Last updated November 8, 2026.(DS)

Central State Prison: A Medium-Security Plant Under Close-Custody Pressure

Central State Prison sits on 4600 Fulton Mill Road in Macon, on the grounds of the historic Central State Hospital complex in Bibb County. It opened in 1978 as a medium-security facility for adult male felons, and its housing runs to cellblocks and dormitories configured for general population and segregation, with a small infirmary on site. It provides work details, basic education, and limited treatment and religious programs, and it has historically been one of the larger medium-security hubs in middle Georgia. The warden is Sonja D. Brown, who took the post in June 2026; her deputies are Lachaka Nicole McKenzie (Care and Treatment), Dennis J. Turner and Janice Denise Blackshear (Security), and Kendarlin McMilan (Administration).

What follows traces four threads that converge on the same institution: a population pressed against its rated capacity while its close-custody count nearly doubled in a single year; a mortality record running to 39 GPS-tracked deaths since 2020, five of them homicides; a 2026 run of staff arrests and disciplinary actions; and a body of witness and family accounts describing gang control of housing areas, failed cell locks, and medical emergencies that went unanswered.

Capacity, Classification Drift, and a Rising Close-Custody Count

GPS's facility records put Central State Prison's rated capacity at 1,153 and its current population at 1,149 — 99.7 percent of capacity. That figure sits against an original design capacity of 288, meaning the plant now holds roughly four times the number of people it was built for. GDC's own documents have at points listed the physical capacity differently: Exhibit 3-B in the department's records lists Central SP with a physical capacity of 1,106 offenders and on-site X-ray marked Yes.

The more telling number is the security mix. GDC data show Central State Prison's close-custody count rose from 33 to 64 between October 2025 and September 2026 — a near-doubling at a facility designated medium-security. GPS has documented classification drift as a systemwide pattern, in which medium-security prisons house close-security populations without the staffing and infrastructure that designation implies. The shift at Central SP is a concrete instance of that pattern, and it arrives at a facility whose staffing matrix has been repeatedly revised downward or reshaped in the department's own contract amendments.

The Mortality Record: 39 Deaths Since 2020

GPS has recorded 39 deaths at Central State Prison since January 1, 2020. The registry's cause breakdown is itself a finding: 19 of those deaths carry a cause of Unknown/Pending, six are coded Natural/Medical, five Homicide, four Suicide, three Other, and two Overdose. The full list is maintained at GPS's facility death registry.

The most recent deaths GPS has recorded include Steve Allen Burk, who died July 20, 2026, at Central State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide and his age as 38. Demetris Raynard Keller died July 17, 2026, at Central State Prison; GPS does not yet know the cause, which the registry shows as Unknown/Pending. Mickey Barrett died July 11, 2026, at Central State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Raemonte Gentale Harris died July 3, 2026, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Richard Palmer died June 2, 2026, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Michael Lane Brooks died April 19, 2026, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Miguel Angel Duran died March 1, 2026, at Central State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide.

Further back, Ronald Goss died October 23, 2025, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Joseph Hamm died October 8, 2025, at Central State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose. James Theodore Miller died September 22, 2025, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Ricky D Ring died July 16, 2025, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Travis Jamal Gaither died April 21, 2025, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Ricky Eugene Rogers died April 21, 2025, at Central State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose. Lamancha Ware died March 2, 2025, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Matthew Maddox died January 28, 2025, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Brandon Jamal Pool died December 29, 2024, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Leon Culver Kelly died December 9, 2024, at Central State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. Anthony Le Ray Baugher died October 26, 2024, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Thomas Dewayne Kiker died June 22, 2024, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Jeremiah Eugene Taylor died April 21, 2024, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Deanthony Terrell Fleming died February 14, 2024, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Adel Eackles died February 10, 2024, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Joseph W Akins died December 25, 2023, at Central State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending. Marquis Lamar Johnson died December 18, 2023, at Central State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. Hollis Alan Bryant died December 17, 2023, at Central State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.

The December 2023 Stabbings and What the Coroner Files Show

Two of those homicides occurred within a day of each other in December 2023, and the Macon-Bibb Coroner files on both are unusually detailed. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Marquis L. Johnson, 26, was stabbed in the prison barbershop on December 8, 2023, hospitalized, and died on December 18 after returning to the prison and going into cardiac arrest secondary to the stabbing. The coroner file, produced under ORR FIN-536-2026, records Johnson's pronouncement at 16:37 on 12/18/2023 and lists the cause of death, per autopsy, as a stab wound of the chest. The file also carries an instruction to send autopsy results to Danyelle D. White, identified as a US attorney — a detail indicating federal prosecutors were tracking the case.

Hollis Alan Bryant, 28, died on December 17, 2023. The coroner file records the injury date and time as 12/17/2023 at 12:00 AM, the injury location as 4600 Fulton Mill Rd, and the cause as "Sharp-Force Trauma of the Left Femoral Artery," with the manner recorded as homicide. Bryant was pronounced dead at 01:29. The AJC reported that three other prisoners were criminally charged in connection with his death. A separate forensic examination, performed December 12, 2024 by Romana Mayer MD, recorded the cause as multiple sharp force injuries inflicted by others and the manner as homicide.

The same coroner production also documents the July 28, 2021 death of Joshua Carl-Haynes Lester, 34, at a place of death recorded as "CCI," with a stab wound to the chest. The AJC reported Lester died from that wound at Central State Prison.

GDC's Coding Versus Autopsy Findings

The mortality record at Central SP illustrates a distinction GPS treats as central to any reading of GDC death data: the department's cause coding is an administrative classification, not a pathology finding. GDC coded Adam Clint West's 2021 death as "Suicide" — a classification GPS's records note is the Department's own, not an autopsy finding, with no pathologist having examined the body for that determination. The same is true of the "Undetermined" coding applied to Joseph Dewayne Hamby, Matthew James Colozzi, and Demetrius Richardson.

The source of much of that coding is now public. UCLA Law's Behind Bars Data Project obtained GDC's mortality coding through an open records request covering 2015–2021, and the cause of death for Adam Clint West was filled in on August 3, 2026 from that dataset. GPS's own validation of roughly 200 records in which it already held a cause found agreement with the UCLA dataset about 84.5 percent of the time, with most disagreements reflecting GPS recording a more specific cause where GDC recorded "Undetermined."

Where an independent determination exists, it can differ sharply. Miguel Angel Duran died March 1, 2026 at Central State Prison, age 44. The Medical Examiner's report — produced by the GBI DOFS under ORR production R001018-072826 and certified June 16, 2026 by Steven P. Atkinson, MD — records a complete autopsy, a cause of ligature hanging, and a manner of suicide. Duran's cause-of-death source was corrected from category 2 (Prisoner Report) to category 7 (Medical Examiner). GDC officially confirmed the death.

Staff Arrests, Discipline, and the 2026 Accountability Cluster

The past year has produced an unusual concentration of staff-side legal and disciplinary activity at Central SP. Zacarra Esquire Oliver, listed on GDC's August 2026 staff roster as an Accounting Technician 3 at the prison, was arrested and booked into the Bibb County jail on October 15, 2026, charged with sexual contact with a person in custody by a law enforcement employee or agent (O.C.G.A. 16-6-5.1(b)(3), a felony) and with trading with inmates without the warden's consent (O.C.G.A. 42-5-16), according to her booking. She has been charged, not convicted. 13WMAZ reported that a GDC accounting technician was accused in arrest warrants of having sexual intercourse with a Central State Prison inmate and illegally giving him food.

A week later, an Only Souffrance — listed on the same August 2026 roster as a Correctional Officer 1 at Central State Prison — was arrested and booked into the Bibb County jail on October 22, 2026, charged with aggravated battery (O.C.G.A. 16-5-24), false statements or writings in matters of government (O.C.G.A. 16-10-20), and violation of oath by a public officer (O.C.G.A. 16-10-1), according to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office. He has been charged, not convicted.

Earlier incidents round out the pattern. 13WMAZ reported that three former prison guards were accused of beating an inmate and trying to cover it up in March 2025, and that a guard at Central State Prison faced charges after falsely imprisoning four DFCS employees over child support payments in December 2025. GDC's own account records that in June 2025, three inmates at Central State Prison were charged with stabbing another inmate.

On the security side, Dennis Turner was assigned to Central SP-Security as Deputy Warden effective August 1, 2025 — three weeks after an SMU adverse action proposal. On March 31, 2026, Turner was suspended with pay effective April 1, pending an OPS investigation; the suspension barred him from Central State Prison or any state correctional facility and ordered no contact with any GDC employee concerning department business. David Stokes was the appointing authority. On July 2, 2026, GDC issued a second adverse action proposal of a seven-day suspension without pay for "Violation of Employee Standards and Conduct," and on July 20, 2026 a Notice of Final Action upheld the seven-day suspension, with the Disciplinary Panel having reviewed Turner's response. The final action letter records the matter as closed.

GPS records show 12 distinct sources raising named staff-misconduct allegations at this facility across six months of 2026, with the Bibb County Sheriff's Office appearing as an external referral.

Gang Control, Failed Locks, and the Witness Accounts

The most persistent theme in accounts GPS has collected from inside Central State Prison concerns who actually controls the housing areas. Inmate witnesses describe security threat group members taking control of a dorm tier and, in one recurring account, telling a supervisory officer that any civilian who came up the stairs would be stabbed. GPS has received recurring reports that gang activity operates openly at the facility and that administration permits it to continue.

Those accounts sit alongside a documented physical problem: the cell doors. Witnesses describe housing buildings where key locks were removed and doors replaced with control-room-only locking after vandalism during the COVID era, and estimate that only between one-third and one-half of door locks in multiple housing buildings are functional. Witnesses also describe officers who are supposed to carry a master key that opens all cell doors, but say few of those keys remain in service. GPS has received accounts of at least two stabbings at the facility in 2026, including during a lockdown period.

A former incarcerated person's account, posted publicly by Marcus Johnson, administrator of the Georgia Prison Reform Coalition, on November 1, 2026, describes a deadly incident in the front building during the tenure of a Warden Jester in which one person was left bleeding in the courtyard with no correctional staff present to respond, and another incarcerated person had to climb onto the roof to reach security for help. Johnson's post explicitly frames these as allegations based on the former inmate's personal account that have not been independently verified. GPS has separately received accounts of an in-custody death at Central State Prison in 2026 initially reported as a heart attack, and of a medical emergency in which a stroke victim did not receive timely assistance.

Public posts add a further dimension. William Davis commented on Facebook on September 4, 2026 that the dorms at Central State Prison hold "3 bed high, only 2 feet apart, in a dorm with 86 inmate's" — his account, not a GPS finding. An anonymous member of the Ga. Prisons Exposed Facebook group wrote on October 28, 2026 that the facility was on lockdown amid a "gang war."

Medical Staffing, Contract Terms, and the Care Question

The contract record on medical staffing at Central SP is a study in revision. Centurion of GA's proposed staffing matrix lists a grand total of 688 weekly hours (17.20 FTE), including a Medical Director position budgeted at just 8 weekly hours (0.20 FTE). Centurion Amendment 1 lists 40 estimated weekly primary care physician hours at $144 per hour. The MHM staffing schedule assigns 1.00 psychiatrist and 0.50 MH Nurse Practitioner positions, totaling 1.50 medical positions, 9.00 mental health positions, and 1.00 dental position — 16.50 across all three categories.

Later amendments shift the picture. MHM Amendment 7 sets mental health staffing at 14.25 FTEs (including 9.25 mental health counselor FTEs and 2.00 psychologist FTEs) and dental at 1.50 FTEs, for 16.75 combined. Amendment 9 lists 15.25 total mental health FTEs at 610 hours per week for an FY23 annual cost of $1,448,124.61. Amendment 13 lists no psychologist FTE and no MH Nurse Practitioner FTE at Central SP, while carrying 9.25 mental health counselor FTEs at $694,415 annually and a single 1.00 psychiatrist FTE at $301,793.

Against that, GPS records eight distinct sources raising medical-neglect allegations at this facility across four months of 2026, and seven raising staffing shortages across three months. Family accounts describe an incarcerated person losing roughly 60 pounds over four months, being denied meals when the facility ran out of food, and receiving no care for a foot condition. GPS has received accounts of an incarcerated person at Central State Prison who experienced stroke symptoms and was denied timely medical attention by on-duty staff before being transported to a hospital.

Food Service, Contraband, and the Drone Problem

The one inspection record that reads cleanly is food safety. The Georgia Department of Public Health scored Central State Prison's kitchen 100 (Grade A) on routine inspections on July 21, 2026; November 7, 2025; June 4, 2025; December 27, 2024; January 5, 2024; and July 6, 2023. GPS has documented a systemic pattern in which high DPH scores coexist with sustained witness reports of equipment failure and food contamination, because scheduled walkthroughs do not assess equipment under load. The scores are the record; the accounts are the counter-record.

Contraband, by contrast, has a documented air dimension. On August 23, 2025, GDC reported that security staff at Central SP observed a drone flying over the facility; the Bibb County Sheriff's Office located a vehicle nearby, searched it, and found a drone and a battery, arresting the two occupants. On August 5, 2025, a drone was again recovered in connection with the facility, with two people arrested by the Bibb County Sheriff's Office. The department's response was a purchase order: on June 17, 2024, GDC issued PO 624051 for $494,895.00 to Convergint for "Central State Prison Drone Detection," itemized across fifteen lines including four AirWarden RF sensors at $16,655.10 each, a direction-finder module, a three-year control server subscription at $58,800, and $150,446.25 in installation costs. Sean Ferguson is named as the GDC point of contact.

Settlements and the Long Liability Record

Georgia's DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger records a series of payouts tied to Central State Prison over the past decade: $22,000 to Joshua David Turk (2022 incident), $3,000 to Daniel Ford (2021), $2,000 to Marvin Bonilla-Bonilla (2020), $100,000 to Christopher Stewart (2019), $70,000 to Calvin McClain (2018), $250 to Robbin Bayse (2018), and $22,000 to Steven L. Avery (2014). Each is a state liability payout, not an admission of specific fault.

Sources

This analysis draws on Georgia Department of Corrections records — mortality reports, contraband reports, staffing matrices and contract amendments, audit calendars, and a purchase order — together with Macon-Bibb County Coroner files and GBI Medical Examiner reports produced under open records requests; Bibb County Sheriff's Office booking records; Georgia Department of Public Health food-safety inspection reports; the Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger; and reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Public Broadcasting, and 13WMAZ. It also draws on GPS's own mortality registry and intelligence records, on public Facebook posts by Marcus Johnson of the Georgia Prison Reform Coalition, William Davis, and an anonymous member of the Ga. Prisons Exposed group, and on accounts collected by GPS from incarcerated people and their families. GPS has independently tracked 1,928 deaths in GDC custody since 2020.