Georgia prisons chief pitches spending hikes for staffing, infrastructure needs

ATLANTA – State prisons chief Tyrone Oliver asked Georgia lawmakers Monday for $10.4 million to hire an additional 330 correctional officers during this fiscal year to staff a prisons system the U.S. Justice Department harshly criticized in an audit last fall.The additional staffing is part of a plan to phase-in 880 more guards by the end of calendar 2025 to improve staff-to-inmate ratios from one officer for every 14 inmates to one officer for every 11.In a 94-page audit report following a multi-year investigation, the feds accused Georgia’s prison system of violating inmates’ constitutional rights by failing to protect them from widespread violence.Early this month, Gov. Brian Kemp proposed to address the problems identified in the audit with $372 million in new funding for the Department of Corrections, a combination of adding staff and upgrading deteriorating prison infrastructure.On Monday, state Rep. Al Williams, D-Midway, said the public has lost confidence in the prison system because of chronic short staffing.“People don’t have faith in our ability to fix the prison system,” Williams told his colleagues on the House Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over public safety.Oliver said the system currently has 2,600 vacant positions, too many to fill in a single year.“We...