The Georgia Department of Corrections and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp unveiled a plan Tuesday to spend an additional $600 million on the state prison system, which has suffered from inadequate staffing, violence, and facilities in disrepair.

During a joint meeting of House and Senate appropriation subcommittees Tuesday, state corrections department Commissioner Tyrone Oliver presented the wide ranging list of budget recommendations, describing them as necessary investments for strengthening prison security, increasing staffing levels, increasing compensation for correctional officers and other staff and renovating facilities. The conditions of Georgia’s prisons were so poor that the United States Department of Justice threatened a lawsuit if the state did not shore up a myriad of problems it found to violate the constitutional rights of inmates.

The federal report contains descriptions of numerous assaults, including beatings, stabbings, rapes and acts of torture. It finds that the homicide rate in Georgia prisons is nearly triple that of the national average, and that other serious and life-threatening incidents are “exponentially more frequent.” 

According to Oliver, the additional money is needed to address the near-term challenges of the prisons, which often leave staff and inmates in dangerous situations.

“Staffing levels for correctional officers are low all around this, all around the country and also at the federal level,” Oliver said. “This leads to insufficient staffing patterns and existing staff do not feel safe. Staffing patterns and training needs need to be updated to meet the needs of the modern workforce.” 

The corrections department is requesting an additional $6.1 million for the current budget in order to begin the process of hiring an additional 882 correctional and security officers over the next several years. In order to reduce the current staff-to-offender ratio of 14 to 11, the corrections department aims to add 330 correctional and security officer positions over the next year.

The department is also requesting several million dollars for a 4% salary increase for correctional officers and staff working in education, chaplain, food service and maintenance. The governor’s recommendations also call for an 8% salary hike for behavioral health counselors, which would put them close in line with statewide averages in surrounding states. 

The department is also pushing for potential officer promotions every six months that will provide better pay as a way to retain staff.

Several legislators on Tuesday’s panels addressed the department’s plans to significantly increase staffing over the next several years, referencing the current hiring and retention challenges that have resulted in a system-wide deficit of about 2,600 personnel. 

“While adding new positions sounds great, and we should strive for that, we’re having a devil of a time trying to get there to begin with in our current ones,” said Sen. John Albers, a Roswell Republican. 

Kemp said the corrections budget proposal is the latest in a series of significant spending on public safety designed to reduce crime by targeting violent offenders and improving training and compensation for law enforcement officers. 

The budget recommendations included input from independent consulting firm Guidehouse Inc., appointed by Kemp in June to create an in-depth assessment of a Georgia prison system that houses about 50,000 inmates and employs about 9,000 people. 

“Public safety is the number one priority of the state government, and that is why we have taken a comprehensive and deliberate approach to strengthening law enforcement and improving our corrections system,” Kemp said in a statement Tuesday.

The governor’s budget proposal also includes money addressing inmate overcrowding in state prisons. Kemp’s recommendations include spending $40 million to design and plan a new prison facility, adding 446 beds to an existing private prison contract, and adding 126 bed units to ease inmate movement while capital and security improvements are underway. 

The corrections department is also requesting an extra $50 million to install new contraband interdiction technology, including equipment to detect cell phones and drones, which prison officials say is the most common method of smuggling drugs and weapons into prisons.

Another $77 million would be used to replace locks inside the facilities as well as perform other major infrastructure improvements. The corrections department is also recommending spending an additional $86 million for emergency repairs and maintenance at facilities.  

The $600 million budget plan will be split between this year’s budget and the budget for next year, which will both be voted on by the Legislature this spring.

The Georgia corrections department has labeled the Justice Department’s accusations as a misunderstanding of the systemic challenges of operating expansive prison systems, and also criticized the federal department for its poor record of overseeing federal prisons.

Dublin Republican Rep. Matt Hatchett said holding a state department’s budget subcommittee meeting the week prior to the start of the Legislative session is a sign of pressing needs to address within the state corrections department.

“It is out of the ordinary, and I think it shows the emphasis that (Kemp) and us collectively are putting on this issue,” said Hatchett, chairman of the House Special Subcommittee of Appropriations on State Prisons, “I do appreciate him agreeing to do that. You can study things for a long time and hope that you get the right answer and the right path forward. Well, this has been studied and studied, and I think it’s time to get something done.”