Category Archives: prison conditions

Gov. Deal Wraps Up Criminal Justice Reform Agenda, Four Years Later

nathan deal

(APN) ATLANTA — Gov. Nathan Deal made criminal justice reform one of the priorities of his administration.  While he has been problematic on medical cannabis issues, Gov. Deal has pushed forward of several criminal justice reform measures that came out of the Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform.   As reported by Atlanta Progressive News in 2012, this Council made […]

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Eleven Arrested while Protesting Stewart Detention Center, including One Atlantan

lady liberty

(APN) LUMPKIN, Georgia — On November 21, 2015, over 1,400 people came from across the U.S. for the ninth annual “Shut It Down” march on Stewart Detention Center.  It was the largest protest yet against the private Correction Corporation of America’s (CCA) for-profit prison.   Up to 1,750 immigrants are held at CCA without due process or the right to […]

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Stewart Detention Center On Lockdown as Detainees Protest Inhumane Conditions

stewart

(APN) ATLANTA — Detainees at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia were apparently met with retaliation for protesting inhumane conditions this week.   “We are deeply concerned for people currently detained at Stewart.  As communication in and out of the facility has been limited, it has been difficult to monitor the situation,” Silky Shah, co-director of the Detention Watch Network, […]

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National Conference on Mass Incarceration Held in Atlanta

killed by law enforcement

(APN) ATLANTA — A national conference sponsored by the Stop Mass Incarceration Network was held February 07 and 08, 2015 at the Interdenominational Theological Center at Atlanta University.   A wide variety of people, approximately two hundred, from California to New York, attended.  They came to Atlanta to prepare for a nationwide day of resistance, on April 14, 2015, to […]

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Hunger Strike at Stewart Detention Ends in Pepper Spray, Lock Down

(APN) ATLANTA — Hundreds of Inmates at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia staged a hunger strike because of deplorable conditions at the Center.   It began last week when inmates refused to eat spoiled food with maggots in the beans and instead threw the food away. “They were locked up and pepper sprayed because of the hunger strike, that’s why […]

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Georgia Prisons Face Crisis of Inmate Violence: 32 Deaths in Four Years

(APN) ATLANTA — The Southern Center for Human Right (SCHR) and State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) held a legislative hearing, on Thursday, April 10, 2014, at the State Capitol, on the increase of violence and violent deaths in the Georgia prison system.       “Several years ago we noticed that we were receiving… ever-growing reports of trauma and violence […]

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Georgia Considers Reforms to Reduce Prison Population, Costs

With additional reporting on the Special Council’s recommendations by Matthew Cardinale. (APN) ATLANTA — This year, the Georgia Legislature is expected to begin considering a package of reforms intended to reduce the state’s prison population as well as the enormous costs to taxpayers that Georgia’s mass incarceration policies have caused year after year. The Report of the Special Council on […]

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