State legislators concerned about the rampant violence, massive understaffing and thriving criminal enterprises inside Georgia’s state prisons are calling for faster action and more money to address the problems.
“We’re all aware of the safety and security concerns within the state’s prison system,” said Rep. Matt Hatchett, R- Dublin, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, as he introduced large spending increases in the midyear budget for the prison system.
The midyear budget and Gov. Brian Kemp’s proposed fiscal 2025 budget call for tens of millions of new dollars for the Department of Corrections. At the same time, during a series of budget hearings for the ongoing legislative session, lawmakers aggressively questioned Department of Corrections Commissioner Tyrone Oliver about what steps he is taking to correct the system’s problems and about whether the additional money requested is adequate.
“Time is of the essence and we want to get this done,” Hatchett told Oliver at a January subcommittee meeting when discussing the need to do more to stop the use of contraband cell phones. “Hit us with a plan to ramp that up.”
The questions come after the AJC, in a series of stories last year, exposed extensive corruption among prison employees, widespread drug use and drug dealing inside prisons, record homicides and large criminal enterprises that operate inside state prisons — and victimize people on the outside — with the help of contraband cellphones. The prison system is also under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division, which since September 2021 has been investigating prison violence.
The midyear budget passed by the House this week calls for spending $9.8 million on technology to combat contraband cell phone signals. The figure nearly doubles what Kemp’s proposal requested, with legislators asking the GDC to implement the technology at multiple prisons more quickly than planned. More scrutiny from legislators may come as they debate the budget for the 2025 fiscal year, which takes effect July 1.
“Everybody has heard about the cell phones in the prisons and what a problem that causes,” said Rep. Bill Hitchens, R- R-Rincon, chairman of the House Appropriations Public Safety Subcommittee and former head of the state patrol, during a budget meeting this week.
Sen. Blake Tillery, R- Vidalia, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told the AJC that improving prison security is an important matter, especially as it relates to effectively combatting gangs and stopping cell phone communications. “We have to be vigilant and capable of making sure our own institutions do not advance that criminal enterprise,” he said.
The Federal Communications Commission doesn’t allow prisons to jam cell phone signals over concerns about interfering with emergency calls. But Georgia has been experimenting with technology that will combat cell phone use.
Oliver told the AJC that one “managed access” system requires the prison to be emptied to be retrofitted, but another less expensive system allows prisoners to stay in place and hardware is installed outside. ”While the long game is to work with the FCC to get them to allow prisons to jam the phone lines, the money in the budget will allow us to install those (outdoor) systems at four prisons,” he said. “It’s a great start, but this is a long-term endeavor.”
In another measure to address security, both chambers already have approved and sent to the governor a bill to up penalties for prison employees caught smuggling contraband, such as cellphones and drugs. The AJC’s investigation identified at least 360 correctional officers arrested since 2018 in contraband cases, but those who were prosecuted rarely faced prison time and some weren’t prosecuted at all.
“You would have to be sleeping under a rock in another country not to realize and not to understand the absolute danger that exists in the Georgia State Department of Corrections today,” said Sen. Randy Robertson, R- R-Cataula, the bill’s sponsor, when speaking to the Senate in January.
Link: Lawmakers call for action on crisis in Georgia’s state prisons (ajc.com)