SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) – Following the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)’s investigation into Georgia’s state prisons, U.S. Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff urged the State to swiftly improve conditions in Georgia prisons.
The DOJ has found that the current state of Georgia’s prisons is “unconstitutional”.
In a 93-page report, the federal government says the state fails to protect incarcerated people from violence or harm.
The DOJ’s investigation of Georgia’s state-operated prisons found that “the State of Georgia engages in a pattern or practice of violating incarcerated persons’ constitutional rights.”
Sens. Ossoff and Rev. Warnock are urging Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) Commissioner Tyrone Oliver to address the concerning findings in the DOJ’s report just last month on Georgia’s state prison system, which found conditions in Georgia’s prisons “violate the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.”
According to the DOJ’s report, from January 2022 through April 2023, there were more than 1,400 reported incidents of violence, including fights, assaults, hostage incidents, and homicides, across 24 of Georgia’s prisons, including all close-security prisons and most of the medium-security prisons.
The DOJ also found that in 2022, there were 456 documented allegations of sexual abuse between incarcerated individuals, 35 of which were found to be substantiated.
Earlier this year, Sen. Ossoff, alongside Senator Reverend Warnock and Congresswoman Nikema Williams (GA-05), urged the DOJ to prioritize its investigation into the Fulton County Jail.
In June, Sens. Ossoff and Reverend Warnock launched an inquiry with Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the U.S. DOJ to strengthen policies aimed at tracking and collecting data about deaths in Federal, state, and local custody in order to better understand and mitigate risks inmates face while incarcerated.
In September 2023, Sen. Ossoff urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to open a civil rights investigation into the Clayton County Jail, pointing to extensive local reporting alleging serious human rights violations and dangerous conditions inside the facility.
In 2022, Sen. Ossoff led a 10-month bipartisan investigation that uncovered the DOJ failed to count nearly 1,000 deaths in state and local custody in 2021 alone.
for more information on the findings in the report, click here.
To read the full letter see below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18KJgOwCwd4QSEOQrrRpQurcLh4WAiuSP/view?usp=sharing
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