State Prisons

The Georgia Department of Corrections has 34 state prisons across the state of Georgia, which house nearly 47,000 felony offenders. State prisons house violent, repeat, or nonviolent offenders who have exhausted all other forms of punishment. Judges may sentence offenders directly to prison or offenders may be sent to prison as a result of revocation proceedings. Offenders have access to classes and other services that allow them to reenter society successfully.

Facility Information: Click here.

Operations Within our State Prisons: 

Work Details
Offenders who are able-bodied are assigned to work details. These details may be connected to the ongoing operation of the facility (such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, or making general repairs around the facility) or are specialized details. With the increasing number of violent offenders within our corrections system due to criminal justice reform, specialized work details will reduce in size. The agency’s specialized details include:

Food and Farm Operations
Approximately 5,000 offenders work on prison farms or in preserving, preparing, and serving foods. Please click here for more detailed information the agency’s Food and Farm Operations. Or view our Real Time. Reel Life video series at: www.YouTube.com/GaCorrections

Offender Construction
Offender crews serve the construction needs of GDC, other state agencies, and communities. Carefully supervised, skilled offenders are temporarily housed in nearby facilities while completing approved renovation or remodeling jobs around the state.

Fire Services
Specially selected minimum security offenders may be chosen to work in the prison fire stations responding to prison and rural fire emergencies.  Click here for more information on the agency’s Fire Services program

Community Work Details
Under supervision, low security offenders build, refurbish, and maintain prison and civic buildings, perform roadwork, clean public buildings and schools, and work at recycling centers and landfills.
Georgia Correctional Industries: More than 1,400 offenders are selected to receive on-the-job training in areas such as metal fabrication, optics, printing, license plates, footwear, woodworking, screen printing, upholstery, garment and chemical production. For more information about Georgia Correctional Industries, check out our agency's Fact Sheet.

Diagnostics & Classification
For information on male and female classification, please click on the links below:
Female Diagnostics & Classification
Male Diagnostics & Classification

Offenders are assigned to a security level by the Next Generation Assessment (NGA), which utilizing factors that include the offender's sentence, nature of the crime, criminal history, history of violence, medical and treatment risks and needs. The classification levels are as follows:

• Close Security: These offenders are escape risks, have assault histories, and may have detainers for other serious crimes on file. (A detainer is a request by another law enforcement agency to hold an offender pending other charges or actions). These offenders never leave the prison and require supervision at all times by a correctional officer. More information on Close Security Facilities in Georgia
• Medium Security: This level represents the largest category of offenders. These offenders have no major adjustment problems and most may work outside the prison fence, but must be under constant supervision. More information on Medium Security facilities in Georgia
• Minimum Security: These offenders tend to abide by prison regulations, present a minimal risk of escape, and have been judged to be a minimal threat to the community. Minimum security offenders are eligible for transitional centers.