Commissioner: Gregory C. Dozier

Director of Public Affairs: Joan Heath

Panel Presents to GDC representatives at ACA Winter Conference

FORSYTH, Ga. – The Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) received ACA Accreditation, by unanimous vote, for GDC Central Office and Central Training Academy (Georgia Correctional Academy) on January 6 at a hearing held at the 2018 American Correctional Association (ACA) Winter Conference in Orlando, FL.

When awarded with this accreditation, Commissioner Gregory C. Dozier said, “Although we discontinued the ACA process in the late 80s, early 90s, we always continued with meeting standards. Receiving this affirmation will help us continue to move forward and goes hand in hand with the Governor Nathan Deal’s efforts towards criminal justice reform.”

GDC received accreditation after a series of reviews, evaluations, audits, and hearings. The accreditation process began in September 2015 with a review of policies and the creation of an ACA Policy Coordinator team. In June 2017, a mock audit was conducted at GDC Central Office and the Georgia Correctional Academy, followed by two audits at state facilities between July and September of 2017. The official audit of Georgia Correctional Academy and GDC Central Office was conducted in the Fall of 2017, with the Georgia Correctional Academy receiving an audit score of 100% after 105 standards were reviewed and GDC Central Office receiving 98.6% after 141 standards were reviewed.

For more information on the American Correctional Association and ACA standards, visit https://www.aca.org/.

The GDC has one of the largest prison systems in the U.S. and is responsible for supervising nearly 52,000 state prisoners. It is the largest law enforcement agency in the state with approximately 10,500 employees.

For more information on the GDC call 478-992-5247 or visit https://gdc.georgia.gov.