COLUMBUS TRANSITIONAL CENTER
Facility Information
- Current Population
- 139
- Active Lifers
- 13 (9.4% of population) · May 2026 GDC report
- Address
- 3900 Schatulga Road, Columbus, GA 31907
- County
- Muscogee County
- Operator
- GDC (Georgia Dept. of Corrections)
- Warden
- Travis Stubbs
- Phone
- (706) 568-2169
- Fax
- (706) 569-3115
- Staff
- Assistant Superintendent: Janet James
- Chief of Security: Christopher Harrell
- Business Office: Rhonda Verhulst
About
Columbus Transitional Center, a Georgia Department of Corrections transitional facility, became the focus of a serious staff misconduct investigation in April 2026 after a correctional officer allegedly retrieved a personal firearm from her vehicle, brought it inside the facility, and pointed it at an incarcerated person during a verbal altercation — an incident that resulted in an arrest and the subsequent transfer of the alleged victim to segregation at another facility. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was deployed on-site, raising concerns about both officer conduct and potential retaliation against the incarcerated person who reported the misconduct. The incident underscores systemic patterns of accountability failures and staff-on-incarcerated violence documented across Georgia's prison system.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superintendent (facility lead) | Stubbs, Travis | 2025-05-01 | — / — |
| Assistant Superintendent (facility deputy) | James, Janet Necole | 2025-07-16 | — / — |
Key Facts
- GBI Deployed Georgia Bureau of Investigation deployed on-site to Columbus Transitional Center on or around April 8, 2026 to investigate staff misconduct
- Victim Transferred to Segregation The incarcerated person who reported the alleged armed threat was transferred to segregation at another facility — raising retaliation concerns
- $20 Million Total paid by Georgia since 2018 to settle claims involving death or injury to state prisoners, per GPS verified reporting
- 95 Deaths (2026 YTD) GPS-tracked deaths across GDC system through May 5, 2026, including 27 confirmed homicides — GDC does not publicly report cause of death
- 2,481 Incarcerated people backlogged in county jails awaiting GDC placement as of May 1, 2026 — reflecting system-wide overcrowding pressure
By the Numbers
- 51 Confirmed Homicides in 2025
- 29 Confirmed Homicides in 2026
- 13,057 Close Security (24.38%)
- 6 Terminally Ill Inmates
- 5,163 Drug Admissions (2025)
- 30,138 Violent Offenders (56.39%)
Mortality Statistics
3 deaths documented at this facility from 2020 to present.
Deaths by Year
- 2026: 0
- 2025: 0
- 2024: 0
- 2023: 0
- 2022: 1
- 2021: 2
- 2020: 0
County Public Health Department
Food service and sanitation at COLUMBUS TRANSITIONAL CENTER fall under the jurisdiction of the Muscogee 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 2299
Columbus, GA 31902 - Phone
- (706) 321-6170
- madeline.ortiz@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.
Sample Letter
This is the letter Georgia Prisoners' Speak mailed to all county environmental health inspectors responsible for GDC facilities. Feel free to adapt it.
May 16, 2026
RE: Request for Unannounced Public Health Inspection of Food Service Operations at COLUMBUS TRANSITIONAL CENTER
Dear County Environmental Health Director,
I am writing to respectfully request that your office conduct a thorough, unannounced inspection of food service and sanitation practices at COLUMBUS TRANSITIONAL CENTER, located in Muscogee County.
Documented concerns
Georgia Prisoners' Speak, a nonprofit public advocacy organization, has published extensive investigative reporting on food safety and nutrition failures across Georgia's prison system, including:
- Dangerous sanitation conditions — black mold on chow hall ceilings and air vents, contaminated food trays, and spoiled milk served to inmates.
- Severe nutritional deficiency — roughly 60 cents per meal; inmates receive only 40% of required protein and less than one serving of vegetables per day.
- Preventable deaths — the U.S. Department of Justice's 2024 report confirmed deaths from dehydration, renal failure, and untreated diabetes following food and water deprivation.
- Staged compliance — advance-notice inspections allow facilities to stage temporary improvements, then revert once inspectors leave.
Firsthand testimony
In Surviving on Scraps: Ten Years of Prison Food in Georgia, a person who has spent more than ten years in GDC custody describes no functional dishwashing sanitation, chronic mold on food trays, and roaches found on the undersides of trays at intake facilities. Full account: gps.press/surviving-on-scraps-ten-years-of-prison-food-in-georgia.
Specific requests
- Conduct an unannounced inspection of the kitchen and food service operations at this facility, with particular attention to dishwashing equipment, tray sanitation procedures, and food storage conditions.
- Evaluate compliance with applicable Georgia food safety regulations, including O.C.G.A. § 26-2-370 and the Georgia Food Service Rules and Regulations (Chapter 511-6-1).
- Verify permit status and confirm whether the facility is subject to the same inspection schedule as other institutional food service establishments in the county.
- Make inspection results available to the public, as permitted under Georgia's Open Records Act (O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70).
Incarcerated individuals cannot advocate for their own health and safety in the way a restaurant patron can — they cannot choose to eat elsewhere. This places an elevated responsibility on public health officials to ensure these facilities meet the same sanitation standards applied to any food service establishment.
Thank you for your attention to this important public health matter.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
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”
Columbus Transitional Center
Columbus Transitional Center is a minimum-security transitional facility within the Georgia Department of Corrections system, operating in coordination with a host prison and serving residents in the final phase of their sentences before reentry. Because transitional centers are meant to function as the bridge between incarceration and release — work-release, programming, and graduated reintegration — incidents that disrupt that bridge carry consequences distinct from those at higher-security facilities: a single transfer to segregation can erase months of reentry preparation. As of this writing, GPS has not yet aggregated public-record-grade evidence sufficient to build a full investigative profile of the facility. What follows is a brief acknowledgment of the reports GPS has received; substantive narrative analysis will be added as documentary evidence becomes available.
Reports Received by GPS
GPS has received recurring accounts describing a serious staff-involved incident at Columbus Transitional Center in 2026, including reports involving a personal firearm on facility grounds and a confrontation with a resident. GPS has also received reports of an on-site presence by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation at the facility in the same period, which — if confirmed through public-record sources — would indicate the matter is being handled outside ordinary internal GDC disciplinary channels. GPS has additionally received reports concerning a resident transfer to segregation, with attendant concerns about the impact such transfers have on imminent reentry timelines at a facility whose entire purpose is reentry preparation.
These reports are registered here as received. They are not yet corroborated by court filings, GDC official records, or named news reporting, and no narrative detail beyond category-level acknowledgment is published at this stage.
Sources
This page currently rests on inmate, family, and tipster accounts collected by GPS staff, together with internal analytical observations. No public-record-grade evidence — court filings, GDC official documents, medical records, or named news reporting — has yet been incorporated. The page will be expanded as such evidence surfaces.
Source Articles (3)
Former leadership
Officials who previously held leadership roles at this facility.
| Role | Name | Tenure | Deaths this facility / career |
|---|---|---|---|
| CORRECTIONAL SUPERINTENDENT (facility lead) | Stubbs, Travis | 2025-01-01 → 2025-04-30 | — / — |
| CORRECTIONAL SUPERINTENDENT (facility lead) | Turnage, Gloria ANN | 2017-01-01 → 2017-12-31 | — / — |
| CORRECTIONAL ASST. SUPT (facility deputy) | Stubbs, Travis | 2024-01-01 → 2024-12-31 | — / — |