The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into civil rights violations and poor conditions inside Georgia prisons, including the targeting of LGBTQ inmates by prisoners and staff. On Tuesday, in a news conference, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said the Justice Department found "significant justification" to open the investigation, citing dozens of murders, stabbings and beatings, scores of smuggled weapons, and documented gang activity inside state-run prisons. Last year, 26 people in state-run prisons were killed in confirmed or suspected homicides, and 18 others have been killed this year. Additionally, an investigation by the Southern Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit law firm that monitors conditions in state prisons, last year found that inmates in Georgia state prisons had a suicide rate twice the national average, raising further red flags.

Source: MetroXpress September 28, 2021 11:48 UTC