BACON TRANSITIONAL CENTER
Facility Information
- Current Population
- 86
- Address
- 165 E. Eastside Industrial Blvd, Alma, GA 31510
- Phone
- (912) 632-8157
- Fax
- (912) 632-8208
- Mailing Address
- P.O. Box 904, Alma, GA 31510
- County
- Bacon County
- Operator
- GDC (Georgia Dept. of Corrections)
Leadership & Accountability (as of 2025 records)
Officials currently holding positional authority at this facility, with deaths attributed to GPS-tracked records during their leadership tenure. Inclusion reflects role-based accountability, not legal findings of personal culpability. Death counts shown as facility / career.
| Role | Name | Since | Deaths this facility / career |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superintendent (facility lead) | Watson, Calandra L | 2021-01-01 | — / — |
| Assistant Superintendent (facility deputy) | Griner, Eric Austin | 2025-10-16 | — / — |
About
Bacon Transitional Center, a GDC county prison in Alma, Georgia, houses 86 people under Superintendent Calandra Watson. GPS has tracked one death there since 2020, and the facility sits within a system afflicted by severe understaffing, infrastructure decay, and sexual violence.
Mortality Statistics
1 deaths documented at this facility from 2020 to present.
Deaths by Year
- 2026: 0
- 2025: 0
- 2024: 1
- 2023: 0
- 2022: 0
- 2021: 0
- 2020: 0
Food Safety Inspections
No inspection records are on file with the Georgia Department of Public Health for this facility. GPS has filed an open records request asking where these records are maintained.
What the score doesn't measure. DPH grades kitchen compliance on inspection day — food storage, temperatures, pest control. It does not grade whether today's trays are clean. GPS reporting has found broken dishwashers at most Georgia state prisons we've documented; trays go out wet, stacked, and visibly moldy — including at facilities with recent scores near 100.
Who inspects. Most Georgia state prisons sit in rural counties — often with fewer than 20,000 people, several with fewer than 10,000. The environmental health inspector lives in that community and often knows the kitchen staff personally. Rural inspection regimes don't have the structural independence you'd expect in a city-sized health department. Read the scores accordingly.
Read the investigation: “Dunked, Stacked and Served: Why Georgia Prison Trays Are Making People Sick”
Analysis written on July 12, 2026.
Bacon Transitional Center is a Georgia Department of Corrections-operated county prison facility in Alma, near Ware State Prison. With a population of 86, it is among the smaller state-run facilities. The current leadership includes Superintendent Calandra Watson, who assumed the role in July 2025, and Assistant Superintendent Eric Griner, appointed in October 2025. The chief of security is Vernon Davis, and business operations are handled by Keresa Wiseman.
A System in Crisis
The facility functions within a state prison system that GPS reporting has shown to be in deep structural distress. Statewide, correctional officer vacancies have averaged around 50%, and a 2024 U.S. Department of Justice investigation concluded that GDC leadership has lost control of its facilities. GPS has documented that many of Georgia’s prisons—often 30 to 40 years old—suffer from deferred maintenance: broken cell-door locks, inoperative fire-alarm systems, mold, pest infestations, and failing kitchen sanitation equipment. Food budgets hover near $1.69 per person per day, roughly one-sixth of what the FDA considers adequate, and witness accounts describe roach and rodent contamination in kitchens that scheduled health inspections routinely miss.
Sexual violence is pervasive. The DOJ found that sexual assault is “rampant” in GDC custody and that the department fails to protect incarcerated people. In 2022, only 7.7 percent of 456 sexual-abuse allegations were substantiated, and Georgia has never submitted a PREA certification of full compliance to the Justice Department. GPS investigations have brought to light clusters of deaths and assaults across multiple facilities, alongside a pattern of gang control in understaffed prisons where officers cannot maintain security.
Specific documentation of conditions inside Bacon Transitional Center remains sparse. GPS records indicate that one person has died at the facility since mortality tracking began, although no further details are available. As with all GDC-run institutions, the center operates under the weight of these pervasive systemic failures.
Sources
This analysis draws on GPS’s own investigative reporting into GDC staffing, infrastructure, food-service, and sexual-violence crises; GDC official communications concerning statewide vacancy rates; and GPS-tracked facility personnel and mortality data.
Source Articles (2)
Former leadership
Officials who previously held leadership roles at this facility.
| Role | Name | Tenure | Deaths this facility / career |
|---|---|---|---|
| CORRECTIONAL SUPERINTENDENT (facility lead) | Pritchett, Lonnie Shane | 2023-01-01 → 2023-12-31 | — / — |
| CORRECTIONAL ASST. SUPT (facility deputy) | Clanton, Roderick | 2022-01-01 → 2022-12-31 | — / — |
| CORRECTIONAL ASST. SUPT (facility deputy) | Page, Tracy Glynn | 2018-01-01 → 2018-12-31 | — / 5 |