A civil rights lawsuit against the state of Georgia over conditions inside the prison, particularly at Augusta State Medical Prison, has been settled.
The settlement comes just months after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would investigate allegations that prison officials have abandoned their responsibility for keeping inmates safe and providing reasonable medical care, among other concerns.
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The same allegations were filed in U.S. District Court in Augusta in the 2017 lawsuit filed on behalf of Eugene Griggs and Cameron Maddox. Last winter, the state lost its motion asking the judge to toss out the lawsuit because the judge determined the alleged suffering Maddox endured wasn’t “routine discomfort of confinement.”
Maddox alleged in the lawsuit that after a confrontation with his cell mate on Sept. 27, 2016, prison guards removed him from the cell and handcuffed him to take him to isolation. But along the way, in an elevator where there aren’t any security cameras, Maddox alleged in the lawsuit, guards punched and kicked him, and when they reached the isolation cell, they threw him headfirst into a concrete wall.
The lawsuit contended that what happened to Maddox, and to Griggs, was not an isolated event but a pattern of abuse ignored by prison officers who have the power to enforce rules of humane treatment of inmates.
That lawsuit was settled earlier this month. Last June, the state settled a lawsuit filed for a former medical director at Augusta State Medical Prison that alleged he was targeted and forced run out of his job because he spoke out about dangerous safety and health conditions for inmates and staff.
Attorneys with the Southern Center for Human Rights filed the lawsuit on behalf of Griggs and Maddox in Augusta, and many others through the years before and since filing this one. They also asked for an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2014 following a year of exploding violence and again in September 2020 when they contend the COVID crisis led to riots and dangerous understaffing at the state prisons.
According to the Southern Center for Human Rights, in June 2020, 30 percent of the state’s prison jobs were vacant. From June 2020 to September 2021, there were 21 murders and 19 suicides, the center reported.
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The state Department of Corrections stopped posting new releases about suspected homicide and suicides on its website after 2020.
In 2020, the department posted notices of 17 homicides. The years immediately before 2020 saw fewer homicides: 12 in 2019 and seven each in 2017 and 2018.
When the justice department announced its investigation in September 2021, officials reported 44 suspected homicides since 2020.
The investigation is being conducted under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, which allows the justice department to investigate whether a pattern or practice of civil rights abuse exists within the prison system. Past investigations, according to the justice department, have led to settlement agreements and reforms.
According to the justice department, its previous investigations in Georgia have resulted in settlement agreements in Georgia prisons for transgender alleged abuse and rights violations allegations at jails in Fulton and Muscogee counties.
To speak to someone involved in the investigation, call (844) 401-3736 or email Community.GeorgiaDOC@usdoj.gov
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.Â
