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Eugene

(61,593 posts)
Wed Sep 15, 2021, 04:45 AM Sep 2021

Justice Department to investigate Georgia's prisons after reports of violence, deplorable conditions

Source: Washington Post

Justice Department to investigate Georgia’s prisons after reports of violence, deplorable conditions

By
Paulina Villegas
September 14, 2021 at 11:25 p.m. EDT

The Justice Department is launching an investigation into civil rights violations in Georgia prisons, focusing on prisoner-on-prisoner violence and the targeting of LGBT inmates by prisoners and staff, federal officials said Tuesday.

The announcement comes after advocacy groups said deplorable conditions of confinement and escalating violence — including homicides and suicides — have only worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. It is part of civil rights initiatives by the Justice Department under the Biden administration to reform the nation’s law enforcement agencies and prisons.

The Justice Department found “significant justification” to open the investigation, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a video news conference Tuesday, citing public reports of dozens of homicides, stabbings and beatings, scores of smuggled weapons, and open gang activity inside state-run prisons, along with extreme staff shortages.

The Justice Department will look into reports of conditions inside state facilities, where 26 people died last year in confirmed or suspected homicides. So far this year, there have been 18 homicides, said Clarke, who will be the lead examiner.

If federal investigators find evidence of systemic violations, they will issue a written report outlining minimal remedial measures, which the Department of Corrections would be required to implement. Clarke added that the Justice Department would work with the state to find and establish solutions.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2021/09/14/justice-department-launches-probe-georgia-prisons/

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Justice Department to investigate Georgia's prisons after reports of violence, deplorable conditions (Original Post) Eugene Sep 2021 OP
Thank goodness. And groups like They Have No Voice and Southern Center Hortensis Sep 2021 #1

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
1. Thank goodness. And groups like They Have No Voice and Southern Center
Wed Sep 15, 2021, 01:36 PM
Sep 2021

for Human Rights.

“The severity of the crisis within all of Georgia’s prisons cannot be overstated. This is an emergency and requires immediate action.”


This is how strong conservatives can be expected to run prisons when they're in control. Because it's how they always do.
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