Human Rights Group: Violence, Homicides Up In State Prisons

Jackson said her son feared for his life just weeks before he was killed, and she wants the prison held accountable for his death.

“We just need some closure. We need some help. Because he cried out on several occasions,” Jackson said. “He told us he wasn’t going to make it in there.”

The Southern Center for Human Rights said Jackson’s story is one example of a growing trend in Georgia’s state prisons.

The center said homicides, stabbings and assaults in the prison system are up in recent years, and that from 2010 to date, 32 prisoners and one officer were killed by other prisoners.

Singled out in the center’s testimony were Smith Prison in Glennville, Hays Prison in Chattooga County and Telfair Prison in Telfair County.

“These reports are similar in that they describe a situation in which the people who are supposed to be running our state prisons have apparently lost control over them,” said Sarah Geraghty, a senior attorney with the Southern Center.

Geraghty and six families, including Jackson, spoke at hearing Thursday in front of Democratic state Sens. Vincent Fort and Nan Orrock.

“This is intolerable,” Orrock said. “It’s intolerable for each of these families that have come today with their particular case, and it can happen again tomorrow for all we know because the situation is not being addressed.”

Geraghty said the center has asked the Georgia Department of Corrections to hire an outside group to conduct a security evaluation and implement a plan to reduce violence that they say is rampant.

She said the Department of Corrections has not responded to those requests, but that a lawsuit against the department over the death of another Hays inmate, Damion MacCalin, is pending.

Calls to the Department of Corrections were not returned.