by Dave Williams | Oct 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s prison system is violating inmates’ constitutional rights by failing to protect them from widespread violence, the U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday.
The agency released a 94-page report following a multi-year investigation that originally focused on whether the state was adequately protecting LGBT inmates from sexual abused and expanded to cover all inmates incarcerated at medium- and close-security prisons.
“Our findings report lays bare the horrific and inhumane conditions that people are confined to inside Georgia’s state prison system,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said during a news conference in Atlanta.
“Our statewide investigation exposes longstanding, systemic violations stemming from complete indifference and disregard to the safety and security of people Georgia holds in its prisons. … The Justice Department is committed to using its authority to bring about humane conditions of confinement that are consistent with contemporary standards of decency and respect for human dignity.”
Georgia has the fourth-highest state prison population in the country, with nearly 50,000 inmates incarcerated in 34 state-operated prisons and four private prisons.
The report attributed widespread violence in the prison system to understaffing and systemic deficiencies in physical plant, housing, control of contraband, and incident reporting and investigations. It also concluded that gangs are exerting improper influence inside prisons, including controlling entire housing units and operating unlawful and dangerous schemes inside and from prisons.
Clarke said the report documented incidents of assault, rape, and murder inside Georgia prisons, while inmates are relegated to fear, filth, and neglect.
“Individuals incarcerated by the Georgia Department of Corrections should not be subjected to life-threatening violence and other forms of severe deprivation while serving their prison terms,” said Ryan Buchanan, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.
“We expect the state of Georgia to share our sense of urgency about the seriousness of the violations described in this report and to work cooperatively with the Department of Justice, our office, and our U.S. attorney partners in the Middle and Southern Districts to remedy these systemic deficiencies in Georgia prisons.”
The state has been working to come to grips with conditions inside Georgia prisons. The corrections department hired a consultant in June to conduct an assessment of the state’s prisons, while both the Georgia House and Senate have formed study committees to focus on prison conditions and consider funding recommendations aimed at improving safety.
Georgia Commissioner of Corrections Tyrone Oliver told a Senate study committee in August that reduced staffing and aging infrastructure are contributing to an influx of contraband that is driving an increase in criminal activity inside the prisons.
by Dave Williams | Oct 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Former President Donald Trump has opened up a solid lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia five weeks before the Nov. 5 election, according to a new poll.
A survey of 942 likely voters in Georgia conducted Sept. 25-29 by Quinnipiac University showed Republican Trump with 50% of the vote in the Peach State to 44% for Democrat Harris, well outside the poll’s margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.2%.
Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver and independents Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz each received 1% support.
Trump held the edge on Harris in the Georgia poll on the economy and immigration, with 53% of the respondents saying they believe Trump would do a better job handling both key issues. Respondents also rated the former president higher than Harris 52% to 46% on how he would handle international conflicts.
“Harris confronts a troubling Trump trifecta,” said Tim Malloy, a polling analyst for Quinnipiac. “He leads her on the economy and immigration and has the edge when it comes to who would best handle a national crisis.”
Harris rated above Trump only on the issue of abortion in the Georgia poll, with 50% of those surveyed saying she would do a better job on that issue to 43% for Trump.
Poll respondents were evenly divided on how they view Trump, with 48% viewing him favorably and 48% unfavorably. Harris was underwater in that category with 43% of the respondents rating her favorably and 50% unfavorably.
by Dave Williams | Oct 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Voting rights advocates and local election officials Tuesday criticized new rules the Republican-controlled State Election Board has approved in recent weeks as unnecessary mandates that will only throw doubt into the voting process.
“This State Election Board has unleashed a Pandora’s box of chaos and confusion,” Isabel Otero, Georgia policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, told the state Senate’s Urban Affairs Committee, a panel made up entirely of Democrats. “[The new rules] are going to give them an excuse to deny certification [of results] and cause unnecessary delays. … Our voters deserve better.”
Specifically, Otero cited three rules changes the board has approved since early August allowing county election officials to certify results only after a “reasonable inquiry” ensures their accuracy, requiring those same officials to reconcile the total number of ballots cast in each precinct with the total number of voters, and requiring counties to hand-count the number of ballots cast at polling places on Election Night.
“Those three rules in combination allow bad actors to deny election results,” Otero said.
The three board members who voted for the rules changes have denied taking part in a conspiracy to help former President Donald Trump carry Georgia’s 16 electoral votes by sowing uncertainty in the election results and delaying certification of the vote. Instead, they have argued the changes are aimed at ensuring the integrity of the results.
But Chris Bruce, policy and advocacy director for the ACLU of Georgia, said the board has overstepped its legal authority by passing the new rules just weeks ahead of Election Day.
“The State Election Board is trying to become a legislative body,” Bruce said. “All this is doing is spreading mistrust and voter apathy.”
Milton Kidd, director of the Douglas County Board of Elections, said the requirements the new rules will impose on local election workers after the polls close on Election Night are so burdensome he’s afraid many won’t be willing to serve in the future.
“There’s no legitimate purpose to having poll workers do this,” Kidd said. “It’s chaos from an administrative perspective.”
The Cobb County Board of Elections recently adopted a resolution opposing the rules changes.
“It’s a solution looking for a problem,” said Tori Silas, who chairs the Cobb board.
Cindy Battles, policy director with the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, said the new requirements are forcing counties to spend more money on municipal elections without help from the state. Some have even considered cutting their emergency services budgets to pay for elections, she said.
The State Election Board may not be through with rules changes. The board has additional meetings scheduled for Oct. 8 and Oct. 15 ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
by Dave Williams | Oct 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – President Joe Biden has approved a major disaster declaration for Georgia in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
The Biden administration’s action means funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be available to affected residents in 41 counties in South Georgia hit hardest by last Friday’s storm.
The list of counties includes Atkinson, Appling, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brooks, Bulloch, Burke, Candler, Chatham, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Columbia, Cook, Echols, Emanuel, Evans, Glascock, Irwin, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Lanier, Laurens, Liberty, Lincoln, Lowndes, McDuffie, Montgomery, Pierce, Richmond, Screven, Tattnall, Telfair, Toombs, Treutlen, Ware, Washington, and Wheeler.
Residents of those counties may be eligible for grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help them recover from the effects of the storm.
With recovery efforts still in full swing, Gov. Brian Kemp Tuesday extended the state of emergency in Georgia for another week. Under the order, federal rules and regulations limiting operating hours for commercial truck drivers have been suspended to let an uninterrupted supply of goods and services be dispatched to areas in need of assistance. The new order will run through Oct. 9 unless the governor renews it again.
The governor also issued an executive order Tuesday suspending collection of the state sales tax on gasoline and other motor fuels for the duration of the emergency.
Meanwhile, work crews for Georgia Power and the state’s Electric Membership Corporations (EMCs) reported that about 370,000 customers were still without electricity as of Monday. More then 1.3 million lost power at Helene’s peak.
The hurricane made landfall Thursday night in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast before roaring into Georgia early Friday morning, bringing high winds and heavy rain that caused extensive flooding. Gov. Brian Kemp reported Monday that 25 Georgians died in the storm, many inside homes hit by fallen trees.
The victims included a first responder, Vernon “Leon” Davis, a part-time assistant fire chief in Blackshear.
Individuals and business owners who sustained losses in the 11 counties covered by the federal disaster declaration can begin applying for assistance by registering online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 1-800-621-3362, or by using the FEMA App.
by Dave Williams | Sep 30, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Fulton County Superior Court judge Monday overturned Georgia’s “heartbeat” law banning abortion essentially after six weeks of pregnancy.
In a 26-page ruling, Judge Robert McBurney declared the law an unconstitutional violation of women’s privacy and equal protection rights.
“This dispute is fundamentally about the extent of a woman’s right to control what happens to and within
her body,” McBurney wrote. “The baseline rule is clear: a legally competent person has absolute authority over her body and should brook no governmental interference in what she does — and does not
do — in terms of health, hygiene, and the like.”
The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed the Living Infants and Equality (LIFE) Act in 2019 banning abortion in Georgia after a fetal heartbeat is detected. The law included exceptions for rape, incest, and “medical emergencies,” defined as a life-threatening condition or threat of irreversible physical impairment to the mother.
But federal courts blocked the law from taking effect until 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
The reproductive rights group SisterSong filed a lawsuit challenging the law and won an initial ruling by McBurney in November 2022 declaring the ban unconstitutional. However, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed McBurney’s decision a year later and remanded the case back to Fulton County Superior Court, leading to Monday’s decision.
McBurney ruled that Georgia’s law governing abortion must revert to where it stood before lawmakers passed the heartbeat legislation in 2019, which based the right to abortion on the viability of the fetus, typically between 23 and 24 weeks.
Abortion has been among the most hotly contested issues of this presidential election year. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, traveled to Atlanta Sept. 20 to put the blame for the deaths of two Georgia women in 2022 on the U.S. Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade.
Amber Thurman and Candi Miller died after taking abortion medication left them with some fetal tissue remaining in their uteruses. Doctors worried about running afoul of Georgia’s abortion ban delayed caring for Thurman for 20 hours, while Miller sought to treat herself rather than see a doctor because of the same concerns.
While Harris has called for codifying the Roe v. Wade ruling into federal law, former President Donald Trump – the Republican nominee – has supported leaving the abortion issue to the states.
by Dave Williams | Sep 30, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia students showed strong improvement on this year’s Georgia Milestones math tests, the state Department of Education reported Monday.
Scores increased on six of the seven assessments, including eight-point increases in eighth-grade math and high-school Algebra.
The Milestones math results were released two months after the results for English/Language Arts, science, and social studies to align with the new mathematics standards first implemented during the 2023-24 school year.
“I am extremely proud of Georgia students and our mathematics teachers and leaders throughout the state, along with all those who contributed to the review and redesign of Georgia’s K-12 mathematics standards,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said.
“Thousands of Georgians participated in the process of creating the new standards. They are truly Georgia-owned and Georgia-grown, and these scores are an early indicator of success for that work.”
The new math standards are designed to be clear, understandable, and age- and developmentally appropriate. They aim to present a reasonable amount of content each year so students can truly master concepts rather than simply being quickly exposed to them.
