Citizens For Justice With Mercy

CORRUPTION GROWS IN THE DARK
Prisons need constant oversight.
(Please invite me to speak to your event).

Jesus said, “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” John 3:20-21 (NIV). Every State, in an effort to have transparency in government, has some form of Open Records Act because people know instinctively that what is hidden tends to either be corrupt or grow corruption. If you send an Open Records Request to the Georgia Department of Corrections, you will find that most of the records that they keep are deemed to be “State Secrets” and can only be opened by the Order of the Commissioner or the Order of a Judge. This is true even if the requester is the attorney for an inmate and the records pertain to his or her personal information. It seems that one’s personal information is a state secret even from one’s self. This sort of secrecy is what has led to the investigation by the Department of Justice into the practices of the Georgia Department of Corrections. This secrecy from the public must change if we want the taint of corruption to be lifted from Georgia’s Department of Corrections. There are two ways to accomplish this: First, we must restrict the power of the Commissioner to make documents into “state secrets,” and secondly, we must create a standing Citizen’s Grand Jury with the power to continually hold the GDOC accountable for their actions or inactions.
Restricting the Commissioner’s ability to make documents a state secret is vital to holding the GDOC accountable for its actions. No government employee who can hide the actions of his department with a stroke of a pen can be trusted. This is not meant to disparage this Commissioner about any actions in particular, it is just to illustrate the axiom that “Secrecy breeds corruption.” Take this anecdote we have been given permission to share. A law office was representing an inmate in a transition center (TC) who had a job in the “free world” and was convinced that the TC was stealing money from his pay. The law office first asked for a copy of the inmates pay records and the Superintendent of the TC instructed them to file an Open Records Request (ORR). When the ORR was filed, the GDOC Law Department answered that these records were sealed and unavailable even to the inmate or his lawyer without direct permission from the Commissioner. In other words, they were state secrets. When GDOC will restrict pay records from the person being paid, just imagine what they will do with video of a group of guards nearly beating an inmate to death. Those who are righteous come to the light that their deeds can be shown as being righteous. We need to open up the records at GDOC.
There is one overarching reason for certain records to be secret. It is the most overused excuse in corrections: Security. There is a proper interest in security however, and it cannot be taken away from GDOC without hurting their ability to function. But that does not mean that we should not have oversight in those areas. We must enact laws to establish a standing Citizens Grand Jury with the power and authority to investigate anything GDOC related without notice or restriction. The Georgia Code currently provides for such a Grand Jury that looks into the jails on a regular basis. O.C.G.A. § 15-12-78. Unfortunately, the inmates are threatened by the Sheriffs when this Grand Jury comes around and told not to talk to any of them. That is a discussion for a different article. A similar standing Grand Jury should be formed for the GDOC. If we would properly investigate ourselves instead of sweeping our problems under the secrecy rug the Department of Justice would not be here sorting our dirty laundry.
The need for this standing Grand Jury can be seen by the refusal of the Warden at Arendelle State Prison to allow State Legislators to come in on a surprise inspection to see the prison. Of course, security concerns were used as the lame excuse for not allowing them in. Reports from inmates inside with illegal phones exposed the real reason for the delay. In the next three days, the prison was cleaned, officers were borrowed from other prisons, troublemakers were hidden away, and the rest of the inmates were threatened to keep them silent. Then, and only then, were the Legislators invited to come inspect the prison. Did they have something to hide? Yes they had plenty to hide. See Inhumane Conditions in Georgia Prisons.
After the DOJ announced that they were opening up an investigation into Georgia prisons, there was a scramble to obstruct that investigation. Inmates in administrative areas were fired and transferred to other prisons, segregated inmates were transferred. Corrections Officers were warned to keep silent. Some were fired even though the system is critically short of officers. Inmates were openly threatened not to talk or cooperate with the DOJ. Is this the actions of a “law enforcement” organization, or is this a “criminal organization?”
Probably the most “shocking” recommendation you will read here about forming a Grand Jury to oversee the prisons is the suggested make-up of the jury. One third of the jury should be medical professionals (both mental and physical health), one third of the jury should be formerly incarcerated individuals (who would have better insight), and one third of the jury should be senior judges (for their insight into the law). Everyone asks why formerly incarcerated jurors? The answer is simple: they know what they are looking at when they go into prisons. They know who to talk to, how to spot undo and illegal pressure, and they have successfully come through prison and re-established their lives. The more proper question is, why would we NOT have them on the jury? One might argue that they would have an axe to grind against the GDOC. That is possibly true, but the make up of the jury puts them at a 2 to 1 disadvantage. If their reasons do not convince the other jurors they cannot “grind their axe.” Further, we must recognize that there are formerly incarcerated individuals that can now be trusted.
A Grand Jury would have free access to all of GDOC’s records with no security exception. They would have the authority to inspect prisons without notice. They would have subpoena power to bring Officers, Wardens, and Commissioners in to testify. Their investigations would be mostly secret to preserve their integrity, but their separation from the GDOC would allow them to properly oversee the prisons. This sort of oversight would bring the strongest of disinfectant to the running of the GDOC: accountability! Who could possibly be against this? Who is against the light? Only those whose deeds are evil.