Prison News | Georgia

• Education & Rehabilitation
• Executions, Death Row, & the Death Penalty
• Gangs in Prison
• Health & Medical Treatment
• Prison Classification, Placement, and Release
• Prison Conditions & Corruption
• Prison Life & Prison Culture
• Riots, Lockdowns & Escapes
• Suicides in Prison
• Workplace & Industry News and Science & Tech

Education & Rehabilitation

• Georgia Approves Aggressive Blueprint for Prisoner Reentry Initiative
  
  Georgia criminal justice reform will push the pedal hard over the next several months with rapid expansion of the state’s prisoner reentry initiative. Millions of federal grant dollars will become seed money for fifteen pilot project sites starting now through the 2017 calendar year. The goal is to give released inmates a better chance to succeed when they go outside the walls.... [ more ]
  Mike Klein Online, Saturday, November 1, 2014
  
  
• Dr. Bryant advocates higher education for convicts
  
  On Oct. 10, Dr. Maxine Bryant held a lecture at the Ogeechee Theater. She discussed some ideas concerning the future of Armstrong. Bryant wants the school to “open it’s doors to convicts.” Citing ASU’s mission statement, particularly it’s aim for a “diverse learning experience,” Dr. Bryant wants to use “higher education as a desistance factor.”... [ more ]
  U-Wire, Thursday, October 16, 2014
  
  
• Jail program helping inmates --- and dogs: Fulton participants caring for, training and socializing animals.
  
  Susan Jacobs-Meadows had always wanted to find a way to help animals when she discovered a way to help people in the process. In January 2012, she started Canine CellMates and began to develop a program that would reduce recidivism and ...... [ more ]
  Atlanta Journal Constitution, Tuesday, July 9, 2013
  
  

Executions, Death Row & the Death Penalty

• A Georgia death row inmate has asked to be executed by firing squad
  
  (CNN)A convicted murderer in Georgia has asked that he be executed by firing squad, arguing an execution by lethal injection would cause him "excruciating pain" because of the condition of his veins.... [ more ]
  CNN, Saturday, January 11, 2020
  
  
• Execution date set for Glynn Co. convicted murderer
  
  FORSYTH, Ga. (WSAV) – Monday the Glynn County Superior Court ordered the execution of convicted murderer Jimmy Fletcher Meders. ... [ more ]
  wsav3, Tuesday, December 31, 2019
  
  
• Georgia inmate executed for 1994 convenience store killing as last-minute DNA test denied
  
  A Georgia inmate sentenced to death for fatally shooting a convenience store clerk during a robbery 25 years ago was executed Wednesday night, authorities say.... [ more ]
  usatoday.com, Thursday, November 14, 2019
  
  
• New execution date set for Georgia inmate
  
  ATLANTA — Georgia officials set a new execution date Friday for a death row inmate two days after he was granted a temporary reprieve because of a legal technicality.... [ more ]
  startribune.com, Friday, November 1, 2019
  
  
• Countdown to an execution - final 24 hours of death row inmates revealed
  
  They are the final few steps - the last they will ever take - of the condemned men and women as they make their way to the execution chamber.... [ more ]
  mirror.co.uk, Wednesday, August 7, 2019
  
  
• Georgia carries out 1,500th U.S. execution since penalty was reinstated
  
  (Reuters) - Georgia on Thursday carried out the 1,500th execution in the United States since 1976, the year capital punishment was reinstated, by putting to death a man convicted of killing an off-duty prison guard in 1996.... [ more ]
  Reuters, Thursday, June 20, 2019
  
  
• Inmate awaits execution as lawyers plead for mercy, citing childhood
  
  As death penalty cases go, Marion Wilson’s is basically average.... [ more ]
  www.ajc.com, Tuesday, June 18, 2019
  
  
• Scotty Morrow executed: Final words of death row inmate who killed ex-girlfriend
  
  A death row inmate who shot his ex-girlfriend in front of her son has been executed in the US.

  Scotty Morrow, 52, was sentenced to death for killing his former partner and her friend in front of a five-year-old boy.

  ... [ more ]

  Mirror, Thursday, May 2, 2019
  
  
• Georgia sets new execution date for convicted killer Warren Hill
  
  Georgia has scheduled a new execution date of July 15 for Warren Hill, the man convicted of a 1990 murder who came within two hours of being put to death early this year before a federal appeals court called a halt...... [ more ]
  Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Thursday, July 4, 2013
  
  
• Execution date set for Georgia death-row inmate whose lawyers say he's mentally disabled
  
  The commissioner of the Department of Corrections on Wednesday set the execution of Warren Lee Hill for July 15 at 7 p.m., the office announced in a news release. Earlier Wednesday, a judge had signed a warrant setting a window for the execution between noon on July 13 and noon on July 20...... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Wednesday, July 3, 2013
  
  

Gangs in Prison

• Two Federal Inmates, White Supremacist Members, Found Guilty of Racially Motivated Murder
  
  “This verdict shows that, even within the federal prison system, violent offenders must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates. “The fact that this particular homicide was motivated by racial animus makes these defendants’ actions all the more reprehensible. The Department of Justice and its Bureau of Prisons endeavor to protect the life and safety of every federal inmate. We remain vigilant and will do everything we can to ensure that prisons are as safe as possible for every inmate and employee.”... [ more ]
  FBI.gov, Tuesday, February 4, 2014
  
  
• Four MS-13 Members Convicted for Murders: Crimes were "Brutal"
  
  After a four-week trial, a federal jury has convicted Miguel Alvarado-Linares, Ernesto Escobar, Dimas Alfaro-Granados and Jairo Reyna-Ozuna for committing multiple murders, attempted murders, armed robberies and firearms offenses in Gwinnett and DeKalb Counties.

  The convictions were announced today by Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Sally Quillian Yates; Brock D. Nicholson, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Atlanta; and Mark F. Giu... [ more ]

  US Department of Justice, Tuesday, July 16, 2013
  
  
• Ga. parole staff to meet with crime victims
  
  ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia parole officials are giving crime victims a chance to discuss their cases with parole staff...... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Thursday, July 4, 2013
  
  
• Georgia sets new execution date for convicted killer Warren Hill
  
  Georgia has scheduled a new execution date of July 15 for Warren Hill, the man convicted of a 1990 murder who came within two hours of being put to death early this year before a federal appeals court called a halt...... [ more ]
  Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Thursday, July 4, 2013
  
  
• Execution date set for Georgia death-row inmate whose lawyers say he's mentally disabled
  
  The commissioner of the Department of Corrections on Wednesday set the execution of Warren Lee Hill for July 15 at 7 p.m., the office announced in a news release. Earlier Wednesday, a judge had signed a warrant setting a window for the execution between noon on July 13 and noon on July 20...... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Wednesday, July 3, 2013
  
  
• Three quit, four suspended at DeKalb youth detention center
  
  Three officers at the Department of Juvenile Justice short-term lock up in DeKalb County resigned and four others were suspended ... [ more ]
  Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Tuesday, July 2, 2013
  
  
• Corrections works to keep prison doors locked
  
  After three prisoner deaths in two months at Hays State Prison in northwest Georgia, state officials say they may have addressed one of the root causes of violence at the high-security facility: locks that don... [ more ]
  AJC.com, Monday, July 1, 2013
  
  

Health & Medical Treatment

• Why is Michael Lake still in a Cobb County jail?
  
  A mentally ill Smyrna man has been sitting in Cobb County jail for nineteen months without bond for essentially mailing legal papers to a junior-high crush he hadn't seen for almost fifteen years..... [ more ]
  Atlanta Magazine, Tuesday, July 2, 2013
  
  

Prison Classification, Placement, & Release

• Prison Hunger Striker's Wife: Denial of Visits Unconstitutional
  
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit frequently hears cases brought by prisoners complaining about abuse or facility conditions or seeking to overturn their convictions. On Wednesday a three-judge panel of the court heard a more unusual prison case—one brought by the wife of a Georgia prisoner.... [ more ]
  Palm Beach Daily Business Review, Friday, August 1, 2014
  
  
• Purchase of former Georgia prison by Execution Dr raises concern
  
  ATLANTA (AP) — A physician with a yearslong relationship with the Georgia Department of Corrections has bought a 700-bed former prison for $50,000 — half its appraised value — and stands to make millions running it as a nursing home for old and sick parolees.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Tuesday, March 11, 2014
  
  
• Defense expert says Ga. slayings of 8 people 'inconsistent' with lone-killer theory
  
  BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) - A defense expert says he believes there must have been more than one killer in the beating deaths of eight people found slain inside a Georgia mobile home.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Tuesday, October 22, 2013
  
  
• No debtors' prisons here, Cobb judge says
  
  • A Cobb County Superior Court judge freed former Glock executive Paul Jannuzzo Wednesday, saying it would be unconstitutional to keep holding him because, "We don't have debtors' prisons in this country."... [ more ]
  Fulton County Daily Report, Thursday, July 18, 2013
  
  
• Ga. parole staff to meet with crime victims
  
  ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia parole officials are giving crime victims a chance to discuss their cases with parole staff...... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Thursday, July 4, 2013
  
  

Prison Conditions & Corruption

• Ex-convict sues U.S., claims prison doctor sexually abused him at Atlanta facility
  
  And the former prisoner is now suing the United States government for $1 million, claiming officials should've known better than to hire the physician, who eventually was indicted and jailed for groping inmates.... [ more ]
  Atlanta Journal - Constitution, Friday, March 28, 2014
  
  
• For Union POWs, hope amid despair in Andersonville
  
  The prisoner of war camp at Andersonville, Ga., has always been notorious. Close to 13,000 Union men died there from starvation and illness, a catastrophe retold many times in books and movies. But now the historic site at Andersonville is trying to highlight a different side of the story.... [ more ]
  Washington Post, Friday, September 13, 2013
  
  
• Mother of slain Hays State inmate sues over son's murder
  
  Lawsuit accuses the state of knowing for years that security at Hays had deteriorated to “unconstitutional levels” where cell door locks didn’t work or were easily defeated...... [ more ]
  Atlanta Journal Constitution, Thursday, September 5, 2013
  
  
• Three quit, four suspended at DeKalb youth detention center
  
  Three officers at the Department of Juvenile Justice short-term lock up in DeKalb County resigned and four others were suspended ... [ more ]
  Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Tuesday, July 2, 2013
  
  
• Corrections works to keep prison doors locked
  
  After three prisoner deaths in two months at Hays State Prison in northwest Georgia, state officials say they may have addressed one of the root causes of violence at the high-security facility: locks that don... [ more ]
  AJC.com, Monday, July 1, 2013
  
  

Prison Life & Culture

• The exonerated After 17 years of false imprisonment, Clarence Harrison was released thanks to the Georgia Innocence Project. But freedom hasn�t been easy.
  
  Seated in the defendant’s chair in a DeKalb County courtroom, Clarence Harrison isn’t worried.

  He’s on trial for rape, but he’s innocent and knows there’s no physical evidence linking him to the crime.... [ more ]

  Atlanta Journal - Constitution, Sunday, March 16, 2014
  
  
• Doing Good: Nonprofit reaches out to prisons, helps to change lives.
  
  HeartBound Ministries is on a mission. It equips prison chaplains and provides programs and resources to help meet physical and spiritual needs of the prison community — correctional staff, inmates and their families — and aims to change the culture from one of crime and incarceration to hope and restoration.... [ more ]
  Atlanta Journal Constitution, Tuesday, September 3, 2013
  
  
• Scared Straight Continues, Despite Misgivings
  
  This week, the fourth season of the A&E TV show “Beyond Scared Straight” follows two young sisters to the adult jail in Douglas County, Ga., where one inmate tells one of the sisters how she could beat her up “and make you not so pretty no more.”... [ more ]
  Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, Wednesday, July 24, 2013
  
  

Riots, Lockdowns & Escapes

• Georgia inmate recaptured 2 months after escape
  
  A Georgia inmate who walked away from work detail in May was recaptured in Coffee County, authorities said Monday.... [ more ]
  www.ajc.com, Monday, July 15, 2019
  
  
• Inmate murdered at Georgia prison, authorities say
  
  The prisoner was assaulted by another inmate at a Chattooga County prison, corrections authorities said.... [ more ]
  11 Alive, Friday, January 18, 2019
  
  
• Two inmates apparently slain at federal prison in VictorvilleTwo inmates apparently slain at federal prison in Victorville
  
  VICTORVILLE >> Two inmates died Saturday night at a federal prison here, the victims of an apparent homicide, the Justice Department reported Sunday.

  The FBI is investigating the deaths of the inmates, whose names have not been disclosed pending notification of family members.... [ more ]

  Daily Breeze, Monday, June 23, 2014
  
  

Suicides in Prison

Workplace & Industry News, and Science & Tech News

• Sheriff Pioneers New Secure Technology for Effingham Jail -- All at No Cost to Taxpayers!
  
  EFFINGHAM COUNTY, GA. — This year marks a new era for Effingham, as they became the first county in the Southeast to install wireless inmate tablet technology.... [ more ]
  Fort Mill Times, Friday, May 23, 2014
  
  
• 16 officers quit, transfer from Hays State prison as new warden prepares to begin duty
  
  TRION, Ga. (AP) - Sixteen corrections officers at a northwest Georgia prison have either quit or are transferring as a new warden is set to begin duty.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Sunday, June 30, 2013