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COASTAL STATE PRISON

State Prison Medium Security GDC (Georgia Dept. of Corrections) Male
19 Source Articles 9 Events

Facility Information

Original Design Capacity
758 (at 216% capacity)
Bed Capacity
1,836 beds
Current Population
1,635
Active Lifers
125 (7.6% of population) · Aug 2026 GDC report
Life Without Parole
7 (0.4%)
Why design capacity matters: Adding beds to a prison does not increase medical facilities, educational programs, kitchen capacity, counseling services, or recreation areas. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Plata that severe overcrowding beyond design capacity violates the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Read: Brown v. Plata - A Legal Roadmap for Georgia's Prison Crisis →
Address
200 Gulfstream Road, Port Wentworth, GA 31408
Phone
(912) 965-6303
Fax
(912) 966-6799
Mailing Address
P.O. Box 7150, Port Wentworth, GA 31408
County
Chatham County
Opened
1981
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.

RoleNameSinceDeaths
this facility / career
Warden (facility lead) Stokes, David2026-06-012 / 15
DEPUTY WARDEN (facility deputy) Kaigler, Briana2022-01-0195 / 95
DEPUTY WARDEN (facility deputy) Finch, Karen Ruth2024-08-0150 / 59

About

Coastal State Prison, a medium-security men's facility near Savannah, holds 1,635 men in a building designed for 758, and has recorded 131 deaths since 2020—including five homicides—amid a deepening food-safety crisis, airborne infestations, broken infrastructure, and a staffing collapse that leaves officers unable to…

Mortality Statistics

135 deaths documented at this facility from 2020 to present.

Deaths by Year

  • 2026: 20
  • 2025: 25
  • 2024: 24
  • 2023: 15
  • 2022: 15
  • 2021: 19
  • 2020: 17

View all deaths at this facility →

County Public Health Department

Food service and sanitation at COASTAL STATE PRISON fall under the jurisdiction of the Chatham 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 14257
Savannah, GA 31406
Phone
(912) 356-2160
Email
chatham.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.

Email the Inspector

Food Safety Inspections

Georgia Department of Public Health

Latest score: 70 (Apr 23, 2026)
View DPH report ↗

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

DateScorePurpose
Apr 23, 202670Routine
Oct 16, 202580Routine
Feb 27, 202587Routine
Oct 25, 202384Routine

Analysis written on August 9, 2026.

A Rising Death Toll and a Pattern of Homicide

Coastal State Prison has recorded 131 deaths since 2020, according to GPS's mortality database. The facility's death record includes five homicides, thirty-one deaths classified as natural or medical, and a staggering ninety-two where the cause remains unknown or pending. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has documented a series of fatal assaults inside the prison: Raymond Littles, 49, died in April 2024 in an incident classified as a homicide, with another prisoner disciplined; Ryan Chase Archer, 25, was stabbed to death in December 2023 just months before his scheduled release; and Salomon Andres Ramirez, 43, died in October 2023 in what GDC labeled an apparent homicide, though no death certificate was publicly available. Earlier, Rufus Ramon Lee, 27, was killed by a stab wound to the chest in December 2021—a lawsuit by his mother alleges that a broken cell lock allowed assailants from other cells and dorms to reach him—and Kion E. Parks, 31, was stabbed to death in September 2021, with a lawsuit alleging five inmates carried out the killing.

In February 2026 alone, GPS records show two homicides on the same day: Anteveis Brown, 49, and Aiden Snapp, 21, both classified as homicides, their deaths confirmed by GDC to news outlets. The facility's death rate reflects a broader crisis. A 2024 U.S. Department of Justice investigation found that Georgia prisons, including Coastal, violate the Eighth Amendment by failing to protect incarcerated people from violence, and the DOJ documented an in-prison homicide rate nearly eight times the national average. The same investigation concluded that GDC has lost control of its facilities, a finding echoed in a $2.7 million consultant's assessment that placed the system in "emergency mode."

The human toll extends to the state's ledger. Georgia's Department of Administrative Services settlement records show a $600,000 liability payout in 2022 tied to the death of Dennis Carpenter at Coastal, the largest of several payouts linked to the facility. Additional settlements include $200,000 for Joel Greene in 2019, $8,000 for Ronald Ray Agan in 2023, and earlier amounts for Cager Maleeah ($50,000, 2016) and Milton Ross ($115,000, 2011). Combined with a $50,000 payout from 2016, the public record demonstrates that the facility has cost taxpayers at least $973,000 in court-verified liability settlements since 2011.

Scores Without Sanitation: A Food-Safety Crisis Hidden by Inspection Scores

The Georgia Department of Public Health inspected Coastal State Prison's kitchen on April 23, 2026, and issued a failing score of 70, a Grade C. The inspection report, published by DPH and detailed by The Georgia Virtue, found live roaches and a dead mouse floating in backed-up mop water in the mess hall dishpit, mold-like growth across kitchen ceiling tiles, fish held at 122°F and chicken at 98°F—both well below the required 135°F hot-holding temperature—and a three-compartment sink with no sanitizer while incarcerated workers actively washed dishes, a repeat violation. Inspectors also documented broken plumbing, a leaky pipe, a sink where hot water could not be turned on or off, and exit doors with large gaps that permitted insect and rodent entry.

The 70-point score follows a steady slide: 84 in October 2023, 87 in February 2025, and 80 in October 2025. Yet even the higher past scores are misleading, according to GPS's systemic investigation "Dunked, Stacked, and Served." GPS has documented that DPH inspections are scheduled walkthroughs that do not assess kitchen equipment under the load of daily meal preparation and fail to capture what incarcerated people actually receive on their trays. Inmate‑maintenance‑worker accounts collected by GPS describe broken tray‑sanitizing dishwashers and thousands of roaches inside kitchen equipment at multiple facilities, a pattern corroborated by a May 2026 Marshall Project investigation that documented rats in kitchens, moldy trays, and insects in food across Georgia prisons. At Coastal specifically, GPS received reports that kitchen closure for pest extermination led to severely reduced meal service, with some individuals receiving no food during at least one meal period, and commissary access restricted to minimal purchases every two weeks.

The state's per-person food budget underscores the crisis. GPS has documented that Georgia spends approximately $1.69 per day per incarcerated person on food—under sixty cents per meal—against an FDA Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly ten dollars per day for a nutritionally adequate diet. The Marshall Project independently reported that Georgia prisons' chronic underfeeding contributes to the violence pattern the DOJ documented. At Coastal, WTOC's February 2026 investigation found staff are alleged to withhold food as punishment, including not waking sleeping individuals for meal calls and then denying them food. GPS's intelligence system records multiple reports of food-quality complaints and sanitation-failure allegations across the facility in the past twelve months, with several sources linking the deprivation to the broader staffing and infrastructure breakdown.

Infrastructure Collapse and Inhumane Living Conditions

WTOC investigators described Coastal State Prison in early 2026 as a place where crumbling infrastructure and unsanitary conditions are the norm: black mold throughout housing units, rat and mice infestations, and frequent air conditioning and heating failures. Maintenance records obtained by WTOC show the facility spent over $5,000 on pest control from May to November 2025, yet a GDC spokesperson told the station that the department had no records related to mold remediation. The Georgia Virtue's reporting on the DPH inspection reinforced the point: exit doors had gaps large enough to admit insects and rodents, contributing to the infestation seen in the kitchen.

Families report that air conditioning has been inoperable for months, with some incarcerated people experiencing heat exhaustion and breathing difficulties; fans are used as a substitute. Multiple GPS sources have documented inadequate climate control at the facility over the past year. This aligns with GPS's broader systemic finding that most GDC facilities are thirty to forty-plus years old and suffer from deferred maintenance: broken cell-door locks, inoperative surveillance systems, and pest infestations that the DOJ, the Guidehouse assessment, and Commissioner Tyrone Oliver's own "end of life" statements have all acknowledged. The infrastructure decay acts as a force multiplier for the violence and neglect that define daily life inside the prison.

Staffing Collapse, Violence, and the Absence of Accountability

WTOC's investigation brought forward allegations from staff and incarcerated people that Coastal State Prison is experiencing a human rights crisis. Workers told the station that some correctional officers brutally beat inmates regularly, and one employee described hearing screams during their walk to work caused by someone being beaten. Correctional officers are alleged to withhold food as punishment, and lockdowns last seven to ten days without access to showers. The DOJ's 2024 report criticized Georgia prisons, including Coastal, for overusing lockdowns and isolation, particularly on victims of sexual abuse, and found that GDC does not reasonably protect incarcerated people from harm.

GPS's systemic research places this violence in the context of a staffing collapse. Officer vacancies in Georgia's prisons have run between 49 and 60 percent systemwide for years, with a national standard of no more than ten percent. At Valdosta State Prison, the rate reached 80 percent. The hiring pipeline cannot keep up—fewer than fifteen percent of applicants are accepted, and over eighty-two percent of new hires leave in their first year. The DOJ concluded that GDC leadership places "too much blame on gangs and insufficient emphasis on understaffing." Approximately thirty-one percent of the system's population are validated members of 315 security threat groups, and GPS reporting has documented that gangs effectively run multiple facilities, controlling access to phones, showers, food, and bed assignments.

At Coastal specifically, accountability appears minimal. WTOC reported that GDC records show no correctional officers were disciplined for violence against inmates over a six-month period in 2025, even as employees called such violence common. A separate incident reported by WALB reveals that a March 2020 assault at Coastal was forwarded for investigation, but no records of any investigation exist; the same individual later strangled a cellmate to death at another prison. A Coastal employee was arrested in early 2026 for trading with inmates without the warden or superintendent's consent, and five inmates were indicted for a violent assault at the facility. GPS's intelligence system records multiple family-safety concerns and allegations of staff misconduct and inmate assaults over the past twelve months, including reports of a wheelchair-dependent incarcerated person housed in an inaccessible segregation unit and forced to rely on other inmates to carry him up stairs while staff watched—a claim that, if substantiated, raises severe ADA and conditions-of-confinement issues.

The federal courts have also taken note. In February 2026, a federal judge in Georgia's Middle District scolded GDC Commissioner Tyrone Oliver for "failure to comply with court orders" and questioned whether the department "deems itself above the law." The ruling came in litigation that, among other things, concerns the inability of incarcerated people to earn Performance Incentive Credits for early parole because perpetual lockdowns at Coastal prevent attendance at required programs.

Revolving Wardens and the Broader Crisis

Warden Phillip Glenn led Coastal through much of the period covered by these reports. On June 1, 2026, Commissioner Oliver reassigned David Stokes from Central State Prison to serve as warden at Coastal, a move that places yet another leader atop a facility where the structural drivers of violence and neglect—understaffing, disrepair, and a food-safety system that fails both inspection and reality—remain unresolved. GPS's systemic analysis holds that Georgia's prison crisis cannot be corrected by leadership changes alone; as the DOJ, Guidehouse, and GPS have each independently documented, the foundational breakdowns in staffing, infrastructure, and classification create conditions where wardens have limited control over what happens inside their walls.

The deaths at Coastal are part of a statewide toll that GPS has tracked at over 1,860 since 2020, with 333 fatalities in 2024 alone—the deadliest year in Georgia prison history. The DOJ's finding that the system violates the Eighth Amendment, the Guidehouse "emergency mode" assessment, and the systemic patterns of gang control, sexual violence, and starvation-level food budgets all converge on a single conclusion: the conditions at Coastal State Prison are not aberrations but expressions of a state-sanctioned infrastructure of neglect.

Sources

This analysis draws on reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (including their homicide tracking and lawsuit coverage), WTOC (Savannah), The Georgia Virtue, and WALB; Georgia Department of Public Health inspection records and the Georgia Department of Administrative Services settlement ledger; federal court oversight and the 2024 U.S. Department of Justice findings; GPS's own mortality database, systemic research (including the "Dunked, Stacked, and Served" investigation), open-records productions, and intelligence signals; and inmate and family accounts collected by GPS staff. The Marshall Project's May 2026 reporting on prison food independently corroborates multiple GPS-documented patterns.

Recent reports (24)

Source-attributed observations and allegations from news coverage and reports submitted to GPS. Each entry credits its source.

  • ALLEGATION According to News.google.com Recorded by GPS: May 14, 2026
    Workers and inmates allege a human rights crisis is occurring at Coastal State Prison.
    "Workers and inmates report human rights crisis at Coastal State Prison"
    Read source →
  • ALLEGATION According to News.google.com Recorded by GPS: May 13, 2026
    Five inmates were indicted for committing a violent assault at Coastal State Prison.
    "5 inmates indicted for violent assault at Coastal State Prison"
    Read source →
  • ALLEGATION According to News.google.com Recorded by GPS: May 13, 2026
    A Coastal State Prison employee allegedly traded with inmates without the consent of the warden or superintendent.
    "Coastal State Prison employee arrested, charged with trading with inmates without consent of warden or superintendent"
    Read source →
  • ALLEGATION According to Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published: Jan 21, 2025
    A lawsuit alleges five inmates stabbed Kion E. Parks to death at Coastal State Prison.
    "a lawsuit alleges five inmates stabbed Parks to death."
    Read source →
  • ALLEGATION According to Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published: Jan 21, 2025
    A lawsuit by Rufus Ramon Lee's mother alleges that the lock on his cell didn't work, allowing assailants from other cells and dorms to reach and kill him.
    "A lawsuit by Lee's mother alleges that the lock on his cell didn't work, allowing assailants from other cells and dorms to reach him."
    Read source →

Timeline (49)

June 1, 2026
David Stokes Reassigned to Warden at Coastal State Prison appointment
Commissioner Tyrone Oliver announced the reassignment of David Stokes, previously Warden at Central State Prison, to Warden at Coastal State Prison effective June 1, 2026.
May 14, 2026
Workers and inmates allege a human rights crisis is occurring at Coastal State Prison. report
May 13, 2026
Five inmates were indicted for committing a violent assault at Coastal State Prison. report
May 13, 2026
A Coastal State Prison employee allegedly traded with inmates without the consent of the warden or superintendent. report
May 10, 2026
DEATH — COASTAL STATE PRISON: Something or Someone needs to get the gang members out of Coastal State prision!!!!!!!!!They are harming inmates and… report
Something or Someone needs to get the gang members out of Coastal State prision!!!!!!!!!They are harming inmates and and stealing there food clothes ,everthing!Why keep these Prisions open,if ya have no control over gang members?
May 9, 2026
An older wheelchair-using man at Coastal State Prison was reportedly moved on May 8, 2026 from a downstairs (accessible) HB segregation cell to an upstairs (inaccessible) segregation cell, where two other inmates had to physically struggle the man and his wheelchair up the stairs while a corrections officer observed without intervening or arranging accessible housing. According to the report, the man is housed in segregation not for disciplinary reasons but because he uses a wheelchair. report
A Facebook commenter described the following incident at Coastal State Prison on May 8, 2026: an older man who uses a wheelchair, and who is housed in segregation not for disciplinary reasons but because of his mobility, had been placed…
May 9, 2026
Inmate at Coastal State Prison reports kitchen closed (stated reason: "debugging" — likely de-bugging/fumigation). Yesterday's supper was a single hamburger and hot dog with no sides; trays ran out and some inmates received nothing. This morning's breakfast was bran flakes, peaches, and milk. Commissary access limited to one $80 purchase every two weeks. Reporter characterizes conditions as "literally starving us" and says "this is causing issues." report
Inmate witness report from Coastal State Prison alleging severe food deprivation: - Kitchen closed; reason given by staff: "debugging" (likely "de-bugging" — pest extermination/fumigation) - Supper served the day before report (2026-05-08): hamburger and hot dog only, no sides -…
April 25, 2026 (approx.)
Coastal State Prison health score decline since February 2025 other
Coastal State Prison has been on a steady decline in health scores since at least February 2025, scoring an 87 in February 2025 and an 80 in October before dropping to 70 in the most recent inspection.

Source Articles (18)

La crisis que los líderes penitenciarios de Georgia llaman 'propaganda'
Live Roaches, Dead Mouse Cited on Coastal State Prison Health Inspection • The Georgia Virtue
GDC prisons locked down statewide after multiple inmates injured in 'gang-related' fights - WGXA
GDC prisons locked down statewide after multiple inmates injured in ...
Blood on Blood: Georgia Statewide Prison Lockdown

Former leadership

Officials who previously held leadership roles at this facility.

RoleNameTenureDeaths
this facility / career
WARDEN 2 (facility lead) Glenn, Phillip2014-01-01 → 2025-12-3195 / 95
Warden (facility lead) Pineiro, Aaron Thomas2022-01-01 → 2024-06-1540 / 84

View full GDC Leadership Accountability page →

Location

200 Gulfstream Road, Port Wentworth, GA 31408 32.13775, -81.18665

Aerial View

Aerial view of COASTAL STATE PRISON

Architecture documents what the building was designed to hold. See the system-wide receipts at gps.press/warehouse.