CALHOUN STATE PRISON
Facility Information
- Original Design Capacity
- 750 (at 221% capacity)
- Bed Capacity
- 1,677 beds
- Current Population
- 1,659
- Active Lifers
- 569 (34.3% of population) · Jul 2026 GDC report
- Life Without Parole
- 1 (0.1%)
Read: Brown v. Plata - A Legal Roadmap for Georgia's Prison Crisis →
- Address
- 27823 Main Street, Morgan, GA 39866
- Phone
- (229) 849-5000
- Fax
- (229) 849-5017
- Mailing Address
- P.O. Box 249, Morgan, GA 39866
- County
- Calhoun County
- Opened
- 1994
- Operator
- GDC (Georgia Dept. of Corrections)
Leadership & Accountability (as of 2026 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warden (facility lead) | Hudson, Charles Leonard | 2026-06-01 | — / 14 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN (facility deputy) | Scott, Tracey | 2020-01-01 | 29 / 29 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN (facility deputy) | Spencer, Gwendolyn A | 2024-01-01 | 15 / 15 |
| Deputy Warden of Security (facility deputy) | Johnson, Curtis Tyrone | 2025-01-01 | 8 / 8 |
About
Calhoun State Prison — a medium-security facility where 29.4% of its 1,659 prisoners are close-security — has seen 29 deaths tracked by GPS. In early 2026, Warden Kendric Jackson moved 87 lifers to Level 5 prisons, replacing them with short-term inmates from those same facilities. A DOJ probe documented a homicide caus
Mortality Statistics
31 deaths documented at this facility from 2020 to present.
Deaths by Year
- 2026: 3
- 2025: 7
- 2024: 7
- 2023: 5
- 2022: 5
- 2021: 1
- 2020: 3
County Public Health Department
Food service and sanitation at CALHOUN STATE PRISON fall under the jurisdiction of the Calhoun County Environmental Health Department. Incarcerated people cannot choose where they eat — public health inspectors carry an elevated responsibility to hold this kitchen to the same standards applied to any restaurant.
Contact
- Title
- Environmental Health Director
- Address
-
P.O. Box 56
Morgan, GA 31766 - Phone
- (229) 849-2515
- calhoun.eh@dph.ga.gov
- Website
- Visit department website →
Why this matters
GPS has documented black mold on chow-hall ceilings, cold and contaminated trays, spoiled milk, and pest contamination at Georgia prisons. The Department of Justice's 2024 report confirmed deaths from dehydration and untreated diabetes tied to food and water deprivation. Advance-notice inspections let facilities stage temporary fixes that disappear once inspectors leave.
Unannounced inspections by the county health department are one of the few outside checks on kitchen conditions behind the fence.
How you can help
Write to the county inspector and request an unannounced inspection of the kitchen and food service operation at this facility. A short, respectful letter citing Georgia food-safety regulations is more powerful than you think — inspectors respond to public concern.
Sample Letter
This is the letter Georgia Prisoners' Speak mailed to all county environmental health inspectors responsible for GDC facilities. Feel free to adapt it.
July 16, 2026
RE: Request for Unannounced Public Health Inspection of Food Service Operations at CALHOUN STATE PRISON
Dear County Environmental Health Director,
I am writing to respectfully request that your office conduct a thorough, unannounced inspection of food service and sanitation practices at CALHOUN STATE PRISON, located in Calhoun County.
Documented concerns
Georgia Prisoners' Speak, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit investigative newsroom, has published extensive investigative reporting on food safety and nutrition failures across Georgia's prison system, including:
- Dangerous sanitation conditions — black mold on chow hall ceilings and air vents, contaminated food trays, and spoiled milk served to inmates.
- Severe nutritional deficiency — roughly 60 cents per meal; inmates receive only 40% of required protein and less than one serving of vegetables per day.
- Preventable deaths — the U.S. Department of Justice's 2024 report confirmed deaths from dehydration, renal failure, and untreated diabetes following food and water deprivation.
- Staged compliance — advance-notice inspections allow facilities to stage temporary improvements, then revert once inspectors leave.
Firsthand testimony
In Surviving on Scraps: Ten Years of Prison Food in Georgia, a person who has spent more than ten years in GDC custody describes no functional dishwashing sanitation, chronic mold on food trays, and roaches found on the undersides of trays at intake facilities. Full account: gps.press/surviving-on-scraps-ten-years-of-prison-food-in-georgia.
Specific requests
- Conduct an unannounced inspection of the kitchen and food service operations at this facility, with particular attention to dishwashing equipment, tray sanitation procedures, and food storage conditions.
- Evaluate compliance with applicable Georgia food safety regulations, including O.C.G.A. § 26-2-370 and the Georgia Food Service Rules and Regulations (Chapter 511-6-1).
- Verify permit status and confirm whether the facility is subject to the same inspection schedule as other institutional food service establishments in the county.
- Make inspection results available to the public, as permitted under Georgia's Open Records Act (O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70).
Incarcerated individuals cannot advocate for their own health and safety in the way a restaurant patron can — they cannot choose to eat elsewhere. This places an elevated responsibility on public health officials to ensure these facilities meet the same sanitation standards applied to any food service establishment.
Thank you for your attention to this important public health matter.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Food Safety Inspections
Georgia Department of Public Health
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”
Recent inspections
| Date | Score | Purpose | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 7, 2026 | 98 | Routine | |
| Jul 23, 2025 | 99 | Routine | |
| Jan 8, 2025 | 98 | Routine | |
| Jul 25, 2024 | 99 | Routine | |
| Jan 10, 2024 | 98 | Routine | |
| Jul 19, 2023 | 97 | Routine |
January 7, 2026 — Score 98
Routine · Inspector: Ken Collins
| Code | Violation | Pts | Inspector notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17C |
physical facilities installed, maintained, and clean 511-6-1.07(5)(a),(b) - good repair, physical facilities maintained; cleaning, frequency & restrictions, cleaned often enough to keep them clean (c) Repeat | 1 | Oberved worn and damaged floors throughout food prep areas. |
July 23, 2025 — Score 99
Routine · Inspector: Ken Collins
| Code | Violation | Pts | Inspector notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17C |
physical facilities installed, maintained, and clean 511-6-1.07(5)(a),(b) - good repair, physical facilities maintained; cleaning, frequency & restrictions, cleaned often enough to keep them clean (c) | 1 | Observed damaged floors in need of repair. |
January 8, 2025 — Score 98
Routine · Inspector: Ken Collins
| Code | Violation | Pts | Inspector notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17C |
physical facilities installed, maintained, and clean 511-6-1.07(5)(a),(b) - good repair, physical facilities maintained; cleaning, frequency & restrictions, cleaned often enough to keep them clean (c) Repeat | 1 | Observed damaged floors in need of repair throughout food preparation and dish washing areas. |
July 25, 2024 — Score 99
Routine · Inspector: Ken Collins
| Code | Violation | Pts | Inspector notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17C |
physical facilities installed, maintained, and clean 511-6-1.07(5)(a),(b) - good repair, physical facilities maintained; cleaning, frequency & restrictions, cleaned often enough to keep them clean (c) | 1 | Observed damaged floors in need of repair throughout food preparation areas. |
January 10, 2024 — Score 98
Routine · Inspector: Ken Collins
| Code | Violation | Pts | Inspector notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13A |
posted: permit/inspection/choking poster/handwashing 511-6-1.02(1)(d) - displaying of the inspection report (c) | 1 | Manager could not locate last inspection report during this inspection. |
| 17C |
physical facilities installed, maintained, and clean 511-6-1.07(5)(a),(b) - good repair, physical facilities maintained; cleaning, frequency & restrictions, cleaned often enough to keep them clean (c) | 1 | Observed damaged ceiling over prep tables in food prep rooms. |
July 19, 2023 — Score 97
Routine · Inspector: Ken Collins
| Code | Violation | Pts | Inspector notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 |
insects, rodents, and animals not present 511-6-1.07(5)(k) - controlling pests (pf, c) | 3 | Observed roaches in warehouse and kitchen. |
Analysis written on July 12, 2026.
A Facility Operating Beyond Its Security Designation
Calhoun State Prison sits in rural Morgan, Georgia. Opened in 1994 with an original design capacity of 750, the facility now holds 1,659 men — 98.9% of its expanded official capacity. But the raw occupancy figure obscures a deeper dysfunction. As of October 2025, 487 of those prisoners — 29.4% of the population — were classified as close-security, despite Calhoun being a medium-security prison. That proportion places Calhoun among four Georgia medium-security facilities that GPS’s investigation “The Classification Crisis” documented as operating as de facto close-security prisons, with homicide rates four to five times higher than properly classified medium-security institutions. The U.S. Department of Justice’s October 2024 findings explicitly cited Calhoun as a facility where staff failed to follow housing and classification procedures, directly contributing to deadly violence.
The Lifers’ Purge: A Systematic Population Swap
In early 2026, GPS’s investigative unit uncovered a mass transfer campaign at Calhoun State Prison. An investigative piece by Georgia Prisoners’ Speak (GPS), “The Quiet Purge: Calhoun Edition,” revealed that Warden Kendric Jackson transferred 87 lifers out of the facility in less than three months. GPS’s data showed that 79.3% of those men were shipped to Level 5 close-security facilities — a pattern no other medium-security prison in Georgia matched. Among them was John Morgan Coleman, an 82-year-old lifer who was moved from Calhoun to Hancock State Prison, a close-security Level 5 institution.
The transfers were not random. GPS’s reporting described a deliberate population swap: stable, long-term lifers — many of whom had clean disciplinary records and were engaged in programming — were replaced by younger, short-term inmates arriving from the very same close-security facilities receiving Calhoun’s displaced lifers. Internal GPS analysis, corroborated by family and inmate accounts, indicated that the Warden had expressed a goal of removing lifers from the medium-security compound. The effect was a quiet, undeclared reconfiguration of Calhoun’s population profile, from a facility with a historically large long-term cohort toward a short-term throughput model. Warden Jackson remained in post until June 2026, when GPS personnel records show Charles Leonard Hudson was appointed as the new warden.
Lethal Consequences: Homicides, Dehydration, and DOJ Findings
The consequences of housing close-security inmates in a medium-security environment without adequate safeguards have been lethal. DaQuavious Cachone Lackey, 21, was stabbed to death by his cellmate on May 16, 2022. The DOJ’s investigation concluded that staff failed to follow classification and housing procedures when moving Lackey’s assailant between segregation and general population. Lackey was beaten with a fan motor stuffed into a net bag and died of blunt force trauma and a stab wound to the neck.
In February 2023, a 24-year-old incarcerated man was found dead in his restrictive-housing cell from dehydration with renal failure. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WALB reported that prison staff had shut off his water, closed his cell door flap, and did not deliver meals for two days — an act federal investigators characterized as retaliation. A second dehydration death was documented at the facility in the same period, where a prisoner was found in a similar state after being deprived of food and water.
Other homicides include Martel Dorsey, 34, stabbed by other prisoners on October 4, 2023; Kenneth Piper, 37, killed in an inmate-on-inmate assault on May 4, 2024; and Gonzalo Colmenero, 54, who died following an assault on July 17, 2024. The AJC’s ongoing homicide-tracking database has recorded these cases, though GDC systematically underreports such deaths. The DOJ found that Georgia’s official mortality data listed only 6 homicides in the first five months of 2024, while internal GDC incident reports documented at least 18.
The state has paid a price in civil liability. A $3.25 million settlement was paid in 2023 for the death of Reginald Jacobs Jr. at Calhoun State Prison, according to Georgia’s Department of Administrative Services settlement ledger. Two other settlements — $998,715 for Angel M. Ortiz (2019) and $10,000 for Asmar Rasheed (2018) — also originated from incidents at the facility.
Staff Smuggling and Evidentiary Collapse
The smuggling of contraband — drugs and cell phones — has been a recurring problem at Calhoun, but the fallout reveals a deeper breakdown in the criminal justice system’s ability to hold wrongdoers accountable. In February 2020, correctional officers Corlethia Lattimore and Imani Ferguson were arrested after arriving for their shifts carrying Hot Pockets packages allegedly containing 112 grams of methamphetamine and tobacco. Both were immediately fired. However, the charges were dismissed in July 2023 because the GDC’s own investigator, Ruby Long, had failed to submit the drug evidence to the state crime lab for testing. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the four-year statute of limitations had expired, and the two officers walked free.
The AJC’s investigation uncovered a broader pattern. Nearly two dozen drug-smuggling cases investigated at Calhoun between 2018 and 2021 — leading to 33 arrests — were dismissed by District Attorney Joe Mulholland because drug evidence was never sent to the GBI crime lab. Five prison employees and dozens of other suspected smugglers escaped prosecution. The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department similarly failed to submit evidence in 12 cases it investigated near the prison. Meanwhile, a grand jury heard only 35 of more than 300 pending Calhoun-related cases in June 2025, with the rest languishing unresolved. Earlier, in 2019, correctional officer Temperess Johnson was caught smuggling 2.6 pounds of meth and eight cellphones in a GDC van; she was sentenced to five years in federal prison.
Systemic Food Deprivation and Neglect
The dehydration death at Calhoun is an extreme endpoint of a larger pattern of food and medical neglect that GPS has documented across the Georgia prison system. GPS’s systemic findings show that GDC spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food, or under 60 cents per meal — a fraction of the FDA’s Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day for an adult man’s nutritionally adequate diet. The Marshall Project’s 2026 investigation, “Rats, Insects and Mold,” independently corroborated visible malnutrition and contaminated food across Georgia facilities, quoting GPS’s connection to the violence the DOJ had flagged. While Calhoun’s kitchen scored 100 on its July 2025 DPH food-safety inspection, the systemic pattern of under-resourcing and the facility’s history of outright food- and water-deprivation as retaliation underscore that inspection scores alone cannot capture the human toll.
GPS Signals: Cluster of Critical Incidents in 2026
GPS’s internal complaint and intelligence records show a surge in critical signals tied to Calhoun State Prison in the first half of 2026. In January alone, GPS documented four separate family reports expressing fear for an incarcerated person’s life, alongside multiple reports of in-custody deaths and severe inmate assaults. Over the 12-month lookback, the system has aggregated 10 sources describing inmate-on-inmate assaults at critical and high severity, 8 sources reporting medical neglect at critical and high severity, and 9 records of external complaints filed — including to the DOJ Civil Rights Division. GPS’s mortality database counts 29 deaths at Calhoun State Prison, with the most recent being Freddie Lee Patterson (May 13, 2026, age 51) and Jimmy McMullen (January 28, 2026, age 67).
These signals, combined with the facility’s known history of classification drift, lethal violence, and staff-driven retaliation, reinforce the DOJ’s conclusion that GDC leadership has lost control of its facilities and that Georgia’s prisons fail to provide the constitutionally required minimum of reasonable physical safety.
Sources
This analysis draws on investigative reporting by Georgia Prisoners’ Speak (GPS) — including “The Quiet Purge: Calhoun Edition” and “The Classification Crisis” — as well as reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WALB, federal Department of Justice findings, Georgia Department of Public Health inspection records, GDC settlement data, and GPS’s internal mortality, complaint, and personnel databases.
Recent reports (26)
Source-attributed observations and allegations from news coverage and reports submitted to GPS. Each entry credits its source.
- ALLEGATION According to Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published: Jan 21, 2025The DOJ report alleged that staff failed to follow procedures when moving Lackey's assailant between segregation and general population, leading to Lackey being housed with and killed by his cellmate.
"The DOJ report said he was killed after staff moved the assailant out of segregation to general population and then back to segregation without following procedures. There, he was housed in a cell with another prisoner. That prisoner asked to be moved because the two weren't getting along. The next day, an orderly saw the victim being beaten by his cellmate with a fan motor in a net bag, the DOJ reported."
Read source → - ALLEGATION According to Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published: Sep 5, 2024Murillo ordered the murder of a woman because the business relationship he had with her had collapsed and he no longer trusted her, resulting in her torture, murder and dismemberment.
"In September 2023, the drug ringleader was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to directing the 2021 torture, murder and dismemberment of a woman kidnapped from Plaza Fiesta Shopping Mall in DeKalb County. According to news reports, Murillo ordered the woman's murder because the "business relationship" he had with her had collapsed and he no longer trusted her."
Read source → - ALLEGATION According to Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published: Jan 21, 2025Prison staff cut off a prisoner's food and water as retaliation, leading to his death from dehydration and renal failure.
"At Calhoun State Prison in 2023, a prisoner died of dehydration with renal failure. According to the DOJ, prison staff had cut off his food and water after he had thrown water through the flap in his cell door."
Read source → - ALLEGATION According to WALB Published: Feb 13, 2026Willie Andrew Willis Jr.'s family alleges he was thrown from a balcony by other inmates and that it took nearly an hour before he was airlifted for treatment.
"Willis told his family he had been thrown from a balcony and left unable to move. The family said they still don't know how the incident happened or why it took nearly an hour before he was airlifted for treatment."
Read source → - ALLEGATION According to WALB Published: Feb 13, 2026Family alleges nurses gave a conflicting account of Willis's condition, claiming he came to get Tylenol and returned to his dorm before collapsing, while the family states he was paralyzed from the waist down and on a ventilator.
""Then we heard a different story where the nurses say he came and got a Tylenol, and then he went back to his dorm and fell out and couldn't move anymore. My son was on a ventilator; he couldn't breathe, couldn't move his body, and couldn't walk away. He was paralyzed from the waist down.""
Read source →
Timeline (63)
Source Articles (20)
Former leadership
Officials who previously held leadership roles at this facility.
| Role | Name | Tenure | Deaths this facility / career |
|---|---|---|---|
| WARDEN 1 (facility lead) | Jackson, Kendric | 2024-12-16 → 2025-12-31 | 8 / 22 |
| WARDEN 1 (facility lead) | Smith, Tarmarshe A | 2018-01-01 → 2019-12-31 | — / 36 |
| WARDEN 1 (facility lead) | Ford, Benjamin | 2016-01-01 → 2017-12-31 | — / 35 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN (facility deputy) | Peoples, Delvin Rasaunn | 2019-01-01 → 2024-08-31 | 19 / 46 |
| Chief Counselor (specialty lead) | Spann, James Clarence | 2009-01-01 → 2009-12-31 | — / 48 |
Location
Aerial View
Architecture documents what the building was designed to hold. See the system-wide receipts at gps.press/warehouse.