CALHOUN STATE PRISON
Facility Information
- Original Design Capacity
- 750 (at 221% capacity)
- Bed Capacity
- 1,677 beds
- Current Population
- 1,657
- Active Lifers
- 577 (34.8% of population) · Aug 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 |
| Deputy Warden of Administration (facility deputy) | Owens, Sawanda | 2026-08-01 | — / — |
About
Calhoun State Prison, a medium-security facility holding 1,659 men against an original design capacity of 750, has become a flashpoint for the crises identified in the Department of Justice’s 2024 investigation.
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.
August 5, 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 August 2, 2026.
Deaths and Violence: A Facility in Crisis
The U.S. Department of Justice documented that an incarcerated man at Calhoun State Prison died of dehydration with renal failure after staff shut off his water, closed his cell-door flap, and stopped delivering meals for two days. WALB reported that the DOJ, in its October 2024 findings, described the death as one of many consequences of a prison system that fails to provide constitutionally required physical safety. The same investigation found that staff at Calhoun failed to follow classification and housing-assignment procedures — a lapse that directly contributed to a 2022 homicide. DaQuavious Cachone Lackey, 21, was stabbed to death by a cellmate after his assailant was moved through segregation and general population without proper classification checks, the DOJ found.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has tracked multiple violent deaths at the facility. Martel Dorsey, 34, was stabbed by other prisoners on October 4, 2023; witnesses saw him chased out of a dorm. Kenneth Piper, 37, was killed in an inmate-on-inmate assault on May 4, 2024. Gonzalo Colmenero, 54, died following an inmate assault on July 17, 2024. Willie Andrew Willis Jr. died after a fall that his family alleges was a throw from a balcony; they say nearly an hour passed before he was airlifted, and medical records list sepsis. The AJC homicide-tracking data also recorded the May 2022 killing of Lackey.
GPS’s mortality database records 29 deaths at Calhoun State Prison since 2020. Seven are categorized as homicides, one as deliberate indifference, and 18 as unknown or pending — a distribution consistent with the DOJ’s finding that Georgia deliberately underreports prison homicides, listing deaths identified as homicides in internal reports as “unknown” in official mortality data. Recent deaths include Matthew Len Nutt, 37, whose December 2025 death the GDC has not officially confirmed; GPS records it as a homicide. In May 2026, Freddie Lee Patterson, 51, died of a still-unreported cause.
The DOJ found systemic failures in how violence is handled: 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. A grievance filed by an incarcerated person at Calhoun alleging extortion and gang violence was rejected as untimely with no follow-up.
Classification Chaos and the Purge of Lifers
Calhoun State Prison is designated as a medium-security facility, yet GDC’s own data show that as of October 2025 it housed 487 close-security inmates — 29.4% of its total population. GPS’s investigation “The Classification Crisis: How Four Medium Security Prisons Are Killing People” identified Calhoun as one of four medium-security prisons operating as de facto close-security facilities, with homicide rates four to five times higher than properly classified medium-security prisons. The DOJ’s 2024 report explicitly faulted such classification drift, concluding that Georgia’s prisons fail to provide reasonable physical safety.
In early 2026, Warden Kendric Jackson oversaw a systematic transfer of 87 men serving life sentences out of Calhoun State Prison. GPS reporting documented the wave: 79% of those transferred went to close-security Level 5 facilities, including Hancock State Prison, Ware State Prison, Hays State Prison, and Telfair State Prison. Among them was John Morgan Coleman, 82, who had been housed at Calhoun as a medium-security lifer and was sent to close-security Hancock. Over the final week of March 2026 alone, 36 lifers were shipped out. GPS data show that Calhoun accounted for a disproportionately high share of medium-to-close lifer transfers statewide during 2024–2025 — a pattern not seen at any other medium-security prison.
The transfers were not random. GPS internal analysis indicates a deliberate population swap: as stable long-term lifers were removed, the facility received incoming inmates with shorter sentences and recent close-security disciplinary transfers. The result is a shift away from a facility that historically housed a significant number of long-term inmates toward a short-term throughput model, even as the prison remains at 98.9% of its operational capacity of 1,677 — a figure that itself is more than double the original design capacity of 750. Multiple sources told GPS that the administration expressed a goal of removing individuals serving life or long-term sentences from the facility. Inmate witnesses describe transfers of people with clean disciplinary records and active programming participation.
Staff Misconduct and the Collapse of Drug Enforcement
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that in February 2020, correctional officers Corlethia Lattimore and Imani Ferguson arrived for their shifts at Calhoun State Prison with Hot Pockets packages that allegedly contained 112 grams of methamphetamine — four times the trafficking threshold — and tobacco. Both officers were immediately fired and arrested. GDC investigator Ruby Long took out arrest warrants, but the drug evidence was never submitted to the GBI crime lab for testing. In July 2023, with no lab report and the four-year statute of limitations run out, charges against both officers were dismissed.
The AJC investigation found that this was not an isolated failure. The GDC failed to submit drug evidence in at least 11 cases involving 15 defendants, including five prison employees, causing the cases to collapse. The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department similarly failed to submit evidence in 12 cases investigated near the prison. In total, nearly two dozen cases involving 33 arrests between 2018 and 2021 were dismissed by District Attorney Joe Mulholland because no evidence had been sent to the crime lab. Three civilians arrested on meth trafficking charges in May 2021 saw their case dismissed in July 2022, though the GBI later confirmed its testing had been incomplete. On June 2, 2025, a grand jury heard 35 Calhoun-related cases, but more than 300 remained pending without resolution.
The contraband cellphone problem at Calhoun has had federal consequences. Two inmates, Joey Amour Jackson and Lance Riddle, were convicted of running a nationwide wire fraud and extortion operation from inside the prison, stealing $464,920 from 119 victims across six states by spoofing police department phone numbers. The Georgia Department of Corrections deployed its $50 million Managed Access System (MAS) at Calhoun in mid-2025 — after the fraud operation had already occurred. In 2019, officer Temperess Johnson was caught attempting to smuggle eight cellphones and 2.6 pounds of meth into the prison in a GDC van; she was sentenced to five years in federal prison.
Beyond smuggling, inmate accounts collected by GPS describe a pervasive atmosphere of staff misconduct. Multiple witnesses report the routine use of pepper spray and Tasers for infractions that do not legally justify such force. One account describes an elderly incarcerated person being tased on the orders of a deputy warden and then a second time, while on the floor, on the warden’s orders. GPS has received reports of staff exploiting inmate-on-inmate violence to enforce their will, with a senior security official’s aides allegedly orchestrating beatings by gang members summoned from other housing units. Witnesses report that food denial and group punishment are used as corporal discipline, that staff abdicate supervision of food distribution to gangs, and that racial animosity is openly tolerated.
Systemic Rot: Food, Staffing, and Impunity
GPS has documented that the Georgia Department of Corrections spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food — less than 60 cents per meal — against an FDA-estimated $10 per day for a nutritionally adequate diet. The Marshall Project independently reported in May 2026 that rats, insects, and mold were found in Georgia prison kitchens, connecting chronic underfeeding to the violence pattern the DOJ documented. At Calhoun, DPH food-safety inspections from 2023 through 2026 have returned consistently high scores — 96 to 100, all Grade A — with minor violations for handwashing facilities and physical plant cleanliness. GPS’s investigation “Dunked, Stacked, and Served” has documented a systemic pattern in which high DPH scores coexist with sustained witness reports of broken dishwashers, roach infestations, and meals served on contaminated trays, a contradiction that the routine scheduled inspections fail to capture.
The staffing crisis that the DOJ found had allowed gangs to control multiple facilities is reflected in Calhoun’s daily reality. The AJC reported that in the first three months of 2025, GDC paid Sheriff Josh Hilton and eight deputies nearly $127,000 for off-duty perimeter patrol at $45 per hour. GPS’s systemic finding — that officer vacancies run between 49% and 60% systemwide against a national standard of under 10%, and that 82.7% of new hires leave in their first year — is corroborated by on-the-record testimony from former GDC sergeants Zirkle and Ryals, who told GPS they had been the sole security personnel on compounds holding over 1,200 maximum-security inmates. At Calhoun, multiple inmate witnesses report that understaffing contributes directly to a violent atmosphere and the inability to enforce basic procedures.
The state has paid substantial sums to settle claims arising from Calhoun. According to the Georgia Department of Administrative Services risk management ledger, the estate of Reginald Jacobs Jr. received a $3.25 million settlement for a 2023 incident at Calhoun. Angel M. Ortiz received $998,715 for a 2019 incident, Lasharon Brantley $1,400 for a 2020 incident, and Asmar Rasheed $10,000 for a 2018 incident. These payouts, combined with the DOJ’s findings of systemic Eighth Amendment violations — including unchecked gang control, routine sexual abuse, and deliberate staff indifference to violence — paint a picture of a facility where preventable death and injury have been monetized rather than remedied.
GPS has independently tracked 1,859 deaths in Georgia Department of Corrections custody since 2020. At Calhoun State Prison, the intersection of classification drift, a mass lifer transfer without announced policy, staff misconduct shielded by a broken evidence system, and an infrastructure and staffing crisis that the DOJ has deemed unconstitutional represents a concentration of every systemic failure GPS has documented across the state.
Sources
This analysis draws on reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WALB; court records including the Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger; the October 2024 U.S. Department of Justice investigation of the Georgia Department of Corrections; GPS’s own investigative reporting, including “The Quiet Purge: Calhoun Edition,” “The Classification Crisis: How Four Medium Security Prisons Are Killing People,” and “Dunked, Stacked, and Served”; the GPS mortality database; Georgia Department of Public Health food-safety inspection records; and on-the-record testimony from former GDC sergeants collected by GPS. Inmate and family accounts collected by GPS staff provided additional context on conditions and transfers.
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 / 47 |
| Chief Counselor (specialty lead) | Spann, James Clarence | 2009-01-01 → 2009-12-31 | — / 49 |
Location
Aerial View
Architecture documents what the building was designed to hold. See the system-wide receipts at gps.press/warehouse.