By Carrie Teegardin, Danny Robbins
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — After months of silence and denials about the crisis in the state prison system, Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday made a powerful statement acknowledging the troubles. He unveiled a series of recommendations to address long-standing problems, and he called for more than $600 million in additional funding for the Georgia Department of Corrections over the next 18 months.
The proposal, developed with consulting firm Guidehouse Inc., includes measures to hire more correctional and security officers, improve their pay and update their training; make emergency repairs to prison facilities; beef up the maintenance staff; and fix locks and security electronics.
Kemp is also calling for investing $40 million to plan and design a new prison, increasing funds to add 446 private prison beds to the existing contract and paying for construction of modular units to house prisoners while capital and security improvements are being made.
All told, the governor is requesting an additional $458 million this fiscal year and another $144 million in the 2026 fiscal year to make the changes. But making the fixes, including basics such as repairing all the locks on cells, will take years, GDC Commissioner Tyrone Oliver said.
Oliver presented the recommendations Tuesday at a rare pre-session meeting of the Joint Appropriations House and Senate Public Safety Subcommittees. The early presentation, before the governor presents his full budget, signals the matter is a priority for Kemp and may need extra time to steer through the Legislature.
“We do realize and recognize that this is … I don’t know if historical is the proper term, but it is out of the ordinary, and I think it shows the emphasis that he (Kemp) and us collectively are putting on this issue,” said House Appropriations Chairman Matt Hatchett. “Yeah, you can study things for a long time and hope you get the right answer and the right path forward. Well, this has been studied and studied. And it think it’s time to get something done.”
Senate Appropriation Chairman Sen. Blake Tillery said that such an early presentation, before the legislative session begins, hasn’t been done before. “But I think it’s because of the pressure that we have and we feel we owe to the citizens of Georgia , that we want to make sure our prisons are safe for our employees, safe for our inmates and safe for the public. So I’m really glad we’re able to start that process early today.”
Kemp’s proposals come after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in a series of investigations, highlighted deep failures within the prison system. The AJC in 2023 detailed extreme understaffing, extensive illicit drug use by inmates, extraordinary violence and large criminal enterprises run by prisoners that victimized people well beyond the prison walls. The stories also exposed widespread corruption in the system, with hundreds of GDC employees arrested and fired for smuggling in drugs and other forms of contraband.
A study analyzed data on the number of COs and the number of prisoners in each state. Watch the video below to see which states have the most understaffed prisons in 2024.
The AJC continued to expose failures within the GDC throughout 2024, including documenting record-setting homicides that suggest a complete breakdown in security even as the prison system took steps to limit information about killings. Oliver, however, had decried news accounts of undisclosed homicides and record deaths as “propaganda” when he met with legislative committees examining the prison system.
Adding to the scrutiny, the U.S. Department of Justice in October released its investigation of the prison system, finding prisons in chaos and the state indifferent to unsafe conditions. The GDC immediately rejected those findings. “Contrary to DOJ’s allegations, the State of Georgia’s prison system operates in a manner exceeding the requirements of the United States Constitution,” spokesperson Joan Heath said at the time.
Kemp had announced in June that he had hired Guidehouse, comprising two groups that specialized in correctional facility planning and operations, to conduct an in-depth assessment to identify ways to improve the prison system. The consultants were to visit prisons, do research, work with GDC personnel and interview other stakeholders before coming up with recommended changes.
Kemp’s announcement that he was hiring consultants came a day after a gun smuggled into Smith State Prison led to the fatal shooting of a kitchen worker by a prisoner who then turned the gun on himself. State officials have not disclosed how the gun was smuggled in.
Among the recommended fixes detailed Tuesday are a series of pay raises. Correctional officers would get a 4% boost to bring parity to pay with neighboring states. Education, food service, chaplain and maintenance personnel would also get a 4% pay hike. Behavioral health counselors would get an 8% salary increase to improve recruitment and retention.
The budget would also allow the GDC to develop a statewide targeted marketing campaign to recruit and hire new correctional officers.
The system has been plagued with extreme staffing shortages, especially in the ranks of correctional officers. At Valdosta State Prison, which houses the GDC’s highest percentages of prisoners who are both gang members and have mental health issues, as of April 80% of the correctional officer positions were vacant, the AJC found. As of October, eight GDC facilities had correctional officer vacancy rates of 70% or more.
The DOJ report, released after a three-year investigation, included 13 pages of remedial measures and an admonishment that the federal government could initiate a lawsuit if its concerns weren’t addressed within 49 days. Although that deadline has passed, the DOJ has yet to take further action.
The Kemp recommendations announced Tuesday speak directly to some of the DOJ’s concerns —particularly staffing and facility conditions — but not others, including sexual safety and the management of gang members.
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