Justice Department Finds Conditions in Georgia Prisons Violate the Constitution

ATLANTA - Today the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced its findings from a multi-year investigation concluding that the Georgia Department of Corrections is violating incarcerated persons' constitutional rights by failing to protect them from widespread physical violence and harm. The 94-page report details how the violence in Georgia prisons has become increasingly worse over the past several years.

"Individuals incarcerated by the Georgia Department of Corrections should not be subjected to life threatening violence and other forms of severe deprivation while serving their prison terms," said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. "Our constitution requires humane conditions in prisons, that, at a minimum, ensure that people in custody are safe. The findings of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act investigation of the Georgia Department of Corrections reveal grave and diffuse failures to safeguard the men and women housed in its facilities, including disturbing and increasing frequencies of deaths among incarcerated people. We expect the State of Georgia to share our sense of urgency about the seriousness of the violations described in this report and to work cooperatively with the Department of Justice, our office, and our U.S. Attorney partners in the Middle and Southern Districts to remedy these systemic deficiencies in Georgia prisons."

"Our findings report lays bare the horrific and inhumane conditions that people are confined to inside Georgia's state prison system," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "Our statewide investigation exposes long-standing, systemic violations stemming from complete indifference and disregard to the safety and security of people Georgia holds in its prisons. People are assaulted stabbed, raped and killed or left to languish inside facilities that are woefully understaffed. Inmates are maimed and tortured, relegated to an existence of fear, filth and not so benign neglect. These dangerous conditions not only harm the people Georgia incarcerates - it places prison employees and the broader community at risk. The Justice Department is committed to using its authority to bring about humane conditions of confinement that are consistent with contemporary standards of decency and respect for basic human dignity."

As described in the report issued today, Georgia has the fourth-highest state prison population in the country, with almost 50,000 people incarcerated in 34 state-operated prisons and four private prisons. Beginning in 2016, the United States conducted a thorough investigation of Georgia's prisons, with a focus on medium- and close-security facilities. The report found that critical understaffing and systemic deficiencies in physical plant, housing and classification, contraband control, and incident reporting and investigations, all contribute to the widespread violence. The United States also determined that gangs exert improper influence on prison life with impunity, including controlling entire housing units and operating unlawful and dangerous schemes in and from the prisons, harming both incarcerated people and the public. The report concludes that the GDC's procedures constitute a pattern or practice of violating incarcerated persons' constitutional rights under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by failing to protect those housed at the medium- and close-security levels from widespread physical violence and harm.

The United States also concluded that Georgia unconstitutionally subjects incarcerated persons to unreasonable risk of harm from sexual abuse across its facilities. Specifically, Georgia fails to protect incarcerated persons, including persons who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex ("LGBTI"), from harm caused by sexual violence or abuse. Individuals who are LGBTI are subjected to unreasonable risk of harm from sexual abuse in Georgia prisons due to inadequate sexual safety screening and classification practices, problematic and ineffective housing assignments, and other systemic deficiencies.

The United States launched its investigation under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act in 2016. At that time, the investigation focused on whether Georgia adequately protected incarcerated persons who are LGBTI from sexual abuse. In 2021, the United States expanded the investigation to also investigate protection from violence and harm for all incarcerated persons in facilities housing those at the medium- and close-security levels. The Northern District of Georgia's United States Attorney's Office joined together with the U.S. Attorneys' Offices for the Middle and Southern Districts of Georgia, and the Civil Rights Division's Special Litigation Section, to conduct the investigation.

The case is being handled by Aileen Bell Hughes, Deputy Chief of the Public Integrity & Civil Rights Section.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney's Public Affairs Office at [email protected] or (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.

Attachments: