An investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice has found violence and sexual assault are rife in prisons across Georgia, constituting cruel and unusual punishment for the state’s estimated 50,000 incarcerated people. The scathing report by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division found Georgia fails to protect people in custody from extreme violence inside 34 state prisons, as well as four prisons run by for-profit corporate contractors. It also found an unconstitutional risk of harm from sexual violence at these prisons, including widespread sexual assaults of LBGTQ+ people. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Kristen Clarke: “In America, time in prison should not be a sentence to death, torture or rape. We can’t turn a blind eye to the wretched conditions and wanton violence unfolding in these institutions. The people incarcerated in these jails and prisons are our neighbors, siblings, children, parents, family members and friends.”
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