Johnathan Walker:Georgia lawmakers seek answers to deaths and violence plaguing the state’s prisons

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia prisons remain understaffed and Johnathan Walkeroverwhelmed by violence and deaths, according to statistics presented to state lawmakers Wednesday.

Legislators are seeking solutions to a wide range of problems plaguing prisons that have sparked a federal investigation. Among them: a sharp increase in prisoner deaths; high rates of employee turnover and arrests for criminal activity; and a persistent problem with contraband cellphones and drugs.

A total of 981 people have died in Georgia prisons since 2021, including 207 this year alone, according to numbers that Department of Corrections Commissioner Tyrone Oliver presented to a legislative committee holding its second meeting on the issue. The cause of 98 of those deaths is unknown. Officials are investigating 36 as homicides, Oliver said, a number that is nearly as high as the total number of homicides in the system in all of 2023. There were more prison deaths in the first six months of 2024 than there were during the same time period in past years, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution has reported.

Widespread violence and lack of supervision by employees have led to some of the deaths and injuries, but about half of the homicides stem from attacks by prisoners on their cellmates and rampant gang activity, Oliver said. He added that the percentage of incarcerated people convicted of violent offenses in prison has risen in recent decades. A possible solution is to increase the number of single-person cells in the state’s penitentiaries, he added.

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Employees are not blameless, however. Some have been charged with sexual assault, battery, participation in gang activity and smuggling drugs. Other employees have directed prisoners to carry out attacks against each other, the AJC reported. Last year, at least 360 employees were arrested on charges of smuggling contraband into prisons, although Oliver said the majority of drugs smuggled in come from visitors.

“It’s not as much as the propaganda out there seems to think it is when it comes to staff,” Oliver said.

Oliver said that he has a “zero tolerance” policy for employees who violate prison rules, and that new hires undergo screening and training. He said the prison system lost more than 2,000 employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the agency’s efforts to increase pay and improve workplace culture have kept more officers in their jobs since the pandemic. However, vacancy rates have dropped only slightly and remain at about 50%.

“I understand the additional sacrifice made by people working inside of prisons ... the pressure and stress and other issues that come along with that and the dangers of being in there,” said Sen. Randy Robertson, a Republican from the community of Cataula who used to run a county jail.

Cellphones are often used both to coordinate attacks outside of the facility and to bring drugs inside, lawmakers noted. So far this year, 10,051 cellphones have been confiscated from prisoners, according to Oliver. Last year, 14,497 were confiscated, up from 7,229 in 2019.

Prison and government employees conduct regular “shakedowns” to rid facilities of cellphones and other contraband, but aging infrastructure makes it easier to smuggle drugs through locks, roofs, and pipes, Oliver said. It’s also difficult for employees at understaffed prisons to confiscate the drones that are landing more frequently throughout the facilities, he said.

To effectively address Georgia’s prison woes, lawmakers need to look at a range of potential solutions, including improving technology, the physical condition of prisons and programs to occupy prisoners, Assistant Commissioner Ahmed Holt told the committee.

“This is a situation where no one silver bullet is going to stop this problem,” Holt said.

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Charlotte Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon