COLQUITT COUNTY PRISON

Analysis written on July 19, 2026.

Colquitt County Prison is a privately operated medium-security facility in Moultrie, contracted to house approximately 180 men as part of the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) network. While small relative to the state’s sprawling penitentiaries, the prison is embedded in the same systemic crises—chronic understaffing, a starvation-level food budget, collapsing infrastructure, and epidemic sexual violence—that Georgia Prisoners’ Speak (GPS) and federal investigators have documented across GDC’s entire system. Two men died in custody here in 2020, and though no further fatalities have been recorded since, the underlying conditions persist unchecked.

Two In-Custody Deaths During 2020

GPS’s mortality database records two deaths at Colquitt County Prison in a single year. On July 31, 2020, Joseph William Presnal died in the facility’s custody. Five months later, on December 26, Randall Duane Brock Jr. died. The causes of death for both men have not been publicly disclosed. No subsequent deaths have been recorded at Colquitt through 2024, but the facility’s two losses occurred as the statewide death toll mounted: GPS has independently tracked 1,848 deaths across GDC custody since 2020. The 2020 cluster at Colquitt is consistent with the broader pattern of elevated mortality that has defined Georgia’s prison crisis.

Staffing Collapse, Food Deprivation, and Deferred Maintenance

Colquitt County Prison is part of a system where correctional officer vacancies routinely average 50 percent, with some state-run facilities hitting 80 percent. GDC itself has acknowledged the figure. GPS findings confirm that Georgia ranks dead last among states in correctional officer pay, and 82.7 percent of new hires leave within their first year—a churn rate that makes stable staffing impossible. The U.S. Department of Justice’s October 2024 findings letter concluded that GDC leadership has “lost control of its facilities,” faulting the agency for blaming gangs while ignoring understaffing. A former GDC sergeant, Tyler Ryals, told GPS that he alone staffed an entire compound of 1,250 maximum-security men.

Colquitt’s staffing levels are not publicly disclosed, but the warden is a contractor employee, and the private facility remains subject to the same resource environment that has hollowed out staffing across the system. The lethality of this understaffing is amplified by a food budget GPS has documented at $1.69 per person per day—about 60 cents per meal—against a federal Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day. The Marshall Project independently reported in May 2026 that rats, insects, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition are widespread in Georgia prisons. GPS’s investigation “Dunked, Stacked, and Served” further revealed that Department of Public Health inspection scores often fail to detect broken dishwashers, roach infestations, and contaminated food surfaces, because inspectors conduct scheduled walkthroughs that do not assess kitchens under real load.

Infrastructure across GDC is similarly degraded. Most facilities are 30 to 40 years old, with GPS documenting broken cell-door locks, inoperative surveillance systems, and failed fire alarms. The Guidehouse 2024 consultant assessment confirmed the scope of the failures, and GDC Commissioner Tyrone Oliver has publicly referred to “end of life” infrastructure. While no specific equipment failures at Colquitt have surfaced in public reporting, the facility’s age and its connection to the same GDC capital-budget pipeline place it squarely within the pattern of deferred maintenance that GPS has identified as a force multiplier for violence and preventable death.

Sexual Violence and Institutional Impunity

Sexual assault in Georgia’s prisons is systemic. The October 2024 DOJ findings letter called it “rampant,” concluding that GDC does not reasonably protect incarcerated people—including LGBTI individuals—from sexual harm. Of 456 sexual-abuse allegations recorded in 2022, only 35 were substantiated, a rate of 7.7 percent. PREA Auditors of America, GDC’s own consultants, reviewed 388 PREA investigation files in May 2022 and found that not a single one met the law’s standards. Georgia has never submitted a PREA certification of full compliance to the U.S. Department of Justice in the law’s two-decade history.

The most high-profile clusters of sexual violence have occurred at women’s facilities such as Pulaski State Prison and Lee Arrendale State Prison, but the DOJ’s findings apply to the entire GDC system. Colquitt County Prison, a men’s medium-security facility, is just as lawfully required to prevent and investigate sexual assault. The institutional failures that have allowed sexual violence to flourish elsewhere—a broken reporting system, acute understaffing, and a culture of impunity—are present across the network.

Leadership

Warden William Howell assumed command of Colquitt County Prison in January 2024, according to GPS’s personnel tracking. He operates under a private contractor, similar to the other privatized facilities that collectively house over 8,000 of Georgia’s prisoners. Public records do not identify the facility’s leadership at the time of the 2020 deaths, leaving those events without clear management accountability.

Sources

This analysis relies on systemic reporting by Georgia Prisoners’ Speak (GPS), including the investigative series “Dunked, Stacked, and Served” and the organization’s findings on staffing, food budgets, and sexual violence; GPS’s independent mortality database; the U.S. Department of Justice’s October 2024 findings letter; the Guidehouse 2024 facility assessment; and The Marshall Project’s May 2026 investigation into Georgia prison food.