How Georgia Prisons Habitually Cover Up Murders

Between 2018 and 2023, the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) reported 142 homicides inside its facilities, including 35 in 2023 alone. Those startling numbers brought the U.S. Department of Justice to town. On Oct. 1, the DOJ released a damning report on the conditions inside Georgia prisons, which include dangerously low staffing levels, rampant sexual abuse, a failure to protect LGBTQ+ individuals, and nearly wall-to-wall violence.

But the DOJ also highlighted one lesser-known practice that has long worried and infuriated those close to the prison system: Claiming people murdered inside GDC walls died from “unknown” causes.

“Notably, GDC’s mortality data categorizes many deaths that obviously were homicides as having an unknown reason or unknown verified cause of death,” the DOJ wrote. 

According to federal investigators, GDC employees appear to frequently misclassify murders in official datasets—even when incident reports clearly state someone was killed. The DOJ says Georgia prison officials also regularly claim someone died from “unknown causes” if an autopsy is pending and update that data when an investigation ends. But, according to the DOJ, those processes often take months or years.

“In the meantime, GDC inaccurately reports these deaths both internally and externally, and in a manner that underreports the extent of violence and homicide in GDC prisons,” the federal government wrote. In June 2024, for example, Georgia prisons said only six people had been killed inside its facilities, even though the DOJ had obtained reports showing at least 18 people had been murdered in that timeframe.

“Even when incidents are accurately reported, GDC systems for investigating violent incidents, and for reviewing incidents to identify the factors that contribute to violence, are inadequate to protect incarcerated persons from harm,” the report said.

The GDC issued an official response to the findings of the DOJ on Oct. 2, 2024, saying that the agency was “extremely disappointed” to learn of the federal department’s posture and the “variety of accusations” brought against the Georgia prison system. 

“The Notice Letter fails to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of our staff – from corrections officers to nurses to vocational trainers – who have dedicated themselves to the care and rehabilitation of the inmates in our prison system. The Notice Letter also ignores many of the successful initiatives undertaken to improve conditions inside our prisons for our staff and our inmates,” the GDC stated.

After investigations end, the DOJ typically pushes troubled agencies into “consent decrees”—legal settlements that force carceral institutions to institute reforms and submit to independent monitoring. The DOJ and GDC have yet to reach an agreement. However, President Donald Trump’s election has thrown numerous DOJ investigations into chaos, and it’s unclear whether the Trump DOJ will abandon the Biden Administration’s civil rights cases.

The findings didn’t shock imprisoned people or those close to them. The findings didn’t shock imprisoned people or those close to them. While the federal Death in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA) says states must send jail and prison mortality data to the federal government, most keep poor records, and many do not follow the law at all. Advocates have long described the DCRA as toothless. In 2022, the DOJ admitted it had failed to count thousands of in-custody deaths across the country.

As first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the GDC in March 2024 stopped including cause-of-death data in its monthly mortality reports. Those documents had typically listed the name, location, age, date, and cause of death of those who died in state custody. 

When The Appeal asked why the GDC stopped releasing public reports, the agency’s legal representative, Timothy Duff, said, “The GDC no longer assembles mortality reports per the cited example.”

Susan Burns, founder of the Georgia prison watchdog group They Have No Voice, told The Appeal that advocates working inside the system have long known about this issue. 

“To be clear, central to this issue [was] the misclassification of the cause of death,” Burns told The Appeal. “Rather than accurately documenting incidents as homicides or suicides, and properly handling evidence with care, GDC authorities frequently categorize these deaths as ‘unknown’ causes, at least they did until recently.” 

She said that, as of Jan. 2025, GDC had not rectified the issue.

The DOJ’s report states explicitly that, chief among its findings, “the State fails to protect incarcerated people from violence and harm by other incarcerated people in violation of the Eighth Amendment.” On page 54 of the voluminous 93-page report, the DOJ notes that the GDC fails to document and track incidences of violence among its incarcerated population. 

“Notably, GDC’s mortality data categorizes many deaths that obviously were homicides as having an unknown reason or unknown verified cause of death. According to GDC, this unknown category reflects deaths for which GDC has not yet received a copy of the death certificate to verify the cause of death. But deaths reported as unknown by GDC include deaths that GDC’s own incident reports categorize as homicides[…]GDC inaccurately reports these deaths both internally and externally, and in a manner that underreports the extent of violence and homicide in GDC prisons,” the report reads.

Burns told The Appeal that she believes the number of people who criticized the GDC for its transparency failures pushed the agency to stop reporting that data at all.

“People are dying at a rate that is frankly terrifying,” Burns said. “And I’m forced to ask, ‘Why does the system not care about doing something to make sure that these people can make it home safely after serving their time?’”

Without public scrutiny, incarcerated people say prison officials have acted with impunity. (The Appeal is referring to imprisoned people by their initials to protect them from retaliation.)

B.B., currently housed at Central State Prison, told The Appeal that the past year has felt like a nightmare. In August, B.B. said they witnessed prison staff order other prisoners to beat a man up in a locked dorm. The man then died.

B.B. said the man’s cause of death was not publicly disclosed in a report.

“The warden and her administration attempted to keep it quiet, but many of us reached out to advocates and journalists for help,” B.B. said.

J.T., currently housed at Phillips State Prison, told The Appeal that while inmate deaths and coverups seem commonplace, they feel the issue worsened over the last four to five years. J.T. said earlier this year, after the public mortality reports ended, he witnessed a guard at a previous facility order other imprisoned people to beat up and stomp on an old man after the elderly prisoner was seen masturbating.

“The man [had] mental health [issues] and episodes,” J.T. said. “Inmates stomped on him and threw him off the top range, and he broke his neck. He died at the hospital two days after, and the prison covered it up and told the family it was an accident.”

Another man, Clifford Lawrence Bagley, died at Telfair State Prison in May 2023. The GDC initially claimed it did not know what killed Bagley. 

But the true circumstances of Bagley’s death weren’t publicized until a prison staff member released the details to the Human Rights Coalition of Georgia (HRCG), a watchdog group that focuses on Georgia prisons. According to the employee, Bagley had been tased, beaten, and pepper sprayed in his cell by officers and subsequently died due to his injuries. 

Mark Spencer, an assistant professor of medicine at Emory University, said there “is clear incentive for the DOC to avoid reporting homicides and suicides, which indicates breakdowns of basic facility functions.”

Spencer explained that the GDC’s poor conditions and medical treatment likely also contribute to deaths that seem natural on paper.

“There is little ‘natural’ about dozens of non-elderly individuals dying prematurely while supposedly maintaining a right to healthcare,” he said. “Without a clear understanding of why these deaths are happening, preventing similar events becomes much more difficult.”

Spencer said many states, including Georgia, need external medical oversight. He encouraged using independent medical examiners instead of coroners, who are not required to have medical training.

Arika Rodriguez, an Atlanta-based advocate for imprisoned people, told The Appeal that many families feel helpless, betrayed, and robbed of closure after uncovering how their loved ones actually died. She said their pain underscores the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and reforms within the GDC—something the DOJ report also recommended.

“If you can’t even trust the government to do its job or to keep these people safe and alive, it’s like—well, what else can you trust in?” she said.