CHARLES D. HUDSON TRANSITIONAL CENTER
Facility Information
- Current Population
- 155
- Active Lifers
- 10 (6.5% of population) · Jul 2026 GDC report
- Address
- 100 Jim Hester Road, LaGrange, GA 30241
- Phone
- (706) 845-4018
- Fax
- (706) 845-4109
- County
- Troup County
- Operator
- GDC (Georgia Dept. of Corrections)
Leadership & Accountability (as of 2025 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CORRECTIONAL SUPERINTENDENT (facility lead) | Fleming, Charles M | 2021-01-01 | 1 / 1 |
| CORRECTIONAL ASST. SUPT (facility deputy) | Thompson, Katrina Louise | 2022-01-01 | 1 / 1 |
About
Charles D. Hudson Transitional Center is a 155-person transitional facility in LaGrange, Georgia. GPS reporting documents a 2025 CERT Team assault allegedly directed by facility Chief of Security Lonesca Carlton, and a $200,000 state settlement from 2023, set against systemic GDC crises of understaffing, violence, and
Mortality Statistics
1 deaths documented at this facility from 2020 to present.
Deaths by Year
- 2026: 0
- 2025: 1
- 2024: 0
- 2023: 0
- 2022: 0
- 2021: 0
- 2020: 0
Food Safety Inspections
No inspection records are on file with the Georgia Department of Public Health for this facility. GPS has filed an open records request asking where these records are maintained.
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”
Analysis written on July 12, 2026.
Overview
Charles D. Hudson Transitional Center, a county-operated facility under GDC oversight attached to Rutledge State Prison, houses 155 people in Troup County. Its command staff includes Assistant Superintendent Katrina Thompson, Chief of Security Lonesca Carlton, and Business Office manager Karen Owens. Beneath the surface of a transitional center designed to prepare people for release, Georgia Prisoners' Speak (GPS) has documented a troubling convergence of command-level use-of-force allegations and systemic state failures.
A Command-Level Use-of-Force Allegation
GPS reporting describes an incident in April 2025 in which a Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT) assaulted residents at the facility. According to multiple accounts gathered by GPS, CERT officers under the direct supervision of Lt. Lonesca Carlton beat resident Michael Schullerman, splitting his lip so badly it required 12 stitches. Those accounts further allege that Schullerman was coerced into signing a false statement misrepresenting the cause of his injury.
The allegations carry particular weight because Lt. Carlton is listed in GDC records as the facility's own Chief of Security—placing the involvement at the leadership level, not merely with line staff. The incident emerges against a backdrop of statewide staffing collapse: GDC officer vacancy rates hover between 49% and 60%, and the Department of Justice's October 2024 findings concluded that GDC leadership has lost control of its facilities, with gangs effectively running many institutions. In such an environment, CERT operations—ostensibly tactical responses to emergencies—can become instruments of intimidation rather than order.
Financial Liability and Institutional Failure
The risk of serious harm at Hudson is not hypothetical. In 2023, the State of Georgia paid a $200,000 settlement to Brenda Etheridge for an incident at the transitional center, as recorded in the Georgia Department of Administrative Services risk-management ledger obtained through open records. The settlement’s details remain sealed, but the payout signals liability that the state chose to resolve monetarily rather than through transparent institutional reform. Paired with the 2025 CERT assault allegations, this record suggests a facility where serious misconduct has repeatedly been answered with financial settlements rather than meaningful accountability.
The Context of Systemic Collapse
GPS’s own systemic investigations have established that Hudson operates within a prison system in sustained breakdown. GDC spends roughly $1.69 per person per day on food—well under 60 cents per meal—while kitchen sanitation fails systemwide, hidden behind inflated inspection scores. Officer vacancy rates have exceeded 49% for years; at some prisons the rate reaches 80%. Georgia ranks last in the nation for correctional-officer pay, and more than 82% of new hires leave within their first year. The DOJ’s 2024 findings concluded that gangs effectively control multiple facilities, and sexual violence is rampant: of 456 abuse allegations in 2022, only 35 were substantiated, and Georgia has never certified full PREA compliance.
Firsthand narratives published by GPS’s Tell My Story project, such as “Seventy Dollars” and “Nature of Crime,” detail unchecked sexual exploitation across GDC facilities and a parole system that punishes youthful offenses decades later. Though these accounts do not originate from Hudson, they reflect the structural decay that defines every corner of Georgia prisons, including this transitional center.
Implications for Residents and Families
Transitional centers are meant to be bridges back to society, yet Hudson’s recent history illustrates how even lower‑security settings are not insulated from the violence and dysfunction that mark Georgia’s prison system. The presence of an alleged abuser in the top security post, together with a documented settlement for a previous incident, signals to residents that reporting abuse may be futile and that leadership is part of the problem. Families with loved ones at Hudson should understand that the facility is not immune to the systemic failures GPS has exhaustively documented across the state.
Sources
This analysis draws on Georgia Prisoners' Speak’s own investigative reporting of the April 2025 CERT assault; GPS’s systemic findings on GDC staffing, violence, food, and sanitation; a state settlement record obtained via open records; and firsthand narratives from GPS’s Tell My Story series. All claims involving specific incidents at Hudson are attributed to GPS’s reporting and, where indicated, await further corroboration.