CENTRAL STATE PRISON

Last updated August 23, 2026.(DS)

Central State Prison

Central State Prison sits on the grounds of the historic Central State Hospital complex in Macon, Bibb County, where it has operated as a medium-security facility for adult male felons since 1978. Its housing consists of cellblocks and dormitories configured for general population and segregation, along with a small infirmary. The prison offers work details, basic education, and limited treatment and religious programs. Originally designed for 546 people, the facility now carries a rated capacity of 1,153 — and GPS records show it holding 1,157, just over that figure. Warden Sonja D. Brown took the facility's top post in June 2026, following a period of leadership churn that included multiple deputy warden appointments in 2025.

The analytical picture that emerges from public records, news reporting, and GPS's own documentation is of a facility straining under the same pressures GPS has documented across the Georgia system: violence among incarcerated people, staff misconduct allegations, disciplinary processes that families describe as opaque and retaliatory, and a death toll that has climbed steadily since 2020.

A Mounting Death Toll

GPS's mortality database records 37 deaths at Central State Prison since 2020. The yearly pattern is uneven but trending upward: two deaths in 2020, six in 2021, two in 2022, seven in 2023, seven in 2024, eight in 2025, and five already recorded in 2026 as of this writing. Five of those deaths are classified as homicides, three as suicides, two as overdoses, two as natural or medical, and 22 remain categorized as unknown or pending — a figure that itself speaks to how little information families and the public receive about what happens inside.

The most recent GPS-tracked deaths include Steve Allen Burk, who died July 20, 2026, in a death GPS categorizes as homicide; Mickey Barrett, who died July 11, 2026, of natural or medical causes; and Richard Palmer, 57, who died June 2, 2026, with cause still pending. In 2025, the facility recorded the deaths of Ronald Goss, 60; Joseph Hamm, 36, from overdose; and James Theodore Miller, 64.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has documented specific killings at Central State Prison. 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. Hollis Alan Bryant, 28, died on December 17, 2023, from sharp force trauma to the left femoral artery; three other prisoners were criminally charged in connection with his death. Joshua Carl-Haynes Lester, 34, died on July 28, 2021, from a stab wound to the chest. In the last weeks of December 2023, Georgia Public Broadcasting reported that two incarcerated men were stabbed to death at Central State Prison, bringing total prison deaths in the state that month to six — part of what GDC data showed was the most violent year for Georgia prisons since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The deaths at Central State Prison are part of a wider pattern GPS has tracked across the system. GPS has independently tracked 1,863 deaths in GDC custody since 2020.

Violence, Staffing Collapse, and the Lockdown Cycle

The violence at Central State Prison does not occur in a vacuum. Georgia Public Broadcasting reported in December 2023 that severe staff shortages had allowed gang members to effectively run Georgia state prisons, contributing to rising violence and deaths. GPS's systemic findings document officer vacancy rates between 49.3% and 60% systemwide for multiple years, against a national standard of no more than 10%. The October 2024 DOJ findings letter concluded that "the leadership of the Georgia Department of Corrections has lost control of its facilities" and faulted GDC for placing "too much blame on gangs and insufficient emphasis on understaffing."

Inmate accounts collected by GPS describe Central State Prison operating with severely reduced staffing levels in 2026, with breakfast service extending for prolonged periods because there were not enough staff to transport meal carts to housing units. Multiple inmate witnesses report that the facility was placed on lockdown in 2026, and that stabbings occurred while the facility was on lockdown. Some accounts describe staff escalating tensions during lockdowns, leading to violence.

The relationship between lockdowns and violence is not incidental. GPS has documented a systemic pattern across Georgia facilities in which lockdowns — ostensibly imposed to control violence — concentrate people in housing units with reduced staffing and programming, creating conditions in which violence continues. At Central State Prison, GDC reported in January 2026 that two inmates were involved in a fight, with one taken to a local hospital for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening. GDC said it was investigating the January 2026 inmate fight incident. In June 2025, three inmates at Central State Prison were charged with stabbing another inmate.

GPS records show multiple reports of assault by incarcerated people at Central State Prison in 2026, concentrated in May through July, at critical and high severity. In July 2026 alone, GPS's intelligence system recorded assault-by-inmate signals from at least three distinct sources, alongside death-in-custody reports from three distinct sources and family fear-for-life signals from three distinct sources.

Staff Misconduct and the Disciplinary Machinery

The most serious allegations at Central State Prison concern staff conduct. In March 2025, three former prison guards at Central State Prison were accused of beating an inmate and trying to cover it up, according to 13WMAZ and GDC. In December 2025, a guard who worked at Central State Prison faced charges after falsely imprisoning four Department of Family and Child Services employees because he was angry about his child support payments, 13WMAZ reported.

Beyond the criminal cases, GPS has received recurring reports of staff-on-inmate violence at Central State Prison. Multiple family accounts collected by GPS describe an incarcerated person being beaten by multiple individuals in 2026, with some accounts alleging that correctional staff — in one telling, a correctional officer and a deputy warden — participated in the beating. One family account alleges that staff dragged an incarcerated person into a hallway they believed had no cameras before beating him. Another alleges that a correctional officer struck an incarcerated person in the head, causing them to fall, and that the officer then hit and kicked the person during the assault. GPS has received accounts of use of force against handcuffed or immobile incarcerated people at Central State Prison.

GPS records show seven distinct sources contributing to staff-misconduct-alleged-named signals at Central State Prison between February and July 2026, at critical, high, and moderate severity. Seven distinct sources also contributed to family fear-for-life signals between March and July 2026, at critical and high severity.

The disciplinary process itself is a recurring source of concern. Multiple family accounts and anonymous tips collected by GPS describe a pattern at Central State Prison in which incarcerated people facing disciplinary hearings were denied the ability to call witnesses, denied the opportunity to present video evidence, and denied the right to review footage. One family account alleges that a supervising officer offered to dismiss a disciplinary charge against an incarcerated person in exchange for that person identifying another individual to assume the charge. Another alleges that a disciplinary report was falsified, with the claim that the officer named in the report was not present during the underlying incident. GPS records show four distinct sources contributing to due-process-violation signals at Central State Prison between February and July 2026, and four distinct sources contributing to grievance-obstruction signals in the same period.

The contraband cellphone cases illustrate the opacity. A staff record indicates that during an inspection at Central State Prison, a contraband cellphone was confiscated from an incarcerated person's housing area in recent years. A disciplinary report identifies a CERT officer as conducting the inspection and confiscating the cellphone. But family accounts and anonymous tips collected by GPS allege that the named CERT officer was not present during the search, and that a senior administrator directed the disciplinary report to be falsely attributed to a different staff member than the one who made the discovery. GPS staff analysis indicates that confirming staff presence during the incident is hindered by unavailable video footage and witness statements.

Food Safety Scores and the Limits of Inspection

Central State Prison's food-service operation has received a perfect score of 100 (Grade A) from the Georgia Department of Public Health on every routine inspection since 2023: July 6, 2023; January 5, 2024; December 27, 2024; June 4, 2025; and November 7, 2025. All five inspections were conducted by the same inspector, Jeremy Wimes.

GPS has documented a systemic pattern of food-service sanitation failure across GDC kitchens that DPH inspection scores systematically fail to capture: tray-sanitizing dishwashers broken for sustained periods, sustained roach and rodent infestation in kitchen and serving areas, and meals served on visibly contaminated trays. The pattern is hidden from DPH scores, GPS's analysis concludes, because inspections are scheduled walkthroughs that do not assess equipment under load and because GPS has documented professional overlap between inspectors and facility staff in small-county settings. High DPH scores at GDC facilities coexist with sustained witness reports of equipment failure and food contamination; the contradiction is the analytical center of the GPS investigation "Dunked, Stacked, and Served."

GDC spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food, GPS has documented, versus the FDA Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day for an adult man's nutritionally adequate diet. The Marshall Project independently reported in May 2026 on rats in kitchens, insects in food, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition across Georgia facilities.

Settlements and the Cost of Harm

The State of Georgia has paid out at least seven liability settlements tied to incidents at Central State Prison since 2014, according to the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through open records. The largest was a $100,000 payout to Christopher Stewart for a 2019 incident. Calvin McClain received $70,000 for a 2018 incident. Joshua David Turk received $22,000 for a 2022 incident, and Steven L. Avery received $22,000 for a 2014 incident. Daniel Ford received $3,000 for a 2021 incident, Marvin Bonilla-Bonilla received $2,000 for a 2020 incident, and Robbin Bayse received $250 for a 2018 incident.

These settlements represent the state's own acknowledgment of liability — payments made to resolve claims arising from harm at the facility. They do not capture the full scope of harm; they capture only the cases that reached settlement.

Classification Drift and the Medium-Security Paradox

Central State Prison is designated medium security. But GPS has documented a systemic pattern of classification drift across Georgia's medium-security prisons: facilities operating at higher security levels than designated, housing close-security inmates without adequate staffing and infrastructure. GPS's October 2025 analysis, based on GDC's own October 27, 2025 data, shows medium-security prisons functioning like high-security facilities.

This drift is not an abstraction at Central State Prison. The facility's rated capacity of 1,153 is more than double its original design capacity of 546 — a physical plant built for 546 people now holding 1,157. GPS has documented that statewide correctional officer vacancies average 50% while prison populations have doubled since original facility design. The combination of doubled population, halved staffing, and security misclassification is the structural condition in which the violence, deaths, and misconduct documented at Central State Prison occur.

Sources

This analysis draws on reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Public Broadcasting, 13WMAZ, and The Marshall Project; Georgia Department of Public Health inspection records; the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through open records; GDC official communications; federal court filings; GPS's own investigative reporting and mortality database; and inmate and family accounts collected by GPS staff.