{"id":24918,"date":"2024-11-19T18:42:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T23:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&p=24918"},"modified":"2024-11-20T09:16:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T14:16:07","slug":"following-doj-investigation-sens-ossoff-rev-warnock-urge-state-of-georgia-to-swiftly-address-unconstitutional-conditions-in-state-prisons","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/following-doj-investigation-sens-ossoff-rev-warnock-urge-state-of-georgia-to-swiftly-address-unconstitutional-conditions-in-state-prisons\/","title":{"rendered":"Following DOJ Investigation,\u00a0Sens. Ossoff, Rev. Warnock Urge\u00a0State of Georgia\u00a0to Swiftly Address \u201cUnconstitutional\u201d Conditions\u00a0in\u00a0State Prisons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C. \u2014<\/strong> Following the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)\u2019s investigation into Georgia\u2019s state prisons, U.S. Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff today urged the State to swiftly improve conditions in Georgia prisons, which the DOJ found were \u201cunconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sens. Ossoff and Rev. Warnock urged Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) Commissioner Tyrone Oliver to promptly address the deeply concerning findings in the DOJ\u2019s report last month on Georgia\u2019s state prison system, which found conditions in Georgia\u2019s prisons \u201cviolate the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DOJ\u2019s investigation<\/a> of Georgia\u2019s state-operated prisons found that \u201cthe State of Georgia engages in a pattern or practice of violating incarcerated persons\u2019 constitutional rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe write to urge the State of Georgia and the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) to promptly address the deeply concerning findings contained in the Department of Justice\u2019s (DOJ) October 2024 report on its investigation of Georgia prisons,\u201d the Senators wrote to GDC Commissioner Tyrone Olver.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn October 1, 2024, DOJ\u2019s Civil Rights Division published the findings from its investigation of Georgia prisons. Among its findings are that there is reason to believe the State of Georgia and GDC (1) fail to protect incarcerated people from violence and harm by other incarcerated people in violation of the Eighth Amendment, and (2) fail to protect incarcerated people from harm caused by sexual violence in violation of the Eighth Amendment. DOJ further found that the State and GDC are \u2018deliberately indifferent’ to unsafe conditions in state prisons,\u201d the Senators wrote.<\/strong> \u201cIn light of DOJ\u2019s alarming findings, we urge GDC to give DOJ\u2019s findings due consideration and act swiftly to remedy the troubling state of Georgia state prisons.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the DOJ\u2019s 93-page report<\/a>, 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Sen. Ossoff, alongside Senator Reverend Warnock and Congresswoman Nikema Williams (GA-05), urged the DOJ<\/a> to prioritize its investigation into the Fulton County Jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June, Sens. Ossoff and Reverend Warnock launched an inquiry<\/a> with Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the U.S. Department of Justice (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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2023, Sen. Ossoff urged<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, Sen. Ossoff led a 10-month bipartisan investigation<\/a> that uncovered the DOJ failed to count nearly 1,000 deaths in state and local custody in 2021 alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/a> to read Sens. Ossoff and Rev. Warnock\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # #<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C. \u2014 Following the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)\u2019s investigation into Georgia\u2019s state prisons, U.S. Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff today urged the State to swiftly improve conditions in Georgia prisons, which the DOJ found were \u201cunconstitutional.\u201d Sens. Ossoff and Rev. Warnock urged Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) Commissioner Tyrone Oliver to promptly address the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24918","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/24918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/24918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24920,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/24918\/revisions\/24920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}