CHARLES D. HUDSON TRANSITIONAL CENTER
Facility Information
- Current Population
- 155
- Active Lifers
- 9 (5.8% of population) · Aug 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
The Charles D. Hudson Transitional Center in LaGrange houses approximately 155 men. Records show a $200,000 state liability settlement from a 2023 incident and a 2025 CERT Team assault on resident Michael Schullerman, who was beaten and coerced into a false statement.
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 August 2, 2026.
The Charles D. Hudson Transitional Center, a Georgia Department of Corrections county prison in LaGrange, houses approximately 155 men in a transitional setting. Despite its small size, the facility has recorded two serious incidents in recent years: a 2023 incident that resulted in a $200,000 state liability settlement, and a 2025 assault by a Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT) that left a resident injured and coerced into signing a false statement. These events unfold against the backdrop of a statewide prison crisis that the U.S. Department of Justice, in its October 2024 findings letter, said has caused GDC to lose control of its facilities.
A $200,000 Settlement and a CERT Team Assault
In 2023, the State of Georgia paid $200,000 to settle a claim arising from an incident at the Hudson Transitional Center, according to the Georgia Department of Administrative Services risk management settlement ledger. The claim was associated with Brenda Etheridge; the nature of the underlying incident is not detailed in the public release, but the payout represents an admission of state liability for harm occurring inside the facility.
Three years later, on April 6, 2025, a CERT team—the specialized tactical unit deployed to respond to disturbances and emergencies—allegedly beat resident Michael Schullerman, causing a split lip that required 12 stitches. Multiple accounts collected by Georgia Prisoners’ Speak describe the assault as unjustified, and GPS’s own intelligence system documents that after the beating, Schullerman was coerced into signing a false statement about the cause of his injury. The incident was not an isolated anomaly; it occurred within a correctional environment where, according to the DOJ, GDC has lost control of its facilities and violence is systemic.
Staffing Collapse and the Erosion of Accountability
The assault at the Hudson Transitional Center reflects the systemwide understaffing and diminished oversight that GPS has extensively documented. Officer vacancies across Georgia’s prisons have remained between 49% and 60% for years, and at some facilities the rate has exceeded 80%. The hiring pipeline cannot close the gap: fewer than 15% of applicants are accepted, and 82.7% of new hires leave within their first year. Georgia ranks last in the nation for correctional officer pay. The DOJ’s October 2024 findings faulted GDC for placing “too much blame on gangs and insufficient emphasis on understaffing,” concluding that gang activity flourishes precisely because there are not enough officers to maintain order. In this environment, the use of CERT teams to address routine incidents can escalate rather than de-escalate conflict, and the absence of adequate staffing and supervision reduces accountability when force is misused.
While specific staffing data for the Hudson Transitional Center is not publicly available, the facility’s leadership—Superintendent Charles Fleming, Assistant Superintendent Katrina Thompson, and Chief of Security Lonesca Carlton—has overseen a period marked by both a large liability payout and a use-of-force incident that remains without public acknowledgment or disciplinary action by GDC. GPS records do not indicate any published finding or internal investigation report related to the April 2025 assault. The systemic violence and loss of control extends beyond any single facility. The DOJ found that sexual assault is “rampant” and that GDC does not reasonably protect incarcerated people. GPS has also documented pervasive food-sanitation failures, broken infrastructure, and chronic underfeeding—conditions that add to the tension and volatility within prisons. At the Hudson Transitional Center, a small population does not insulate residents from the consequences of a broken system.
A System Beyond Control
Georgia Prisoners’ Speak has independently tracked 1,859 deaths in GDC custody since 2020—a staggering toll. The failures that produce these deaths are not unique to maximum-security prisons; they permeate every facility type. The Hudson Transitional Center, with its role in preparing men for reentry, ought to be a place of stability and structure. Instead, the available records show a facility where the state paid a large settlement for harm and where tactical officers beat a man and then covered it up. These are not the conditions of a functioning transitional center. They are the predictable results of a system that, in the words of the DOJ, has lost control.
GDC has published no public response to the Schullerman incident or the 2023 settlement as of this writing. The Center’s leadership, unchanged since before both events, has not issued any statement. GPS will continue to monitor and report on developments at this facility.
Sources
This analysis draws on the Georgia Department of Administrative Services risk management settlement ledger obtained via open records, GPS’s intelligence system documentation of the April 2025 CERT assault, and GPS’s systemic reporting on the GDC staffing crisis, the DOJ’s October 2024 findings, and the broader pattern of violence and neglect in Georgia prisons.