The prison conducts diagnostic processing for the state correctional system, houses male offenders under death sentence (UDS), and carries out state-ordered executions by lethal injection.
Numerous county jails are paid by the state to house sentenced felons until space becomes available in the prison system.
Based on published research statistics by the Georgia Department of Corrections,[9] inmates who are being diagnosed and classified undergo a battery of tests and diagnostic questionnaires.
Tests and diagnostic notations include: the culture fair IQ test; Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) (reading, math, and spelling); scope of substance abuse (summary & detailed report); latest mental health treatment; PULHESDWIT medical scale; criminality, alcoholism, and/or drug abuse in immediate family; one or both parents absent during childhood; manipulative or assaultive tendency diagnostics; and criminal history report with prior incarcerations and a full account of all previous and current offenses.
The latest report (As of September 25, 2021[update]) shows a total of thirty-nine (39) male felons currently housed on Georgia's Death Row.
Upon entry to the Death House, witnesses to executions are immediately located in an observation room, approximately 20' X 20' (6 m X 6 m), with three 16' (4.9 m) long wooden benches to seat them.
Immediately to the right of the observation room (but still within it) is a storage area that houses the non-functional electric chair (nicknamed "Old Sparky") that was used before the implementation of lethal injection.
There is a small observation area immediately outside of the cell where two corrections officers are assigned to 24/7 security detail once an inmate is placed on "Death Watch."
This room is where the executioners, warden, and other authorized personnel maintain watch over the execution and the administration of the lethal injection drugs: sodium thiopental that was previously used to induce unconsciousness; pancuronium bromide (Pavulon) to cause muscle paralysis and respiratory arrest; and potassium chloride to stop the heart.
On Tuesday, October 4, 2011, Dougherty County Superior Court Judge Willie Lockett halted the execution amid discovery evidence presented to the defense by Law Enforcement.
[15] The Paulding County Superior Court ordered the execution of convicted murderer Nicholas Cody Tate.
Tate reversed course and decided to fight the state in a move that could delay his execution for years, said Lauren Kane, a spokeswoman for Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens.
[18] On April 17, 2012, The State Board of Pardons and Paroles granted a stay of up to 90 days to condemned inmate Daniel Greene.
He was pronounced dead at 7:55 P.M.[22] Atlanta courthouse shooter Brian Nichols was transferred here to partake in his diagnostics for the Georgia DOC.