Solving Problems in Prison

The Georgia Department of Corrections has a problem. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Department of Justice have documented these problems extensively. A few highlights: Aging facilities. Staff vacancies rates of 70% or higher. Unprecedented levels of violence (an estimated 60+ homicides in 2024). Widespread corruption (one warden arrested for arranging a murder-for-hire).

And as far as I can tell, there are two ways to solve these problems.

Option 1: Throw more money at the problem. Raise staff salaries. Repair aging facilities.

Option 2: Take what’s working and multiply it.

Georgia has opted for option 1. Taxpayers are going to add $600 million to the Department of Corrections’ budget over the next two years. That brings the total we spend on prisons in those two years to nearly $4 billion. That’s roughly $363 contributed by each living person in Georgia, regardless of whether they’re an adult-taxpayer or a child. The total cost comes out to $85,106 spent for every inmate in Georgia. A recent consulting group hired by the Governor’s office estimated that desperately needed repairs will take at least 6 years to enact.

Essentially, men, women, and juveniles incarcerated inside Georgia prisons are going to have to live with the current system for another 6 years. And that’s assuming those changes work.

That’s a big assumption, one that 47,000+ lives depend on. Not a gamble I’d like to make.

So instead, why don’t we explore option 2? Why don’t we take programs that are scientifically proven to reduce violence and recidivism and multiply them throughout our prison system. Faith-and-character honor dorms, veterans’ groups, prison seminary programs, and parenting classes. Church services, dog-training programs, vocational training, trauma counseling, art programs. Programs that can be operated at a very low cost and run by trusted inmates and volunteer organizations. Programs that provide meaningful change, that encourage a man or woman to reflect, repent, and change their heart, to no longer need contraband drugs or turn to a gang for community and protection. Programs that promote “moral rehabilitation”, a phrase coined by our friend Commissioner Burl Cain who heads up the Mississippi prison system. In the words of Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, Burl has transformed the Mississippi prison system “from beatings to bible studies,” just as he did at Louisiana’s Angola Prison where he once served as warden. Through moral rehabilitation programs, vocational training, and the prison seminary, Angola went from being “the bloodiest prison in America” to the most progressive prison in the nation.  

I was walking out of a facility recently when I overheard some of the female inmates complaining that they had been ordered to go and clean the room used for strip-searches. Someone had thrown up and urinated on themselves in the room. For obvious reasons, the guard on duty wanted no part of the mess.

I’d just left a chapel service where women were celebrating their recoveries from drugs and alcohol. Addictions that they readily admitted they had picked up in prison, that were fueled by the underground in-prison drug trade. Hearing story after story about just how accessible drugs were to these women in prison, I couldn’t help but think, to smuggle a quantity of drugs this large into a facility of this size must require some help from someone on the inside, a staff member(s) most likely. Someone bringing in illegal cell phones to arrange for drone drops. Someone willing to look the other way when something illegal comes through an X-ray scanner. The corruption is obvious.

And then I thought some more. What are we even strip-searching these women for if we aren’t actually stopping the flow of drugs inside this prison? To search for shanks? Five women had recently started a riot at this prison, so clearly the strip-searches weren’t stopping violence either.

Will anyone in command of Corrections read this newsletter and enact meaningful changes? Probably not.

But that doesn’t mean we should give up.

I believe in the power of prayer. And friends, we have to pray for this prison system. We have to pray that we multiply the good. We have to pray and do God’s work because it’s all we can do.

Pray for eyes to be opened. Pray for the right people to be placed in positions of power. Pray for someone to care. Pray for this ministry. Pray for our state, our country, our world.

Until then, we’ll spend more money and just hope for change.

I don’t know about you, but I’m banking on prayer. And if you want to join us in praying, please send me an email at spencer.heartbound@comcast.net so we can count you among our prayer warriors.

May God start a revival in our prisons and in our hearts.