Demonstrators seeking prison reform stage rally outside Georgia governor's mansion
Families of incarcerated individuals are speaking out about conditions in Georgia prisons, where facilities are overcrowded, understaffed and notoriously dangerous.
The Human and Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia hosted the rally outside the governor’s mansion on Tuesday.
According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, there were a total of 243 in-custody deaths last year. While at least 155 in-custody deaths were reported between January and July of this year, the department did not respond to WABE’s request for updated numbers.
Lavonia McBride is one of several dozen people who made the trip from across the state to be at the rally. Originally from Augusta, she said her 19-year-old son, Quafabian McBride, was killed last year at Phillips State Prison.
“It took days, maybe almost two weeks, for me to get my son’s body with no answers,” McBride said. “I am a grieving mother that does not have answers for my son. How do they expect me to heal and work every day and pay taxes for Georgia?”
“Our children are being sentenced to small prison terms but coming back dead,” she continued. “They weren’t sentenced to death in our county, in the courthouse, but they’re coming back dead. It’s too many of us now, and we need answers.”
McBride said she would like to see newly hired detention officers undergo more comprehensive psychological evaluations and for families to be notified when their loved one dies or is injured.
Other demonstrators shared similar stories about what they allege is a broken prison system in Georgia, where incarcerated people are not fed properly, given medical care or housed in facilities with air conditioning.
Shenita Binns said her uncle is currently serving a life sentence without parole at Macon State Prison.
“He was with someone that committed a robbery,” Hill said. “No one was killed; nobody was murdered. At the time of his sentencing, life was only 25 years. He’s been there [for] over 30 years. So if you see me out here, this is my passion. … I’m going to continue to fight because Georgia is going to be the state that changes the justice system nationwide.”
Democratic state Sen. Josh McLaurin was at the rally to show his support. He serves District 14, which includes the Fulton County Jail.
The U.S. Department of Justice recently launched an investigation into living conditions and officers’ use of excessive force at the facility in the wake of Lashawn Thompson’s brutal death.
The 35-year-old was found dead in his cell last year covered in bed bugs. The county reached a settlement with his family for $4 million.
But, McLaurin said the issue goes far beyond Fulton County.
“It is about the personal willpower of every single one of us waking up every day and recognizing that that solution, that promised land may not be tomorrow, it may not be the next week, but we have pictures of loved ones, we have names of loved ones, and they’re the ones who give us the strength to keep working so that we can have real reform in our time,” McLaurin said.
While Gov. Brian Kemp made an appearance during the rally, he did not acknowledge demonstrators as he headed into the governor’s mansion for an afternoon press conference on economic development.
The Prison Policy Initiative has long said the state of Georgia has an incarceration rate of 968 per 100,000, including prisons, jails, immigration detention and juvenile justice facilities, meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than any democracy on earth.
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