What Georgia Pays to Settle Prison Deaths & Injuries
261 settlements and claim payouts across 31 facilities, 2008–2025 — drawn from the State of Georgia's own records.
This is a floor, not a ceiling. These are only the claims Georgia has already paid and disclosed through Open Records. Recent years read low because civil cases take years to resolve — the true cost of 2022–2025 incidents is still being litigated. Every dollar here is money the state spent after the harm was done.
Where the money went — by facility
| Facility | Payouts | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Johnson State Prison | 7 | $5,993,140 |
| Georgia State Prison | 16 | $5,654,102 |
| Calhoun State Prison | 4 | $4,260,115 |
| Augusta State Medical Prison | 8 | $3,956,726 |
| Arrendale State Prison | 3 | $3,700,000 |
| Telfair State Prison | 9 | $3,286,745 |
| Macon State Prison | 11 | $2,338,450 |
| Valdosta State Prison | 27 | $2,298,716 |
| Smith State Prison | 5 | $1,993,472 |
| Hancock State Prison | 6 | $1,478,260 |
| Wilcox State Prison | 6 | $1,413,242 |
| Pulaski State Prison | 5 | $1,355,900 |
| Hays State Prison | 11 | $1,117,700 |
| Coastal State Prison | 5 | $973,000 |
| Dooly State Prison | 7 | $738,600 |
The cost is climbing — by year of incident
Grouped by the year the incident occurred (payment often follows years later). 2024–2025 are near-empty only because those cases have not yet settled.
The largest payouts
| Claim | Facility | Year | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Betty Wade, for the Estate of David Lamar Henegardeath | Johnson State Prison | 2021 | $4,000,000 |
| Reginald Jacobs Sr., for the Estate of Reginald Jacobs Jr.death | Calhoun State Prison | 2023 | $3,250,000 |
| Family/Estate of Juan Carlos Ramirez Bibianodeath | Telfair State Prison | 2023 | $3,249,873 |
| Thomas Henry Gilesdeath | Augusta State Medical Prison | 2020 | $3,000,000 |
| Khalid Mouton | Georgia State Prison | 2021 | $2,998,994 |
| Pamela Nicole Jones | — | 2022 | $1,916,250 |
| Mollianne Elizabeth Fischer | Arrendale State Prison | 2014 | $1,500,000 |
| Agnes Bohannon | Arrendale State Prison | 2019 | $1,500,000 |
| Christopher Heathdeath | Smith State Prison | 2020 | $1,450,000 |
| Jerry Browndeath | Johnson State Prison | 2020 | $1,449,640 |
| Bobby Edward Leedeath | Macon State Prison | 2020 | $1,375,000 |
| Nicholas Baldwin | Georgia State Prison | 2014 | $1,000,000 |
How we know
These figures come from the State of Georgia's own settlement records — the Department of Administrative Services (DOAS) Risk Management ledger, obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act (O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70), supplemented by federal court records and verified reporting. GPS reconciles every figure against its canonical death and facility database before publishing.
You can verify this yourself. Any Georgia resident can request the same records: ask DOAS Risk Management for its litigation and claim-payment history for the Department of Corrections. What you'll find is that the state keeps meticulous track of what its prisons cost in court — while the conditions that generate those costs go unfixed.
These are settlements. The conditions are still there.
Georgia pays out millions and changes nothing. Tell the people who can.
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