Last updated November 8, 2026.(DS)

Augusta State Medical Prison: The System's Hospital and Its Body Count

Augusta State Medical Prison (ASMP) in Grovetown is where the Georgia Department of Corrections sends the people it can no longer care for anywhere else — and it is where hundreds of them have died. Built in 1982 and opened in 1983, ASMP is the state's flagship close-security medical facility, providing level-V specialty medical and mental-health care for seriously ill and high-acuity incarcerated people from across the system. It combines general housing units with an on-site hospital that includes acute-care, long-term-care, crisis, and pre-/post-operative beds. It primarily houses men but can receive women for medical treatment.

GPS's own registry records 398 deaths at ASMP since January 1, 2020 — 293 classified natural or medical, 67 unknown or pending, 17 suicides, 11 homicides, 9 accidents, and one other. That figure is a floor: GDC reports deaths roughly two months late, and the count excludes 791 earlier deaths from 2015 to 2019 that GPS holds separately from the Department's own cause coding obtained by open records request. The full list is published at gps.press/georgia-prison-deaths/facility/augusta-state-medical-prison.

The threads below — a mortality record that runs from natural deaths in the geriatric ward to homicides and suicides in the housing units, a federal court fight over email censorship that ended with a judge holding GDC in contempt, and family and staff accounts of neglect at the bedside — describe a facility whose central contradiction is that the prison designated to keep sick people alive is also a place where people are killed, take their own lives, and die of causes the state cannot yet name.

A Hospital That Is Also a Prison

ASMP's rated capacity is 1,326; its original design capacity was 535. GPS's current population figure is 1,149, putting the facility at roughly 86.7 percent of rated capacity — a number that understates the density of a plant built for a third of the people it now holds. A GDC document reproduced in the Centurion contract record, Exhibit 3-B, lists ASMP's physical capacity at 1,079 offenders with on-site X-ray marked "Yes."

The facility is led by Warden Deshawn B. Jones, who has held the post since June 2024. His deputies are Teraceta S. Terrell (Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment, since October 2026), Michael Frank Paschal (Deputy Warden of Security, since January 2021), Orbey Harmon (Deputy Warden of Security, since January 2022), Samantha Denise Carter (Deputy Warden of Administration, since January 2026), and Latasha M. Harris (Deputy Warden of Security, since January 2025).

The medical operation is contracted. Centurion's Amendment 4 staffing matrix for ASMP totals 4,792 weekly hours — 119.80 FTE — including a Physician position budgeted at 560 weekly hours (14.00 FTE), an RN position at 552 weekly hours (13.80 FTE), a Medical Director, a Director of Nursing, and a Health Services Administrator at 40 hours each. The Centurion amendment separately estimates 34.2 RN full-time equivalents and 25.7 LPN full-time equivalents for the facility. Under the 340B drug-pricing provision, medications are delivered to the contractor's pharmacists at ASMP.

Mental-health staffing is budgeted separately. The MHM Amendment 13 staffing matrix lists ASMP's total mental-health complement at 41.10 FTE, 1,644 hours per week, at an annual cost of $3,410,217 — including 26.00 FTE Mental Health Counselors at $1,951,870, 7.00 FTE Activity Therapists, 2.00 FTE MH Unit Managers, 1.50 FTE MH Nurse Practitioners, 1.00 FTE Clinical Director, 1.00 FTE Psychologist, and 0.60 FTE Psychiatrist at $145.09/hour. Dental staffing is 4.00 FTE at $396,143 annually, including one dentist, one dental hygienist, and two dental assistants.

Those matrices have moved repeatedly. Amendment 3 removed 2.00 FTE dental assistant positions from the ASMP matrix, converting them from budgeted FTEs to the dental supplies budget. Amendment 7 adds 4.0 FTE positions for Dental Leadership/Specialty at ASMP, at a total annual cost of $310,597.82 for 10 months. One version of the MHM staffing schedule assigns no Dental Hygienist or Dental Assistant positions to ASMP at all, with a dental total of zero — a snapshot that, whatever its vintage, shows how thin the dental line can be drawn on paper.

The facility also carries a security posture that its medical mission does not explain. A purchase order issued June 17, 2024 — PO 624048, referencing quotation PF00475445P — carries the line-item description "Augusta State Medical Prison Drone Detection," shipped to 3001 Gordon Hwy, Grovetown. And in a GDC-stated contract record, Centurion agreed to issue GDC a credit of $143,706.30 for July 2026 because newly added staffing-matrix positions designated to staff an additional ASMP infirmary had not yet begun work — money budgeted for bedside care that was not, for that month, at the bedside.

Three Hundred Ninety-Eight Deaths, and the Ones the State Cannot Name

The mortality record at ASMP is dominated by natural and medical deaths — 293 of 398 — which is what a facility holding geriatric and terminally ill people should produce. Sidney Dorsey died March 2, 2026, at age 86; the Richmond County Coroner's Office determined the death natural, caused by complications of embolic cerebral infarction. Robert Bruce Green died May 5, 2026, at 69, of complications of E. coli with sepsis. Henry Ross died May 11, 2026, at 56; the coroner listed hemorrhagic shock as the cause and classified the manner natural. Walter Caldwell died April 25, 2026, at 49, of anoxic brain injury. Lemarcus Antonio Dunson died April 27, 2026, at 50, of refractory follicular lymphoma. Jackie McCoy Blackmon died April 25, 2026, at 72, of infective endocarditis of the mitral valve.

The most recent entries in GPS's registry, read at build time, are these:

• Richard Atwood died September 18, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 68.
• Donnie Gene Poland died September 15, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. He was 60.
• Alphonso Dade died September 14, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. He was 70. GDC officially confirmed his death.
• Demilo Ponchorello Johnson died September 10, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. He was 48.
• Dwight Bernard Freeman died August 28, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 69.
• Jimmie Lee Dennis died August 17, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 64.
• John Henry Tuff died August 8, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 75.
• Anretoes Kenwood Wilkins died August 7, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 50.
• Donald Hugh Young died August 5, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 49. GDC officially confirmed his death; the cause remains Unknown/Pending, and a GDC exact-ID lookup returned not_found for his ID.
• Phillip Curtis Walker died July 16, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 62.
• Kolby Young died July 13, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 24.
• Edouard Kamdem died July 12, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 77.
• Joseph Daniel Bristol died July 11, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 73.
• David James Vineyard died July 3, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 58.
• Jerry Watson died July 2, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 75.
• Wanique Marsay Odwin died June 29, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 44.
• David Meeks died June 20, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 62.
• James Dean Wilkinson died May 28, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 69.
• Jacobi Alandis Chomicki died May 22, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 23.
• Frederick Raskin died May 12, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 84.
• Henry Ross died May 11, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. He was 56.
• Manuel Gomez died May 9, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending.
• Robert Bruce Green died May 5, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. He was 69.
• Lemarcus Antonio Dunson died April 27, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. He was 50.
• Walter Caldwell died April 25, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. He was 49.

The 67 deaths coded Unknown/Pending are their own finding. GPS's derived analysis of the mortality record found that a "natural" cause-of-death designation in GDC records can originate as the Department's own classification rather than as an autopsy finding — that in some cases no pathologist examined the body before the determination was recorded. A separate GPS analysis of 10 cause-of-death conflicts between GPS and GDC at ASMP during 2020–2021 found that in 8 of them GDC coded as "Natural" a death that a medical examiner or coroner attributed to violence, overdose, suicide, or accident. In a validation of 200 records where GPS already held a cause, GPS's determination matched the UCLA Law Behind Bars dataset roughly 84.5 percent of the time, with most disagreements involving GPS records being more specific than GDC's "Undetermined" coding.

The registry also carries deaths GDC has not officially confirmed. Eric Deal died September 14, 2025, at 58; the Richmond County Coroner's Office determined the cause natural, due to complications of lung cancer, but GDC has not officially confirmed the death. Thad Junior Thomas died at ASMP; the GDC mortality report does not officially confirm it. Kendius Hill's death was not officially confirmed by GDC in the mortality record, though GDC's January 2025 mortality data lists his cause as "Homocide, Anoxic Brain Injury and Septic Shock" — while the Richmond County Coroner's Office summary lists the same death as natural, specifically anoxic brain injury, under case 250109-1000. That contradiction, on the record, is the clearest illustration of how the state's own coding and a coroner's finding can diverge.

Homicides in a Medical Facility

Eleven deaths at ASMP are classified as homicides in GPS's registry, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's running list of Georgia prison homicides documents the circumstances of many of them.

Lamar Wesson Phillips, 39, died June 8, 2024; the AJC reported that GDC incident report data shows a murder involving an inmate-to-inmate assault, and that no death certificate was available. Thomas Preston Johnson, 56, died April 12, 2024; the incident report shows a homicide. Rodarick Lee Hayes, 29, died May 25, 2024, of sharp force injury of the torso — and the AJC reported that two prisoners and a correctional officer were charged with murder, with the officer accused, according to court records, of aiding in the attack. The AJC further reported, according to court records, that Hayes and other prisoners were allegedly attacking another prisoner, who stabbed Hayes. The Department of Justice's investigation of Georgia prisons later found that Hayes had been attacked on multiple occasions before his death.

Earlier homicides trace the same arc. Randall Joey Futch, 61, died June 8, 2023, from delayed complications of blunt force head trauma. Amos Bennett Huff Jr., 60, died March 30, 2023, by strangulation; his 26-year-old cellmate was charged with his murder. Raphael Zachery Milligan, 41, died July 21, 2022, from blunt force injuries and strangulation; another prisoner was charged. 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. Ali Lamont Tanner, 45, died July 2, 2021, from a stab wound to the neck. Terry Lee Bennett II, 43, died January 10, 2021, from blunt impact to the head.

Two deaths at ASMP stand out for what they say about supervision. Thomas Henry Giles, 31, died October 28, 2020, from inhalation of products of combustion after being left in his smoke-filled cell for hours while officers evacuated nearby inmates; the GBI ruled the death a homicide, and the state agreed to pay his family $5 million to settle a lawsuit — the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger records a $3,000,000 liability payout tied to ASMP for the 2020 incident. Eddie Gosier, 39, died May 2, 2020, by ligature strangulation hours after guards moved inmate Daniel Luke Ferguson into his cell — a man with a prior history of strangling an inmate at Hays State Prison.

The most recent homicide in the registry is Wanique Marsay Odwin, 44, who died June 29, 2026. Jacobi Alandis Chomicki, 23, died May 22, 2026; news reporting described his cause of death as undetermined, with his body turned over to the Richmond County Coroner's Office for transport to the GBI crime lab, and GDC's Office of Professional Standards investigating as standard procedure. GPS's registry classifies the death as a homicide. A user-reported witness account alleged the death occurred as a homicide in the D2 unit and named an alleged assailant with the surname Nance — an account GPS has not corroborated.

GPS has received recurring reports of stabbings at ASMP, including accounts of a fatal stabbing and of a staff member stabbed during a medication distribution period. GPS records show 20 distinct sources reporting alleged inmate-on-inmate assaults at ASMP over the past twelve months, concentrated in April, May, and October 2026.

Suicide, Self-Harm, and the Limits of Observation

Seventeen deaths at ASMP are classified as suicides, and the medical examiner and coroner records describe a facility in which people who had already told staff they intended to die were found hanging in single cells.

Chad Robert Bassant was found hanging by his personal belt in the shower area, per the medical examiner's summary, after he walked into the shower and remained there a long period. The GBI Division of Forensic Sciences performed the autopsy under case DOFS 2023-1001914 and certified the manner suicide and the cause hanging; the Richmond County Coroner's Office recorded it as a suicide by hanging.

Baxter was pronounced at the scene at 1253 on January 20, 2023, by Coroner Chris Langford. That morning he had been treated in the medical ward for cutting his wrist and returned to his cell. He was last seen alive at about 1130 when lunch was served in his single cell — and at that time he verbally told staff he was going to hang himself. He was seen hanging from his prison-issued button-up shirt during rounds. The GBI autopsy recorded arm incisions and scars consistent with self-inflicted injuries, marking around the neck consistent with a noose, and a history of suicidal ideation; it certified the manner suicide and the cause hanging. The Richmond County Coroner's Office recorded the death as a suicide by hanging, case 23-AC00063.

Milton Cameron was held in a psychiatric unit in a single cell, serving a life sentence. Per the investigator narrative, at 0522 on hourly rounds staff found the cell door barricaded with bedding and clothing; he was found unresponsive on the cell floor with a ligature around his neck, first found seated. 911 was called at 0531, the ligature was cut, resuscitation was attempted, and he was pronounced at the scene at 0945. He was last seen alive talking to staff at 0400 on September 5, 2024, and described as fine. No suicide note was found; the ligature appeared to be a bedsheet presumed tied to an old shelf. DOC staff reported no known history of suicidal ideation or attempts, though scars on his forearms were presumed to be from past self-harm. The Richmond County Coroner's Office recorded the death as a suicide by ligature hanging, case 240905-479.

Daryl Wayne Gordon was last known alive at 1430 when checked by staff and was found unresponsive on the cell floor approximately 30 minutes later, with a gown encircling his neck. The GBI DOFS autopsy certified the manner suicide and the cause asphyxiation by ligature. Stephen Prochaska, 70, was found on the ground with a torn bedsheet ligature tied to a locker box; a prison video appeared to show no other individuals entering his cell, and the GBI DOFS autopsy (Report ME-25-10286 / DOFS 2025-1001962) certified hanging as the cause and suicide as the manner. Gaston was found in a single cell with a sheet tied to a locker box on the wall and pronounced dead on scene at 0727 on October 20, 2023, by Dr. Lee Larowe; he had been on suicide precaution from March 20 to April 10, 2023, and his medical history included seizures and hepatitis C. The cell did not have camera footage.

In one case the medical examiner's suicide determination rested on limited information: the ME based the manner determination on information available at that time, and the autopsy in that case found no hemorrhage in the strap muscles — a finding that sits uneasily beside a ligature death and is the kind of detail that invites scrutiny of how quickly such determinations are made.

The Bedside: Abuse, Neglect, and Retaliation Allegations

The most detailed public allegations about ASMP concern not the housing units but the medical wing, and they center on people who could not care for themselves.

Anthony Shedd, a quadriplegic patient housed at ASMP, GDC ID 0000567033, was the subject of a February 2026 cluster of allegations. News reporting described that on February 15, 2026, a CNA identified as Williams allegedly refused to help Shedd eat, refused to empty his catheter bag, cursed at him, and locked the door of his room. The alleged incident came one day after the alleged striking of Bruce Smith — a disabled man housed in the medical wing, GDC records listing his weight at 103 pounds — by CNA Janette Shields on February 14, 2026, around dinnertime, with an open hand. Shields, 67, of Augusta, was arrested February 24, 2026, and charged with simple battery and exploitation of an elderly or disabled person; she was booked into the Charles B. Webster Detention Center and later released on bond. GPS's own reporting on the arrest carries a not-yet-checked status and describes the charges as alleged.

The reporting further described that the ASMP warden allegedly made threats of retaliation against Shedd for reporting CNA Williams, communicated via a phone call to Cindy Robertson approximately February 20–21, 2026. The source article characterized the two consecutive-day incidents as establishing a pattern of staff misconduct against disabled inmates. GPS staff separately assessed a reported refusal to assist an incarcerated person with eating as a denial of basic medical care, and observed an allegation of denial of basic medical care involving catheter management at ASMP.

Family accounts collected by GPS describe a broader pattern at the facility: an incarcerated person's treatable condition going undiagnosed for years and ending in quadriplegia; prescriptions, including mental-health medications, going unfilled for weeks or months and then resumed at full dosage without titration; post-surgical pain medication withheld; discharge instructions for a follow-up CT scan never documented as completed; and a grievance system described as non-functional, with people who report abuse facing prolonged solitary confinement or transfer away from their support networks. GPS has received accounts of retaliation against incarcerated people at ASMP, and GPS records show 10 distinct sources reporting alleged staff misconduct at the facility over the past twelve months, alongside 8 sources reporting alleged medical neglect.

A separate account, published in Georgia Prisoners' Speak — Tell My Story under the title "Watching Someone You Love Die While the System Looks Away," describes a man who went into the system healthy and whose pleas for medical help were ignored — moved as far from the nurses' station as possible, falling and left for hours, until he was hospitalized with double pneumonia, kidney cancer, and paraneoplastic syndrome and returned a quadriplegic. The account does not name the facility where the decline occurred.

Staffing, Heat, and the Conditions Officers Describe

A current correctional officer at ASMP, posting publicly on Facebook on November 2, 2026 under the name Marcus Johnson, described nine areas of concern at the facility: four mandatory overtime shifts monthly with some officers working as many as 24 consecutive hours; chronic understaffing that compromises supervision and accountability; inconsistent enforcement of rules on housing, televisions, telephones, hygiene, and grooming; inaccurate rosters and unauthorized inmate movement; confiscated weapons kept in officer booths instead of submitted as evidence; extended shifts with inadequate air conditioning and restricted access to drinking water; insufficient defensive training and equipment; significant cockroach infestations, including roaches crawling on incarcerated people while they sleep; and incarcerated people denied meals or not receiving meals consistent with dietary requirements. These are the officer's assertions, posted publicly, not GPS findings.

A second public post, by Rrobert Watts on Facebook on November 3, 2026, described being placed in the hole at ASMP because of a paperwork error — no bed available — and witnessing a guard tell an inmate who had thrown his tray that he would not throw the next one because it would be Thursday before he received another: "Damn 4 days before he would have another chance to eat!" Watts wrote.

GPS records show 6 distinct sources reporting staffing shortages at ASMP over the past twelve months and 5 reporting inadequate climate conditions, with accounts of indoor temperatures approaching 100 degrees in some housing units and incarcerated people walking their units partially clothed to avoid overheating. GPS has received recurring reports of sanitation failures at the facility.

The food-safety record, as measured by the Georgia Department of Public Health, is largely clean: routine inspections by Derek Buzhardt and Jasmine Anderson scored 100 on April 11, 2025, June 25, 2024, and December 19, 2023; 99 on August 15, 2025; 98 and 91 on February 26, 2026; 97 on December 4, 2024; 95 on December 3, 2024; and 90 on August 15, 2025, with four violations including improper cold holding temperatures. GPS has documented a systemic pattern across GDC kitchens in which DPH scores fail to capture equipment failure and contamination — inspections are scheduled walkthroughs that do not assess equipment under load — and the coexistence of high scores with sustained witness reports is the analytical center of that finding, not a contradiction unique to ASMP.

Benning v. Oliver: A Prisoner, an Email Limit, and a Contempt Finding

ASMP's most consequential legal matter began with a prisoner's email account. 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 granted Benning a favorable ruling concluding the GDC could not limit his email contacts to 12 individuals listed on his in-person visitation log who had been cleared by a background check. In November 2024, Benning filed a motion claiming that the GDC was "willfully and intentionally" refusing to comply with the appellate court order and that he "continues to be subject to email-contact restriction." Two years before the 2026 hearing, a federal judge in Middle Georgia had found the GDC in contempt for disregarding mandates to improve conditions in a high-security prison wing near Jackson, issuing a 100-page order finding state prison officials willfully disregarded requirements.

On February 11, 2026, Judge Self held a 35-minute hearing in Macon during which he summoned GDC Commissioner Tyrone Oliver to the witness stand and scolded the department for failing to follow court orders on inmate email access. Judge Self found it "shocking" and "unbelievable" that the 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 calling for an explanation of non-compliance, the GDC sent a directive to all prison wardens and superintendents to no longer enforce the portion of the policy limiting email contacts.

The case is a template. A single prisoner at a medical facility, litigating for seven years over a 12-person contact list, produced a federal contempt finding against the department that runs the whole system.

Settlements, Audits, and the Paper Trail

Georgia's risk-management ledger records what the state has paid out for what happened at ASMP. The largest entry is the $3,000,000 payout tied to the 2020 death of Thomas Henry Giles. Others include $517,000 tied to Terry Anthony (2021), $300,000 tied to George Washington Hardy (2015), $100,000 tied to Adrian Jenkins (2017), $17,500 tied to Eugene Griggs (2017), $10,000 tied to Montra Moss (2017), $9,500 tied to Tangela Williams (2017), and $2,726 tied to Justina Collins-Powell (2022).

GDC's own audit calendars show the facility under recurring internal review: an internal audit of ASMP scheduled in December 2021 in the FY2022 calendar; audits on October 16, 17, and 18, 2023, in the FY2024 calendar; and audits on October 27, 28, and 29, 2025, in the FY2026 calendar. A PREA audit was scheduled for November 14–18, 2022. What those audits found is not in the public record GPS holds; that they recur annually at a facility with this mortality profile is itself the observation.

The facility also runs programming. GDC reported in August 2026 that ASMP's Pups in the Pen program, in which incarcerated people foster and train rescue dogs, has helped place more than 120 dogs in homes over a little more than two years — including Hope, discovered near a trash can emaciated and barely alive, whom a veterinarian recommended euthanizing and who was instead sent to the program and adopted. Family accounts collected by GPS describe education access at ASMP as effectively unavailable, with staff citing facility policy as the justification.

Sources

This analysis draws on Georgia Department of Corrections records — mortality reports, audit calendars, contract and staffing-matrix amendments, purchase orders, and the Department's own cause-of-death coding obtained by open records request; Richmond County Coroner's Office case summaries and GBI Division of Forensic Sciences autopsy reports; Georgia Department of Public Health food-safety inspection records; the Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger; federal court filings and reporting on Benning v. Oliver; reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, including its running list of Georgia prison homicides and its coverage of the Department of Justice's 2024 findings; GPS's own mortality registry and derived analyses of cause-of-death coding; public Facebook posts by a current ASMP correctional officer and by a person describing time in the facility's segregation unit; first-person narratives published in Georgia Prisoners' Speak — Tell My Story; and inmate, family, and staff accounts collected by GPS.