Last updated October 4, 2026.(DS)

Augusta State Medical Prison: The State's Medical Hub and Its Mortality Record

Augusta State Medical Prison (ASMP) in Grovetown is where Georgia sends the incarcerated people it cannot care for anywhere else. Built in 1982 and opened in 1983, the Richmond County facility is the state's flagship close-security medical prison, providing level-V specialty medical and mental-health care for seriously ill and high-acuity people drawn from every corner of the system. It combines general housing units with an on-site hospital containing acute-care, long-term-care, crisis, and pre-/post-operative beds. It primarily houses men but can receive women for medical treatment. Its original design capacity was 535; it is now rated for 1,326 and holds roughly 1,152 people — about 87 percent of rated capacity. Deshawn B. Jones has served as warden since June 2024.

That dual identity — a prison that is also a hospital — is the analytical center of everything below. A facility whose population is defined by catastrophic illness and disability is also a facility subject to the same staffing collapse, gang authority, and violence that GPS has documented systemwide. The record at ASMP shows what happens when those two facts collide: a mortality count that runs into the hundreds, a documented pattern of staff abuse against people who cannot feed or clean themselves, and repeated allegations that reporting that abuse brings retaliation rather than remedy.

A Mortality Record Measured in Hundreds

GPS's mortality registry records 392 deaths at Augusta State Medical Prison since January 1, 2020 — a floor, not a ceiling, since GDC reports deaths roughly two months late. The registry's cause coding attributes 283 of the facility's since-2020 deaths to natural or medical causes, 77 to unknown or pending, 13 to suicide, 10 to homicide, nine to accident, and one to other causes. The yearly distribution has been remarkably stable: 62 deaths in 2020, 57 in 2021, 65 in 2022, 63 in 2023, 65 in 2024, then 45 in 2025 and 35 recorded so far in 2026.

The most recent entries in that registry give the count its human shape. Donnie Gene Poland died September 15, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Demilo Ponchorello Johnson died September 10, 2026, also Natural/Medical. Donald Hugh Young died August 5, 2026, with the cause listed as Unknown/Pending. Phillip Curtis Walker, 62, died July 16, 2026, Unknown/Pending; Kolby Young, 24, died July 13, 2026, Unknown/Pending; Edouard Kamdem, 77, died July 12, 2026, Unknown/Pending; Joseph Daniel Bristol, 73, died July 11, 2026, Unknown/Pending; David James Vineyard, 58, died July 3, 2026, Unknown/Pending; and Jerry Watson, 75, died July 2, 2026, Unknown/Pending.

Wanique Marsay Odwin, 44, died June 29, 2026, with the registry listing the cause as Homicide. David Meeks, 62, died June 20, 2026, Unknown/Pending; James Dean Wilkinson, 69, died May 28, 2026, Unknown/Pending; Jacobi Alandis Chomicki, 23, died May 22, 2026, listed as Homicide; Frederick Raskin, 84, died May 12, 2026, Unknown/Pending; Henry Ross, 56, died May 11, 2026, Natural/Medical; Manuel Gomez died May 9, 2026, Unknown/Pending; Robert Bruce Green, 69, died May 5, 2026, Natural/Medical; Lemarcus Antonio Dunson, 50, died April 27, 2026, Natural/Medical; Walter Caldwell, 49, died April 25, 2026, Natural/Medical; Jackie Mccoy Blackmon, 72, died April 25, 2026, Natural/Medical; Edward Eugene Barber, 72, died April 22, 2026, Natural/Medical; Tristan Mclennon Trimm, 42, died April 9, 2026, Unknown/Pending; Ervin Cross, 46, died March 24, 2026, Natural/Medical; Lenward Brown, 73, died March 20, 2026, Natural/Medical; and Wilburn W. Dobbs, 76, died March 6, 2026, Unknown/Pending.

The full list is maintained at GPS's facility death registry. Across the whole system, GPS has independently tracked 1,896 deaths in GDC custody since 2020.

Homicides Inside a Medical Facility

A prison organized around treating the sick has also produced a steady line of homicide deaths. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's homicide-tracking coverage documented Eddie Gosier, 39, who died May 2, 2020, by ligature strangulation — hours after guards moved Daniel Luke Ferguson into his cell. Ferguson had a prior history of strangling an inmate at Hays State Prison. Thomas Henry Giles, 31, died October 28, 2020, from inhalation of products of combustion after being left in his smoke-filled cell for hours; the AJC reported that officers evacuated nearby inmates while Giles remained, and the GBI ruled the death a homicide. The state agreed to pay his family $5 million to settle a lawsuit over the death, and the Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger records a $3,000,000 liability payout tied to ASMP in connection with the 2020 incident.

The pattern continued. Terry Lee Bennett II, 43, died January 10, 2021, from blunt impact to the head. Ali Lamont Tanner, 45, died July 2, 2021, from a stab wound to the neck. William Taylor Bodge, 61, died February 5, 2022, from delayed complications of blunt force injuries to the head suffered weeks earlier, with the incident date listed as January 20, 2022. Raphael Zachery Milligan, 41, died July 21, 2022, from blunt force injuries and strangulation; another prisoner was charged with his murder. Amos Bennett Huff Jr., 60, died March 30, 2023, by strangulation; his 26-year-old cellmate was charged. Randall Joey Futch, 61, died June 8, 2023, from delayed complications of blunt force head trauma.

In 2024 the AJC documented three more: Thomas Preston Johnson, 56, died April 12, 2024, with incident report data showing a homicide; Rodarick Lee Hayes, 29, died May 25, 2024, from sharp force injury of the torso, with two prisoners and a correctional officer charged with murder — the officer accused of aiding in the attack; and Lamar Wesson Phillips, 39, died June 8, 2024, in what incident report data describes as a murder involving inmate-to-inmate assault. The Department of Justice's investigation of Georgia prisons later found that Hayes had been attacked on multiple occasions before his death, a finding the AJC reported in January 2025 — suggesting a failure to protect him.

More recent deaths have not always been classified. Jacobi Chomicki, 23, died May 22, 2026, at ASMP; his cause of death was initially undetermined and his body was turned over to the Richmond County Coroner's Office for transport to the GBI crime lab. GPS's registry now lists his death as a homicide. Jerry Wayne Merritt, 59, died January 20, 2026, also listed as a homicide in the registry. GPS's own reporting has described accounts of Merritt's death as a stabbing over a commissary debt.

Staff Abuse Against People Who Cannot Care for Themselves

The most specific recent allegations at ASMP concern the people least able to protect themselves. On February 14, 2026, around dinnertime, Certified Nursing Assistant Janette Shields allegedly struck inmate Bruce Smith with an open hand in the prison's medical wing, according to news reporting. Smith, who holds GDC ID 1003634516, is disabled and requires assistance with daily living tasks and medical care; the news article reported his weight as 111 pounds, while GDC records show 103. Shields, 67, of Augusta, was arrested February 24, 2026, and charged with simple battery and exploitation of an elderly or disabled person, then booked into the Charles B. Webster Detention Center and later released on bond. GPS's own reporting covered the arrest, describing a 67-year-old nursing assistant accused of striking a disabled inmate who weighed just 103 pounds.

The next day, February 15, 2026, a CNA identified as Williams allegedly cursed at quadriplegic inmate Anthony Shedd, refused to empty his catheter bag, refused to help him eat, and locked the door of his room, according to news reporting. Shedd holds GDC ID 0000567033 and was housed at ASMP as of November 19, 2024. The source article characterized the two consecutive-day incidents as establishing a pattern of staff misconduct. Roughly a week later, around February 20–21, 2026, the ASMP warden allegedly made threats of retaliation against Shedd for reporting CNA Williams, communicated via a phone call to Cindy Robertson, a contact person associated with Shedd's case.

GPS staff have separately observed an allegation of denial of basic medical care involving catheter management at ASMP, and characterize a reported refusal to assist an incarcerated person with eating as denial of basic medical care. GPS staff also assessed that an incarcerated person's ability to use electronic messaging indicated intact cognitive function despite a physical condition — a note that speaks to how quickly a patient's capacity gets contested inside the facility. GPS records show that over the past twelve months, staff misconduct allegations from unnamed sources have surfaced across multiple months at this facility, alongside seven medical-neglect allegations at critical and high severity and four PREA-related allegations, two of them alleging retaliation.

The Medical Record: Documentation, Thresholds, and What Was Not Done

The clinical paperwork at ASMP is itself part of the record. The Infirmary/OPHU Nurse Round Progress Note form used at the facility carries form number I006.1 and was last revised May 24, 2022; a separate Infirmary/OPHU progress note form carries number I009.0 with a last revision date of January 25, 2021. Karina Purcell is listed as Form Owner on the nursing progress note form used for Shedd's assessments on November 11, 2024.

Those forms embed explicit escalation thresholds. The GDC ASMP nursing documentation standard flags blood pressure with systolic at or above 180 or at or below 90, or diastolic at or above 110 or at or below 60, as requiring health care provider contact. It flags pulse at or above 110 or at or below 60; respiratory rate persistently at or below 10 or at or above 20; temperature above 101°F; and oxygen saturation below 90 percent. The same thresholds appear in GDC protocol at Walker State Prison, which additionally requires STAT contact with a medical provider and emergency transport without delay if the provider cannot be reached, with reassessment every 10 to 15 minutes while awaiting transport. The existence of those written thresholds is the standard against which the care documented in individual records can be measured.

Shedd's medical records — spanning pages 1501 through 1552 and 1601 through 1652 of the case file — form one such record. GPS's internal analysis of that file identified a series of gaps: a neurology order from 2024 with no evidence it was received or acted upon; MRIs ordered in 2024 and marked time-sensitive to rule out a mass; a provider who delayed reviewing and signing a cervical spine MRI result for several days; and no neurosurgical referral after an MRI revealed cord compression. A physical therapy re-evaluation in 2024 documented that Shedd's strength had declined across all muscle groups and that he was unable to stand from bed, yet the physical therapy plan remained unchanged. An April 2024 sick call note documented that no provider examination occurred after Shedd reported progressive neurological symptoms lasting four months, no diagnostic orders were placed, and no follow-up plan was recorded.

GPS's analysis also found abnormal intake lab values from 2024 not documented as reviewed by a provider, with no renal workup ordered; a patient with documented critical lab values indicating deficiency who did not receive medically indicated supplementation; and a medication administration method left unchanged despite documented incidents of pills found and the patient's own statement that he could not handle his medications. A single day's nursing documentation in 2024 recorded three separate complaints from Shedd that he was wet and cold and unable to get help; on that occasion he was cleaned with dampened chux pads because wipes were not available.

The record also shows the facility contesting its patients' credibility. In 2024 a medical provider at ASMP reviewed camera footage and noted that Shedd was observed performing activities such as turning in bed that he had reported being unable to do; a provider later repeated verbatim camera-based language from a prior note. GPS's analysis describes this as a provider reviewing surveillance footage to document patient movement in support of a malingering narrative. A refusal-of-medical-treatment form in the file covered routine wound care or dressing changes — it did not address the progressive paralysis.

Retaliation, Grievance Obstruction, and the Cost of Reporting

The February 2026 incidents did not occur in isolation. GPS staff observed a pattern of staff abuse allegations at ASMP involving multiple incidents in close succession in 2024–2025, and separately observed a documented pattern of staff abuse and administrative cover-up at the facility. GPS staff also observed that a medical staff member at ASMP has faced criminal charges.

GPS records show that over the past twelve months, grievance obstruction has surfaced across multiple months at this facility, alongside due-process allegations and six external complaints filed to oversight bodies — including the DOJ Civil Rights Division, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Three of those signals are family fear-for-life reports at critical severity. GPS has received recurring reports that incarcerated people at ASMP who report abuse face retaliatory transfers that separate them from their support networks, and that reporting abuse carries the threat of prolonged solitary confinement. GPS has also received accounts of use-of-force incidents at the facility.

The Benning litigation illustrates how far a single ASMP case can travel. Ralph Harrison Benning, an inmate at Augusta State Medical Prison, filed a 2018 lawsuit challenging GDC restrictions and censorship on inmate emails, including a limit of 12 email contacts tied to the in-person visitation log. In 2024, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in his favor, concluding GDC could not limit his email contacts to 12 individuals listed on his visitation log who had been cleared by a background check. In November 2024, Benning filed a motion claiming GDC was "willfully and intentionally" refusing to comply with the appellate court order and that he "continues to be subject to email-contact restriction." On February 11, 2026, Judge Self held a 35-minute hearing in Macon, summoned GDC Commissioner Tyrone Oliver to the witness stand, and scolded the department for failing to follow court orders on inmate email access. The AJC reported that Judge Self found it "shocking" and "unbelievable" that GDC ignored a court order from the 11th Circuit, suggesting the department acts as if it is "above the law." Early in 2026, following Judge Self's order, GDC sent a directive to all prison wardens and superintendents to stop enforcing the portion of the policy limiting email contacts. The AJC's two-year investigation, reported in February 2026, documented rampant corruption, massive understaffing, and record homicides within GDC, even as state officials clamped down on releasing information about deaths inside its prisons.

Staffing, Heat, and a Facility That Cannot Enforce Its Own Rules

GPS has documented systemwide officer vacancy rates between 49.3 and 60 percent for multiple years, against a national standard of no more than 10 percent, with an acceptance rate under 15 percent and 82.7 percent of new hires leaving in their first year. Georgia ranks last of 50 states for correctional-officer pay. The October 2024 DOJ findings letter concluded that "the leadership of the Georgia Department of Corrections has lost control of its facilities" and faulted GDC for placing "too much blame on gangs and insufficient emphasis on understaffing." Former GDC sergeant Tyler Ryals, forced out in 2024 after whistleblowing, told GPS he had personally been the only security person on the entire Telfair compound of roughly 1,250 maximum-security inmates.

At ASMP, GPS records show staffing-shortage reports across four months in the past year at critical and high severity. GPS has received recurring accounts describing officers forced into 24-hour shifts without relief, mandatory overtime, and assignments given with very little notice. Those accounts also describe housing units where indoor temperatures approach 100 degrees, with incarcerated people left partially clothed to avoid overheating and officers experiencing heat-related fatigue. GPS has received reports of pest problems in housing units, of special-diet sandwiches containing perishable meats prepared in advance and left at room temperature, and of a facility where incarcerated people have been able to construct tents in open-bay dormitories and cover their cell windows — with officer reports of those violations going unaddressed. GPS has also received accounts of incarcerated people exiting cells without authorization, and of concerns about it brought to the warden without resolution.

The consequence of that vacuum is what GPS has documented systemwide: gangs functioning as de facto authority where staffing has collapsed. GPS records show assault-by-inmate allegations at ASMP across six months in the past year at critical and high severity, with concentration in April and May 2026. GPS has received accounts of stabbings at the facility and of a lockdown in 2026. The DOJ's October 2024 findings letter concluded that sexual assault in GDC facilities is "rampant" and that GDC does not reasonably protect incarcerated people from sexual harm; of 456 sexual-abuse allegations recorded in 2022, only 35 were substantiated. GPS has received accounts of sexual assault at ASMP and of PREA retaliation.

Food Service, Inspection Scores, and the Limits of the Score

The Georgia Department of Public Health has inspected ASMP's food service repeatedly, and the scores are high. A routine inspection on February 26, 2026, produced a 91 (Grade A) with one violation for food in good condition, safe, and unadulterated, and a second inspection the same day produced a 98 (Grade A) with one violation for physical facilities installed, maintained, and clean. On August 15, 2025, two inspections produced a 99 (Grade A) with one violation for in-use utensil storage and a 90 (Grade A) with four violations including proper cold holding temperatures. April 11, 2025, produced a 100 (Grade A) and a 91 (Grade A) with one violation for food separated and protected. December 2024 produced a 97 and a 95; June 2024 produced a 100 and a 96; December 19, 2023, produced three separate 100 (Grade A) scores.

GPS has documented a systemic pattern of food-service sanitation failure across GDC kitchens that DPH inspection scores systematically fail to capture — tray-sanitizing dishwashers broken for sustained periods, sustained roach and rodent infestation in kitchen and serving areas, and meals served on visibly contaminated trays. The pattern is hidden from DPH scores because inspections are scheduled walkthroughs that do not assess equipment under load. High DPH scores at GDC facilities coexist with sustained witness reports of equipment failure and food contamination. The Marshall Project independently reported on May 16, 2026, documenting rats in kitchens, insects in food, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition across Georgia facilities, and quoting GPS connecting chronic underfeeding to the violence pattern the DOJ documented in October 2024. GDC spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food (2024) and has proposed $1.60 per day in FY27 — under 60 cents per meal — against the FDA Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day for an adult man's nutritionally adequate diet.

Settlements, and What the State Has Paid

The Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger, obtained through open records, records a series of liability payouts tied to Augusta State Medical Prison. The largest is the $3,000,000 payout tied to the 2020 Thomas Henry Giles death, which is linked to a documented death record. Terry Anthony's 2021 case produced a $517,000 payout. George Washington Hardy's 2015 case produced a $300,000 payout, also linked to a documented death record. Adrian Jenkins' 2017 case produced $100,000; Eugene Griggs' 2017 case, $17,500; Montra Moss' 2017 case, $10,000; Tangela Williams' 2017 case, $9,500; and Justina Collins-Powell's 2022 case, $2,726.

Those figures are the state's own accounting of what it has paid out for incidents at this facility. They are not the full cost of what happens there, and they do not include cases that were never filed, never settled, or never brought because attorneys declined representation. GPS staff records note that a law firm declined to represent an individual at ASMP, citing concerns about Georgia's statute of repose, and that attorneys declined representation due to concerns about Georgia's statute of limitations. GPS staff have observed that at ASMP, ongoing harm — including continued inadequate care, retaliation, and unclear cancer treatment — may affect statute of limitations calculations for an incarcerated person's claims.

Programming, Parole, and the Question of What the Facility Offers

ASMP runs at least one substantial program: Pups in the Pen, through which incarcerated people foster and train rescue dogs. Over a little more than two years, the initiative has helped place more than 120 dogs in homes. One of them, Hope, was discovered near a trash can, emaciated and barely alive; a veterinarian recommended euthanasia, and she was instead sent to Pups in the Pen and has since been adopted into a permanent home.

Beyond that, the public record of what ASMP offers the people held there is thin. GPS has received recurring family accounts describing education access at the facility as effectively unavailable, with staff citing facility policy as the justification, and describing tablet devices issued to incarcerated people as serving primarily as a distraction rather than a meaningful rehabilitative or educational tool. GPS has received accounts that JPay email kiosks at the facility are frequently non-functional and that contraband phones are the primary reliable means of communication. GPS has received accounts that the grievance system at ASMP is ineffective, that personal property lost during medical confinement is not replaced even after grievances are filed, and that inmate property and legal documents are scattered or destroyed during shakedowns.

In 2025, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles visited ASMP and interviewed a small group of long-serving incarcerated people identified by facility leadership as candidates for parole consideration. GPS has received recurring accounts that those selected had served 30 years or more, that a Board member made encouraging remarks to the group before interviews, and that as of early 2026 none of the individuals had been released. GPS has received accounts characterizing the process as potentially performative rather than genuine parole review. A formal request was made in 2025 for GPS to investigate or report on the parole consideration process at ASMP.

Sources

This analysis draws on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's homicide-tracking and investigative coverage of Georgia prisons, including its two-year investigation into GDC corruption, understaffing, and record homicides; Georgia Department of Public Health food-service inspection records; the Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through open records; federal court filings and rulings in Benning v. Oliver and related proceedings before Judge Self; the U.S. Department of Justice's October 2024 findings letter on Georgia prisons; The Marshall Project's May 2026 investigation of Georgia prison food; GDC medical documentation forms and nursing standards; GPS's own mortality registry, intelligence signals, and prior reporting; and inmate, family, and staff accounts collected by GPS staff.