Months after the Southern Center for Human Rights accused Arrendale State Prison of inhumane treatment, the United States Department of Justice has announced that they have opened a statewide investigation into the conditions of Georgia prisons.
The Special Litigation Section of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division will conduct the investigation alongside the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Georgia. Under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA), the organizations will investigate claims that those incarcerated in Georgia’s prisons have had their constitutional rights violated.
“Individuals sentenced to prison in Georgia Department of Corrections facilities deserve to be treated humanely,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine for the Northern District of Georgia in a press release. “Our office is committed to ensuring state prisoners are safe while serving their sentences. We look forward to working cooperatively with the Georgia Department of Corrections to ensure the safety of all individuals in its prisons.”
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The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to understaffing in prisons statewide, which may be contributing to alleged unsafe conditions that the SCHR brought to light. So far this year, there have been at least 48 homicides or suspected homicides in Georgia’s prisons and 38 documented suicides.
The Southern Center for Human Rights reached out to the DOJ last September to investigate Georgia’s prisons.
“We are so grateful to the DOJ for heeding our call and recognizing the human rights crisis that is unfolding every day in Georgia prisons,” Sara J. Totonchi, Executive Director of the SCHR, said in their response to the DOJ’s press release. “This is a significant step in our ongoing struggle for accountability for the lives that have been lost and for the people who continue to suffer behind the walls.”
In April, the SCHR sent a warning letter to the Arrendale State Prison, accusing them of inhumane treatment and asking to take immediate action. The SCHR never received a response from the prison, and sent a second warning letter in July. They did not receive a response to this warning letter, either.
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The warning letters include several allegations, from lack of medical treatment to confidentiality breaches in attorney-client mail. Some of the more disturbing allegations include the treatment of postpartum women incarcerated at Arrendale, including postpartum women being placed in solitary confinement, wearing clothes soaked in afterbirth and being denied medical attention.
Now, the DOJ can investigate these claims, among others across the state.
The DOJ encourages Georgians with relevant information pertaining to this investigation to contact them at (844) 401-3736, or by email at [email protected].
