Georgia

The Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) runs one of the country’s largest state prison systems — about 34 state prisons, four private prisons (run by CoreCivic and The GEO Group under state contract), and a separate tier of smaller facilities, holding roughly 47,000–50,000 people. GDC’s own materials mostly use the word offender; this site uses neutral terms. The agency also supervises probation and parole, and divides its prisons into three regions (North, Southeast, and Southwest).

Where a person is held turns first on sentence length and who runs the facility. A felony state sentence places a person in GDC custody; pretrial detention and short local sentences are served in a county or city jail run by a sheriff. Two further tiers hold or serve some state-sentenced people: about 21 county correctional institutions (county-operated prisons) and a set of transitional centers (work-release/reentry) and probation detention centers. A newly sentenced person often waits in the county jail for weeks — already “in GDC custody” on paper — before being picked up.

Newly received people are processed at a diagnostic center first — men at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (GDCP) in Jackson, and women at Lee Arrendale State Prison in Alto — for about ten business days of medical, mental-health, and security screening before transfer to a permanent prison. GDC generally does not allow visits during diagnostic status, so families usually wait for the permanent-facility assignment before applying to visit. Georgia has an active death penalty: men under a death sentence and the state execution chamber are at GDCP, and women under a death sentence are held at Lee Arrendale. Augusta State Medical Prison is the system’s statewide medical hub.

To find where someone is held, search GDC’s Find an Offender tool by name or GDC ID number (records under the First Offender Act are not published). If a person is not listed, they may be in a county or city jail — search that county sheriff’s jail roster. Use the guides below for the statewide rules at GDC prisons, or go straight to a specific facility.