Talk:Georgia Department of Corrections

GDC or GDOC?

Which abbreviation is used for the agency? Both GDC and GDOC appear in the article. 64.85.240.22 (talk) 03:53, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

GDC. --Pawyilee (talk) 12:16, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

Possible sources

• "Report of the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians." Georgia Legislature. 2011.
• Rankin, Bill. "Panel recommends reforms to stem prison spending." Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Friday November 18, 2011.

WhisperToMe (talk) 19:16, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

issues with recent changes

Recent changes appear constructive and accurate and done in good faith, which is great. A couple of issues. The capacities have been removed. Why? These indicate the sizes and relative notability of these prisons. Helms and Long Unit added, which is great, but now this list is out of whack with the template, and are Helms and Long Unit big enough to merit separate articles? Also at least one facility, Coastal State Prison, has been de-linked because.... why? --Lockley (talk) 05:57, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback—I'm new to Wikipedia editing. I have re-linked Coastal State Prison and updated the template. The Helms Facility and Long Unit are small facilities so I doubt the need for separate articles. I can add back the capacities for all facilities but do operational capacities or physical capacities need to be used? --F.L. (talk) 11:18, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

Hi @F.L.:, thanks for the response, and thanks for your edits. My shoulders relax a little. Whether or not to show the capacities for these facilities is a judgement call.... yes it's good for indicating sizes of the prisons relative to each other, to indicate facilities big enough to have their own articles (rule of thumb, 1000 inmates), and like that, but also there's a trade-off in verifying and maintaining those numbers in an era of shrinking prison populations and reshuffling of locations. It's a moving target. I've used operational capacities where available but some state DOCs seem cagey about reporting ANY numbers. You've kindly addressed my other concerns. Happy editing, and let me know if I can help --Lockley (talk) 18:02, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

Surely. I agree with you about the difficulty in verifying the numbers and keeping them current. Even the GDC sometimes shows different figures depending on where you look. Prior to updating the list, it seemed that none of the larger facilities had their capacities listed even though there are 19 state prisons with operational capacities of over 1000 (along with the 4 private facilities). I have obtained capacities for each facility from a listing from the GDC website that was last updated in May 2016, but even since then things could have changed. It may be more useful to list physical capacities, as it seems as though some prisons regularly operate above capacity anyway. I will definitely let you know if I need advice... which is inevitable. --F.L. (talk) 19:25, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

On the capacity thing, here is a list of state systems as of 2014, ranked by how much they've overcrowded. That's a really interesting list. Interesting at the bottom, too. This is based on self-reporting -- notice that Nevada and Connecticut didn't send numbers in. Illinois numbers are said to be based on "design capacity" but I wouldn't be surprised if the concept of self-reporting also allows for a degree of variability and creativity about what "capacity" means from state to state. And from time to time. So, hey, if you find a credible source like that GDC list from May, cite it, date it, and you're done. best --Lockley (talk) 22:32, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

That is very interesting, especially when you consider that the GDC's own stats show that the Georgia state prisons had an average daily utilization rate of 106.4% during calendar year 2014 (which actually went up the following year). Sure, if you look at the combined numbers of ALL types of GDC facilities it comes in under 100%, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't "overcrowding" in the prisons—actually, it shows the opposite. Plus, as you touched on with self-reporting, the definition may vary widely. Regards. --F.L. (talk) 03:04, 5 December 2016 (UTC)

Questions

It seems like nearly half of the article is devoted to the movement of GDC HQ from Atlanta to Forsyth six years ago. Is there a reason? At this point, is that important enough to warrant multiple paragraphs? It could be considerably shortened. Additionally, links to many of the references are dead. Also, should the list of facilities be moved to a new page, and linked from this article? It is rather long. --F.L. (talk) 11:31, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

one opinion: that relocation material is sourced and relevant, and the state DOC articles could generally benefit from more narrative history. I'd say leave it. Deadlinks are unfortunately pretty common. Here's the best guidance. And I'd personally keep the article and the list on the same page but (shrug) you'd get some differing opinions on that. Cheers --Lockley (talk) 18:11, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the input. I do agree with the fact that a narrative history is useful with this sort of article. Maybe its just an issue with the way its written... tense issues, inconsistencies with acronym usage, etc. It may just need to be updated. I'll take a stab at it at some point. Regarding the list of facilities, I would like to create separate tables for each type of facility (prisons, transitional centers, etc.) with each facility's name, location (city), capacity, security level, and type(s) of offenders (male, female, juveniles). With the nearly 90 facilities listed now, I was just thinking that that might be too much when in that format. Hmmm... -F.L. (talk) 19:40, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

I ended up creating that page after messing around in the sandbox for a while. I just couldn't figure out another way of displaying the information in a more condensed format. Plus, the tables will allow additional information to be added later on if need be. I used physical capacities for now after going back and forth.... what do you think about the changes? Yea or nay? Should anything be added or removed? I plan to do some work on the article in the near future... any suggestions on how to improve it content-wise? --F.L. (talk) 03:20, 5 December 2016 (UTC)

Oh, your list page is good work. Well done! I only see one thing I'd add, and I'll do that next, right quick: a note that the list of closed facilities is not complete. So your changes, yea, and yay. As to what comes next here are some suggestions, depending on what appeals to you: developing the DOC's narrative history a little, as we mentioned, maybe with some mention of the first state prison in Milledgeville, Georgia and GA's history of convict leasing. Or getting to the bottom of why those reported capacity statistics don't match. Or concentrating on how the GA DOC compares to other states in terms of basic statistics such as size (it's one of the largest in terms of inmates housed, right?), guard-to-inmate ratios, costs per year per inmate, relationship with private prisons, etc. Just some ideas.... --Lockley (talk) 19:44, 5 December 2016 (UTC)

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