The Georgia Department of Corrections , is seeing its deadliest year always, with 156 murders, including at least 24 deaths, during the first six weeks of 2024.
Mortality files obtained by , The Atlanta Journal-Constitution , shows total deaths inside position correctional services from all causes have been rising since 2020. At the top of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were even more of these deaths in the first quarter of this year than there were of the prisoner deaths.
And the prison system is on track to surpass previous year’s record-breaking death toll with the 24 deaths the AJC has been able to verify so far this year. In the first quarter of last year, there were 18 deaths, with the week’s total at 38.
There are potential higher homicide rates. In a written statement,  , Department of Corrections , spokesperson , Joan Heath , told the AJC that the jail system had investigated 33 captives ‘ incidents as homicides , between Jan. 1 and Aug. 7 , of this year. She did not respond to requests to show how many of the homicide deaths that were investigated in the first six months and whether the studies determined that the murders were deaths.
The rising death toll rate raises the question of whether the overall number is a result of jail program errors.
AJC-led investigation next year  revealed widespread problem in the prison program, including how lots of GDC workers had smuggled in medicines and other forms of illegal. The reports even detailed , serious staffing, extensive , illegal drug use , by individuals, record amounts of , homicides and suicides , and large , legal enterprises run by prisoners , that killed and victimized people on the outside.
Wellness said a rising number of people in jail, along with longer words, likely contribute to the number of deaths.
Many of the incidents are linked to natural causes, according to the number of years they are incarcerated and begin to age, according to she said in an email to the AJC.” With 23, 691 criminals facing 20-plus decades, career or life without parole.
It’s unclear how most of the detainees died this time, whether from natural causes, deaths, drug overdose or other injuries. The GDC made the decision to no longer include the suspected mode of dying in its quarterly deaths information as it had done in previous times after February.
The AJC compared event information and statistics, death certificates and arrest permits, as well as interviewing family members and neighborhood coroners to determine which prisoners were killing victims. This year’s complete includes one man who was not a slave, Aureon Shavea Grace, a food company staff at , Smith State Prison , who was shot to death in June by an criminal who then turned the gun on himself.
In May, there were six of the 24 murders, and there were several especially alarming murders that quarter.
One was the beating demise of 32-year-old , Shane Griffith , at , Valdosta State Prison, for which 11 individuals have been charged with murder. Another was the stabbing death of 31-year-old , Freddie Talley , at , Hays State Prison, which led officials to return seven arms ranging in length from 9 to 22 feet, according to the event review. Three prisoners received disciplinary information, but they have not already been charged with crimes.
Even in May, a , Georgia , penitentiary official was charged with felony murder in the death of a slave,  , Roderick Hayes. The official,  , Lloyd Hopkins, was accused of helping three prisoners abuse another with a “machete like weapons” in an attempt to get a contraband smartphone. The criminal who was targeted in the assault,  , Robert Robish, defended himself and stabbed Hayes.
The GDC made the decision to no longer include the death’s method in its quarterly reports as the number of murders increased and the prison system faced increased scrutiny.
The , U. S. Department of Justice , has been investigating crime in the , Georgia , prison system since 2021. In June, just weeks after Grace’s killing, Gov.  , Brian Kemp , announced the position had engaged professionals to do an in-depth, annual assessment of the GDC. Earlier in the year, the state , Senate , formed a committee to study the prison program, and a federal judge issued a burning hatred buy in a long-running event over situations at the state’s Unique Management Unit, Georgia’s supermax jail.
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