Georgia's prison system leaves people exposed to sexual assault and rarely investigates it properly, the Justice Department found
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In an October 1, 2024 findings report, the U.S. Justice Department concluded that the Georgia Department of Corrections violates the Constitution by failing to protect incarcerated people from sexual violence, among other violence, in its medium- and close-security prisons. DOJ found that understaffing, poor supervision and weak accountability give predators easy access to victims; that sexual-abuse investigations frequently fail to include witness interviews or consider video evidence; that systemic corrective action 'seldom if ever' follows; and that the department does not adequately screen, classify or track lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, whom gangs target for physical and sexual violence. The department itself reported 635 sexual-abuse allegations in 2022, 639 in 2021, 702 in 2020 and 653 in 2019, which DOJ said likely undercount the harm because people fear retaliation for reporting.
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