CALHOUN STATE PRISON
Facility Information
- Original Design Capacity
- 750 (at 221% capacity)
- Bed Capacity
- 1,677 beds
- Current Population
- 1,661
- Active Lifers
- 572 (34.4% of population) · Jun 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 | 28 / 28 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN (facility deputy) | Spencer, Gwendolyn A | 2024-01-01 | 14 / 14 |
| Deputy Warden of Security (facility deputy) | Johnson, Curtis Tyrone | 2025-01-01 | 7 / 7 |
About
A medium-security prison housing nearly 30% close-security inmates, Calhoun State Prison has recorded 28 deaths tracked by GPS, including homicides and a dehydration death after staff cut off water. A DOJ investigation found systemic violence, staff indifference, and a sweeping failure to prosecute drug smuggling.
Mortality Statistics
30 deaths documented at this facility from 2020 to present.
Deaths by Year
- 2026: 2
- 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.
June 25, 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 nonprofit public advocacy organization, 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 June 21, 2026.
Calhoun State Prison, a medium-security facility in Morgan, Georgia, with an original design capacity of 750 but a population of roughly 1,660, has become one of the starkest examples of the classification crisis documented by the Georgia Prisoners' Speak (GPS) investigation "The Classification Crisis: How Four Medium Security Prisons Are Killing People." By October 2025, 487 close-security inmates constituted 29.4% of the population, a proportion that GPS analysis showed drives homicide rates 4–5 times higher than properly classified prisons. In early 2026, Warden Kendric Jackson orchestrated the transfer of 87 lifers—79.3% to Level 5 close-security facilities—described by GPS as a systematic population swap that shipped out stable, long-term residents while younger short-timers arrived from those same high-security prisons. The U.S. Department of Justice specifically cited Calhoun in its October 2024 findings on unconstitutional conditions in Georgia's prisons, pointing to a 2022 homicide fueled by classification failures and a death by dehydration after staff cut off an incarcerated person's food and water. The facility's record since then—multiple inmate killings, dismissed drug-smuggling cases against staff, major criminal enterprises run from inside using contraband phones, and a sheriff's department receiving nearly $127,000 in GDC payments for perimeter patrols while evidence went untested—illustrates a system in which violence, impunity, and official indifference have become routine.
Classification Drift and the "Quiet Purge" of Lifers
Calhoun State Prison is officially designated medium security, but its population composition tells a different story. GPS analysis published in November 2025 found that Calhoun, along with Dooly, Wilcox, and Washington State Prisons, function as de facto close-security facilities, with close-security inmate shares ranging from 27.7% to 29.7%—far above other medium-security prisons. GPS reporting documented 8 to 10 confirmed homicides at these four facilities between January and November 2025, compared to just two at all other medium-security prisons in the state. At Calhoun, the strain manifested not only in violence but in a systematic depopulation of long-term residents. Over a three-month period, 87 lifers were transferred out, with a concentrated wave of 36 in the final week of March 2026. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that GPS records show 79.3% of those transfers went to Level 5 close-security prisons, including the 82-year-old John Morgan Coleman, who was sent to Hancock State Prison. GPS staff verified these movements using GDC offender data and found that Calhoun accounted for a disproportionately high share of medium-to-close lifer transfers statewide. Inmate witnesses and family accounts collected by GPS describe administration expressing a goal of removing lifers from the facility, while incoming transfers increasingly consist of people reclassified to higher security following disciplinary infractions—a composition shift that GPS analysts have characterized as a deliberate re-engineering of the prison's housing model.
Deaths Inside: Homicides, Neglect, and the Toll of Understaffing
GPS tracking records 28 deaths at Calhoun State Prison, with several directly tied to violence or gross neglect. DaQuavious Cachone Lackey, 21, was stabbed to death by his cellmate in May 2022 after staff failed to follow classification and housing procedures, moving the assailant between segregation and general population without safeguards; the DOJ investigation flagged this case as a direct consequence of GDC's disregard for its own policies. Martel Dorsey, 34, was stabbed by several prisoners in October 2023, with witnesses reporting he was chased from a dorm. Kenneth Piper, 37, was killed in an inmate-on-inmate assault in May 2024, and Gonzalo Colmenero, 54, died after a similar assault in July 2024. Willie Andrew Willis Jr. suffered catastrophic injuries in what his family alleges was a fall from a balcony at the prison; medical records list sepsis as the cause of death, and the family says nearly an hour passed before he was airlifted. In February 2023, a 24-year-old incarcerated person was found dead in his restrictive-housing cell; the coroner estimated he had been dead for seven to eight hours, and his cause of death was dehydration with renal failure. The DOJ confirmed that staff had shut off his water, closed his door flap, and did not deliver meals for two days. A grievance filed by another incarcerated person alleging extortion and gang violence was rejected as untimely with no follow-up. Federal investigators found that less than 10% of prison fights, less than 23% of inmate-on-inmate assaults, and less than 6% of incidents involving weapons were forwarded for investigation systemwide. GPS records show that over the past 12 months, death-in-custody reports, assault-by-inmate allegations, and family safety concerns have all registered at critical severity at Calhoun, with external complaints filed to the DOJ Civil Rights Division and other federal agencies.
The Evidentiary Collapse: Drug Smuggling, Dismissed Cases, and Paid Patrols
In February 2020, correctional officers Corlethia Lattimore and Imani Ferguson were arrested after arriving for their shifts with Hot Pockets packages allegedly containing 112 grams of methamphetamine and tobacco. Both were fired immediately, but charges were dismissed in July 2023 because the drug evidence was never submitted to the state crime lab—the four-year statute of limitations had run out. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's June 2025 investigation revealed that GDC investigator Ruby Long took out arrest warrants but failed to send the evidence for testing, and that the agency failed to submit drug evidence in at least 11 cases involving 15 defendants, including five prison employees. The Calhoun County Sheriff's Department separately failed to submit evidence in 12 cases near the prison. In total, nearly two dozen drug-smuggling cases resulting in 33 arrests between 2018 and 2021 were dismissed by District Attorney Joe Mulholland because no testing had been done. While these cases collapsed, the GDC made payments totaling nearly $127,000 in the first three months of 2025 to Sheriff Josh Hilton and eight of his deputies for off-duty perimeter patrols at Calhoun at $45 per hour. A grand jury heard 35 prison-related cases on June 2, 2025, but more than 300 remained pending without indictment or resolution. GPS records also reflect multiple staff-misconduct allegations, including several with named individuals, over the past year, underscoring a pattern of accountability failures that extends well beyond the Hot Pockets episode.
Criminal Enterprise from Inside: Contraband Phones and Drug Rings
Calhoun State Prison has repeatedly functioned as a hub for large-scale criminal operations run from inside. Two inmates were convicted of running a nationwide wire fraud and extortion scheme using contraband cellphones, targeting 119 victims across six states. A separate federal prosecution detailed how Pedro Barragan Valencia brokered the distribution of at least 250 kilograms of methamphetamine while serving a state sentence at Calhoun, earning a 400-month federal prison term. Jonathan Alvin Pope led a multi-county drug ring from the facility that operated as far back as 2018, resulting in a 20-year federal sentence. Edwin Murillo brokered major meth sales from Calhoun and was later sentenced to life in prison for directing a 2021 torture and murder. Irvin Falcon, 23, used a contraband cellphone to direct meth deliveries in the Fitzgerald area. Staff were also involved: officer Temperess Johnson was caught in 2019 attempting to smuggle eight cellphones and 2.6 pounds of meth in a GDC van, later sentenced to five years in federal prison. The GDC deployed its $50 million Managed Access System (MAS) to block unauthorized cell signals at 34 prisons, including Calhoun, in mid-2025—after the wire fraud operation had already occurred. GPS reporting has noted that the technology is "deaf by design," and that Georgia already possesses the hardware and legal authority to monitor rather than merely block signals, leaving the cellphone-driven crisis unresolved.
A System Designed to Fail: DOJ Findings and Systemic Rot
The U.S. Department of Justice's October 2024 investigation of the Georgia Department of Corrections concluded that the state "fails to provide incarcerated persons with the constitutionally required minimum of reasonable physical safety." Federal investigators documented an "environment of fear and complacency," with correctional officer vacancy rates exceeding 50% since mid-2021. The DOJ found that Georgia deliberately underreports homicides, listing in internal reports at least 18 deaths as homicides in the first five months of 2024 while reporting only six publicly. At Calhoun specifically, the DOJ faulted staff for failing to follow housing classification procedures, directly contributing to the 2022 homicide of DaQuavious Lackey, and for the dehydration death of the inmate whose food and water were cut off. GPS systemic findings have shown that these failures are not isolated: staffing collapse—with vacancies at 49% to 60% systemwide—has enabled gang control to fill the vacuum, while infrastructure decay, including broken locks and surveillance systems, goes unrepaired. The state spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food, far below nutritional adequacy, and food-service sanitation failures persist despite high Department of Public Health inspection scores, a contradiction documented by GPS and independently corroborated by The Marshall Project. In Georgia's prisons, 1,819 deaths have been recorded by GPS since 2020, a toll that reflects a system in which chronic understaffing, classification drift, and a culture of impunity converge—and of which Calhoun State Prison is an emblematic part.
Sources
This analysis draws on reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WALB, and Georgia Prisoners' Speak—including GPS's "The Classification Crisis" report, its "Quiet Purge" investigation of the lifer transfers, and its ongoing systemic coverage—as well as federal Department of Justice findings, GDC mortality and population data, Georgia Department of Public Health inspection records, federal court filings, and inmate and family accounts collected by GPS staff.
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 (59)
Source Articles (18)
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 | 7 / 18 |
| 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 / 45 |
| Chief Counselor (specialty lead) | Spann, James Clarence | 2009-01-01 → 2009-12-31 | — / 50 |
Location
Aerial View
Architecture documents what the building was designed to hold. See the system-wide receipts at gps.press/warehouse.