Beyond Bars Project

Georgia has one of the highest supervision rates in the country — roughly 1 in 23 adults under probation or parole. This essay examines five truths about the carceral state in Georgia: the supervision trap, private prison costs, the psychology of reentry, and the crumbling jails taxpayers are funding.

The Invisible Sentence: Five Truths About Georgia's Modern Carceral State Punishment didn't stay behind the prison gate. In Georgia, it moved into your neighborhood.

A recorded inmate interview, internal budget memos, federal enforcement emails, and the sheriff's own words tell a story his PowerPoint doesn't.

The Dark Room: Inside Spalding County's Failing Jail — and the Sheriff Who Calls It an Optics Problem

The Dark Room: Inside Spalding County's Failing Jail -- and the Sheriff who calls it an optics problem.

A recorded inmate interview, internal budget memos, federal enforcement emails, and the sheriff's own words tell a story his PowerPoint doesn't.
https://reformga.substack.com/p/the-dark-room-inside-spalding-countys?r=80qyv7

This is a story about prison violence, but it is also a story about grief, political abandonment, and what happens when a state decides some lives can be managed through neglect.

For years in Georgia, individuals accused of probation violations often remained in jail for extended periods while awaiting revocation hearings. According to reporting on HB 535's progress, some individuals discovered that time spent in custody before probation revocation was not always credited toward their sentences, resulting in extra days served that were not officially acknowledged. Families referred to this as "dead time," and advocates identified it as a significant injustice. Georgia has now taken a meaningful step to address this issue.

https://open.substack.com/pub/reformga/p/georgia-just-took-a-step-toward-ending?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=80qyv7

In 2024, the state recorded 159 domestic violence fatalities — a nearly 4% increase from the prior year, even as reported incidents declined overall. A Georgian dies from domestic violence approximately every 48 hours.

https://open.substack.com/pub/reformga/p/survival-is-not-a-crime-but-georgias?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=80qyv7

Taylor Anthony Hunt told his family something was wrong. Days before his death at Rogers State Prison, he called them from a recorded prison line and said "bad things were going on in this place." He asked them to get a lawyer. He was 29.
Officials ruled his death a su***de. But the physical evidence — flex cuffs, wrist ligature marks, boot-shaped bruises, a missing hyoid bone, five su***de notes that appeared the same day this story went viral — tells a different story.
This is that story. Read the full investigative report. 🔗


https://reformga.substack.com/p/the-body-speaks

A trauma-informed, family-centered reentry program does not yet exist in rural Northeast Georgia, but the need for it is clear in the lives of justice-involved people and their families. BRIDGE is the model we should build to replace punishment with healing, trust, and real reintegration.
https://open.substack.com/pub/reformga/p/they-call-it-supervision-we-call?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=80qyv7

In the halls of the Gold Dome and across Georgia’s courtrooms, "community supervision" is often pitched as the compassionate middle ground. It is framed as the "alternative" to the cage—a way to keep families together and local economies moving while supposedly "helping" individuals get back on track.

The Illusion of Choice: Why Community Supervision is Georgia’s "Outside Carceral Trauma"