Fox 5 Highlights Understaffing in Georgia Prison System

Disturbing video footage taken by a person living at Ware State Prison shows the deceased body of another incarcerated person left hanging over a banister (no”foul play” is suspected in the death.) According to the witnesses, hours passed before a prison staff member arrived in the cell block and eventually removed the body.

Like multiple other facilities in the state, Ware State Prison is operating with a near 70% staff vacancy rate (as of the beginning of 2022.) Though the Georgia Department of Corrections has long been plagued by low staffing rates, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has severely exacerbated the problem, resulting in preventable deaths in facilities across the state. The GDC has had years to address the extremely unbalanced staff to incarcerated people ratio, but there has been no meaningful change. “I can’t imagine a more dramatic illustration of the total crisis of violence and chaos inside of our prison system,” SCHR’s Impact Litigation Director Christina Remlin told Fox 5’s Randy Travis.

The high levels of violence and death inside Georgia’s prisons continue as the Department of Justice conducts a statewide civil rights investigation into conditions and treatment of incarcerated people.

Watch the piece here.