GDC - Abbreviations and Terminology

To assist you with navigating through our terminology, we have put together a list of abbreviations you might come into contact with while your loved one is a part of the correctional system. Any phrases or words lighted in blue, please click on for further information. Please see below: 

  • ACU - Acute Care Unit
  • CBU - Consolidated Banking Unit
  • CHRI - Criminal History Record Information
  • CSS - Criminal Sentiments Scale
  • CSU - Crisis Stabilization Unit
  • DBHDD - Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities
  • DCS - Department of Community Supervision
  • DCSS - Division of Child Support Services
  • DDS - Department of Driver Services
  • DR - Disciplinary Report
  • DW - Deputy Warden
  • Dx - Diagnosis
  • EBP - Evidence Based Prison, located at Lee State Prison in Leesburg, Ga, is a facility that uses research-based methods to reduce recidivism as well as improve offender behavior and staff practices. It is a two year program, divided into four phases (each phase lasts six months).
  • FCBD - Faith & Character Based Dorm offers offenders personal and spiritual growth and development under the supervision of a trained program coordinator. Program is divided into four phases within a 12-month curriculum. 
  • GCHC - Georgia Correctional Healthcare provides high quality healthcare to over 60 Georgia Department of Correction facilities statewide. 
  • GCI - Georgia Correctional Industries
  • GCIC - Georgia Crime Information Center
  • GP - General Population
  • GPAI- Georgia Programs Assessment Inventory
  • GA-PRI - Georgia Prisoner Reentry Initiative  is a strategic plan and framework that focuses on transition accountability planning, case management and evidence based practices for returning citizens.  The goal of the GA-PRI is to enhance public safety by reducing crime through the implementation of a seamless plan of services and supervision developed with each returning citizen—delivered through state and local collaboration—from the time of their entry to prison through their successful transition, reintegration, and aftercare in the community.
  • IBF - Inmate Benefit Funds
  • IRP - Intensive Reentry Program is 90-day Intensive Re-Entry Program, which targets non-violent offenders with a history of substance abuse as a causative factor leading to correctional supervision. 
  • ITF - Integrated Treatment Facility is a 9-month program that actively combines interventions intended to address substance use and mental health disorders with the goal of treating both disorders, related problems, and the whole person more effectively.
  • M4C - Motivation for Change is considered an intervention rather than a program. It reduces the resistance participants have to more intensive programming and helps them identify for themselves where they are at in their stage of change with regard to their criminal behaviors, addictions, attitudes, values, and beliefs.
  • Matrix-ERS - Matrix Program Early Recovery Skills is an 8-lesson program that is designed to help individuals begin the process of substance abuse recovery.
  • Max Out - also known as the “maximum release date”, is the date when the sentence given by the judge will be completely served. For instance, if a person was sentenced to 20 years in prison on August 1, 2008, the maximum release date will be August 1, 2028. 
  • MRD - Maximum Release Date - also known as the “max-out”, is the date when the sentence given by the judge will be completely served. For instance, if a person was sentenced to 20 years in prison on August 1, 2008, the maximum release date will be August 1, 2028.
  • MRT - Moral Reconation Therapy is one of the first comprehensive, systematic attempts to treat substance abusing offenders from a purely cognitive behavioral perspective.
  • NOBTS - New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
  • NCIC - National Crime Information Center
  • NGA - Next Generation Assessment - an automated programming assessment instrument based on data currently found in SCRIBE - CHRI (GCIC) - Parole databases. It is a reliable predictor, however each scale is a screener not a full blown assessment therefore some offenders with indicators of more serious needs will require other assessment to follow-up on identified risk factors.
  • OCGA - Official Code of Georgia, Annotated
  • OJT - On the Job Training - where offenders can earn Technical school certification while employed on work assignments.
  • PC - Protective Custody - type of care to protect a person from harm.
  • PDC - Probation Detention Center
  • PIC - Performance Incentive Credit
  • PREA - Prison Rape Elimination Act 2003 prohibits and seeks to eliminate sexual assaults and sexual misconduct in correctional institutions.
  • PSATC - Probation Substance Abuse Treatment Center is a 9-month residential substance abuse treatment program for probationers.
  • Recidivism - refers to a person's relapse into criminal behavior, often after the person receives sanctions or undergoes intervention for a previous crime.
  • RPH - Reentry Partnership Housing -  designed to provide housing for work-ready convicted felons who remain in prison after the Parole Board has authorized their release due solely to having no residential options.
  • RSAT - Residential Substance Abuse Treatment is a 9-month residential substance abuse treatment program, which targets high risk, high needs offenders with a history of substance abuse as a crime-producing behavior leading to correctional supervision. 
  • SOAR - SSI (Supplemental Security Income)/SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) Outreach, Access, & Recovery is a program designed to increase access to SSI/SSDI for eligible adults who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and have a mental illness, medical impairment, and/or a co-occurring substance use disorder. 
  • SAAS - Substance Abuse AfterCare is a six-month program which targets high risk, high needs offenders who have completed an intensive substance abuse services program.
  • SCRIBE - Statewide Correctional Repository & Information System
  • SLU - Supportive Living Unit
  • SMU - Special Management Unit located at Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison
  • SOPP - Sex Offender PsychoEducational Program is a parole mandated Psycho-educational, cognitive-based curriculum introducing concepts and exercises aimed at confronting sex offending thinking and behavioral patterns. SOPP is designed as a prerequisite program that focused on preparing sex offenders for treatment upon release to Parole, Probation or other community supervision.
  • STG/STI - Security Threat Group/Security Threat Individual - Any organization, club, association or group of individuals, formal or informal (including traditional prison gangs), that may have a common name, identifying sign or symbol, and whose members engage in activities that would include, but are not limited to planning, organizing, threatening, financing, soliciting, committing, or attempting to commit unlawful acts or an act that would violate the departments written instructions, which would detract from the safe orderly operations of prisons. 
  • T4C - Thinking for a Change is an integrated, cognitive behavioral program for offenders that includes cognitive restructuring, problem solving, and skill-building.
  • TC - Transitional Center
  • Tier - created to offer a managed and measured stratification oriented pathway for offenders to successfully transition from Administrative Segregation to lower-security levels and it provides greater management of long-term Administrative Segregation offenders. 
  • TOPPSTEP - The Offender Parolee Probationer State Training Employee Program (TOPPSTEP) is a collaborative effort between the Department of Corrections, the Department of Labor, the Department of Human Resources, and the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to provide inmates with the documents needed to obtain employment upon release (i.e. birth-certificate and Social Security card).
  • TPM - Tentative Parole Month is not a final parole decision. TPM represents when the Board of Pardons & Paroles will complete a final review of an offender’s case and, if appropriate, set a parole release date. TPM is conditioned on good conduct in prison, and possibly on successful completion of a drug, alcohol, or sex-offender counseling program, or other pre-condition(s). 
  • UDS - Under Death Sentence
  • UM - Unit Manager
  • VA - Veterans Administration
  • VPP - Verification of parole plan