Justice Department finds Georgia is 'deliberately indifferent' to unchecked abuses at its prisons

Georgia prison officials are “deliberately indifferent” to unchecked deadly violence, widespread drug use, extortion and sexual abuse at state lockups, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday, threatening to sue the state if it doesn’t quickly take steps to curb rampant violations of prisoners’ Eighth Amendment protections against cruel punishment.

Allegations of violence and chaos laid out in a stark 93-page report are the result of a statewide civil rights investigation into Georgia prisons announced in September 2021. At the time, federal officials cited particular concern about stabbings, beatings and other violence in a system where an estimated 50,000 people are incarcerated.

“The leadership of the Georgia Department of Corrections has lost control of its facilities,” Ryan Buchanan U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said during a Tuesday news conference about the findings. He described a system in which inmate gangs have “co-opted” administrative functions, including bed assignments.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke did not discuss possible legal action during the news conference in Atlanta. She said the Justice Department looked forward to working with Georgia officials to address the myriad problems.

“We understand they are reviewing our findings report,” said Clarke, who oversees the Justice Department's civil rights division. “And we are we are focused on, addressing the unconstitutional conditions inside these prisons. People do not surrender their civil or constitutional rights at the jailhouse door.”

“Grossly inadequate staffing” is part of the reason violence and other abuse flourishes uncontrolled, and sometimes unreported or uninvestigated, the report said, saying the state appears “deliberately indifferent” to the risk faced by people incarcerated in its prisons.

“The state has created a chaotic and dangerous environment,” said Clarke “The violence is pervasive and endemic.”

Multiple allegations of sexual abuse are recounted in the report, including abuse of LGBTQ inmates. A transgender woman reported being sexually assaulted at knifepoint. Another inmate said he was “extorted for money” and sexually abused after six people entered his cell.

“In March 2021, a man from Georgia State Prison who had to be hospitalized due to physical injuries and food deprivation reported his cellmate had been sexually assaulting and raping him over time,” the report said.

Homicide behind bars is also a danger. The report said there were five homicides at four different prisons in just one month in 2023.

The number of homicides among prisoners has grown over the years — from seven in 2018 to 35 in 2023, the report said.

Included in the report are 13 pages of recommended short-and long-term measures the state should take. The report concludes with a warning that legal action was likely. The document said the Attorney General may file a lawsuit to correct the problems, and could also intervene in any related, existing private suits in 15 days.

“Certainly, severe staffing shortages are one critical part of the problem here,” Clarke said. “We set forth in our report minimal remedial measures that include adding supervision and staffing, fixing the classification and housing system, and correcting deficiencies when it comes to reporting and investigations.”

The Georgia Department of Corrections “is committed to the safety of all of the offenders in its custody and denies that it has engaged in a pattern or practice of violating their civil rights or failing to protect them from harm due to violence,” Corrections spokeswoman Lori Benoit said in an email in 2021, when the investigation was announced. “This commitment includes the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) prisoners from sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and sexual assault.”

At the time the investigation was announced three years ago, assistant Attorney General Clarke said the investigation would focus on “harm to prisoners resulting from prisoner-on-prisoner violence.”

The Justice Department’s investigation was prompted by an extensive review of publicly available data and other information, Clarke said in 2021. Among factors considered, she said, were concerns raised by citizens, family members of people in prison and civil rights groups, as well as photos and videos that have leaked out of the state’s prisons that have “highlighted widespread contraband weapons and open gang activity in the prisons.”

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McGill reported from New Orleans; Durkin, from Washington.