Georgia’s prisons.
Through confidential reporting channels, secure communication, evidence verification, public-records requests, legislative research, and professional investigative standards, GPS provides the transparency the system lacks. Our mission is to expose abuses, protect incarcerated people, support families, and push Georgia toward meaningful reform based on human rights, evidence, and public accountability.
Every article is part of a larger fight — to end the silence, reveal the truth, and demand justice.
Further Reading
- Georgia’s $40 Billion Mistake *How federal incentives and moral panic created Georgia’s modern prison disaster.*
- Fixing Georgia’s Parole System *A detailed reform blueprint for rebuilding Georgia’s failed parole system.*
- Prisneyland: What Prison Should Be *How normalization-based prison models reduce violence and recidivism.*
- Lethal Negligence: The Hidden Death Toll in Georgia’s Prisons *The systemic failures behind Georgia’s rising prison death count.*
- Violence and Corruption Unleashed: The Truth About Washington State Prison *An inside look at gang control, staff collapse, and unchecked violence.*