Advocates for inmates in Georgia state prisons want legislative study panel to spur reforms

Georgia State Prison in Reidsville was constructed in 1938 and closed in February 2022 largely due to outdated infrastructure. Before closing, it was the oldest prison in the state. Judson McCranie/Creative Commons

A new Georgia House Special Subcommittee of Appropriations on State Prisons is taking another step in the marathon probe that is tackling statewide prison system problems, including homicides and suicides.

Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns earlier this month announced the creation of the subcommittee intended to give the Legislature a glide path to implement future appropriations requests effectively. The existence of a prison-specific subcommittee means that the House’s future financial decisions can now be managed through the appropriations process as soon as next year’s legislative session.

Rep. Matt Hatchett, a Dublin Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is leading the panel. He said channeling policy recommendations through an appropriations panel permits a broader probe to stay in “lockstep” with any future broad reform recommendations lawmakers might make.

With the state’s prisons under scrutiny, many statewide and regional organizations are leveling criticism at Georgia Department of Corrections officials over the hazards inmates and staff face. The Southern Center for Human Rights and other advocates for incarcerated people have sounded the alarm for years, questioning both prison and other parts of the criminal justice system in Georgia.

According to Atteeyah Hollie, deputy director at the Southern Center for Human Rights, Georgia prisons host a number of issues. Hollie listed overuse of solitary confinement, understaffing, excessive incarceration, lack of educational programming and lack of mental health resources as major flaws that she says lead to increased homicides, suicides and violence inside of prisons.

“We have just really created these environments where people are not safe and where they can’t rehabilitate, and they often leave prison worse than when they came in,” Hollie said.

When people are exiting the prison system just as low as how they came in, they become more likely to backslide and end up serving time again, Hollie said.

Georgia has notably higher rates of incarceration than many other states. According to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, the national average of adults facing some form of prison, jail, civil commitment, probation or parole is one in 33. However, one in 13 Georgians are in some way under correctional supervision.

The recidivism rate in Georgia is also listed at about 27%, which the State Board of Pardons and Paroles site says is “well below” the nationwide rate of reoffending. A 10-year study completed in 2018 by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics followed prisoners across 24 states and found that about 66% were arrested again within three years and 82% within 10 years.

In 2022, Georgia prisons were the site of 31 homicides and 43 suicides as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last year. The AJC investigation showed a recent trend of these rates climbing yearly, with just eight and nine homicides reported in 2017 and 2018. Similarly, there were 19, 17 and 24 suicides in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

The Department of Corrections issued a statement to the Recorder via email in response to an inquiry for an interview regarding problems in the prisons and how Georgia lawmakers might help:

“We work closely with partners in the legislative branch to serve the public safety needs of Georgians throughout the state, and look forward to continuing that valued partnership. We have also contracted with an impartial, third-party entity (Guidehouse) to assess the unique strengths and needs of the GDC.”

In June, Gov. Brian Kemp announced the state’s partnership with Guidehouse Inc. for a year-long probe that is planned to include visiting state prisons and working closely with the Department of Corrections.

“By ensuring our correctional facilities have the funding, technology, infrastructure, and operations to fulfill their mission, this comprehensive assessment is the next step in achieving a safer, stronger Georgia for all who call the Peach State home,” Kemp said.

Burns, a Newington Republican, said the special House panel is designed to prepare lawmakers to “take immediate action” on the recommendations and funding requests that may come from this review.

“The General Assembly has placed significant emphasis on improving the safety, security and conditions of our state-operated corrections facilities,” Burns said in a statement. “I look forward to the work of the committee and its support of efforts to restore law and order to Georgia’s prison system.”

Georgia’s prison system has struggled to keep offenders in custody safe for years according to Democratic Sen. Kim Jackson of Stone Mountain. She said Georgia officials reversed some of the strides toward prison reform made under former Gov. Nathan Deal before state lawmakers reverted to a “tough on crime” approach. Deal’s Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform ushered in a raft of new measures intended to emphasize rehabilitation instead of incarceration, including the creation of a drug court that aimed to help people free themselves from the grip of substance abuse.

“If we don’t have serious conversations about getting people out of prison who do not need to be there, then we are failing drastically on this issue,” Jackson said.

“We need to move to a place where we can say we can both punish people who need to be in prison and actually rehab and care for people who simply need care. And that doesn’t make us soft on crime. It makes us reasonable human beings who understand the difference between somebody with criminal intent and somebody who is in need of care.”

Jackson, who sits on the Senate Supporting Safety and Welfare of All Individuals in Department of Corrections Facilities Study Committee, said that one source of prison trouble in the state is that there are simply too many Georgians behind bars.

“We have people who are incarcerated today who need mental health care and not prison. We have people who are incarcerated today who need drug treatment and not prison. And we have people who are in jail today who fundamentally do not need to be in our prisons,” Jackson said.

This is an opinion that Hollie shares.

“We send too many people to prison and we send them to prison for too long,” she said, adding that locking up so many people, combined with understaffing at prisons, use of solitary confinement and little programming creates a “tinderbox” for homicides and suicides.

Jackson, though eager for change, says that the new House subcommittee “will only be a step in the right direction if we actually fund it.”

“Our prisons are very old,” Jackson said. “That’s why we don’t have central air and central heat in some of them. And we have prisons that are literally crumbling around the people who are there and those types of issues, personnel, infrastructure, those things cost a lot of money.”

Hollie, though just as disheartened with conditions in the current Georgia prison system, is optimistic about the new House subcommittee.

“I’m hopeful that the creation of this subcommittee is going to be a true step in looking at Georgia’s relationship with prison and the ways in which people have experienced unspeakable harm,” Hollie said. “We need to realize as a state that over 90% of people who go into our prisons are going to come home. What that means is that we can’t be so hellbent on ensuring that people suffer while they’re on the inside because that suffering comes home. It comes home to our communities.”

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