Last updated October 4, 2026.(DS)

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison: Intake, Death Row, and the Record of What Happens Inside

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (GDCP) in Jackson is the state's largest prison and its central intake facility for men. Built in 1968 and renovated in 1998, it processes all male offenders entering the Georgia system, houses Georgia's male death-row unit, operates a 192-bed Special Management Unit for the most restrictive custody, and conducts state-ordered executions. Its housing includes eight cellblocks with single- and double-bunked cells, seven general-population dormitories, a 17-bed Segregated Transition Education Program (STEP) unit, and a medical unit; the facility also maintains a CERT Team, a Tactical Squad, and an on-site fire station. Rated capacity is 2,487 against an original design capacity of 500, with a current population of 2,421 — roughly 97 percent of rated capacity. Jacob Beasley has served as warden since July 2025.

That dual identity — the front door of the system and the last room in it — is what makes GDCP's record hard to read in isolation. The deaths, the medical-neglect litigation, the lockdowns, and the staffing failures documented below all occur at a facility that is simultaneously processing new arrivals, holding men under sentence of death, and operating as a medical hub. GPS has recorded 121 deaths at GDCP since January 1, 2020; the full list is maintained at gps.press/georgia-prison-deaths. Systemwide, GPS has independently tracked 1,896 deaths in GDC custody since 2020.

A Death Registry That Runs Through the Whole Institution

The mortality record at GDCP is the spine of any honest account of the place. GPS's registry lists 121 deaths at the facility since the start of 2020 — 19 in 2020, 15 in 2021, 20 in 2022, 24 in 2023, 22 in 2024, 11 in 2025, and 10 so far in 2026. By cause category, 46 are recorded as Unknown/Pending, 42 as Natural/Medical, 18 as Suicide, 7 as Homicide, 4 as Overdose, 2 as Accident, 1 as Execution, and 1 as Medical Neglect. Those figures are a floor, not a ceiling: GDC reports deaths roughly two months late, so the most recent months are always understated.

The most recent 25 people in that registry, in reverse chronological order: Shaun Corey Farrell died July 13, 2026, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. James Nelson Hall died July 2, 2026, at the facility, cause Unknown/Pending. Leonel Cedillo died June 27, 2026, cause Unknown/Pending. Mark Rutledge died June 26, 2026, at the facility; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. Phillip Dwayne Rogers died June 14, 2026, cause Unknown/Pending. Terry Junie Marshall died March 2, 2026, cause Natural/Medical. James Thompson died February 6, 2026, cause Unknown/Pending. Christopher Lee died January 31, 2026, cause Natural/Medical. Novice H Langston died January 12, 2026, cause Natural/Medical. Trevone Lavelle Lovett died January 10, 2026, cause Natural/Medical. Juan Jose Rodriquez died December 10, 2025, cause Overdose. Tabaya Marshall Gray died November 27, 2025, cause Unknown/Pending. Charles Ramen Coppeak died November 19, 2025, cause Overdose. Christopher Wayne Crook died August 5, 2025, cause Unknown/Pending. Daniel Claude Callahan died July 26, 2025, cause Natural/Medical. Woodrow Wilson Hodges died July 14, 2025, cause Natural/Medical. Jacob Scott Wilcox died June 28, 2025, cause Homicide. Mark Smith died June 7, 2025, cause Natural/Medical. David Octavious Robbs died April 30, 2025, cause Unknown/Pending. Michael Scott West died March 6, 2025, cause Accident. William Rhodes died February 20, 2025, cause Homicide. John Irvin Jr Tidd died December 15, 2024, cause Suicide. Willie Henry Ponder died November 8, 2024, cause Unknown/Pending. Thomas Jr Williams died November 7, 2024, cause Unknown/Pending. Stephen Allen Hester died November 6, 2024, cause Unknown/Pending.

Mark Rutledge's death drew public attention beyond the registry line. GDC's Office of Professional Standards led the investigation into his death, and his body was sent to a GBI crime lab to determine cause, according to GDC statements reported in June 2026. The registry now codes the death as a homicide.

The Allen Case: Cold, Frozen Meat, and a Federal Lawsuit

The most fully documented medical-neglect matter at GDCP is the federal civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of Ronald Allen, a former inmate at the facility. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia and names the Georgia Department of Corrections among the defendants. It advances claims of deliberate indifference to serious medical needs under the Eighth Amendment, medical malpractice, and negligence, and seeks compensatory damages.

The factual core, as GPS's own investigative reporting describes it: in early April 2024, Allen was ordered to separate hundreds of frozen beef patties by hand in the prison kitchen, without insulated gloves or proper protective equipment. He sustained cold-induced vascular injuries to both hands. Family accounts allege progressive symptoms, infections, finger amputations, and the amputation of his dominant hand. Those amputation and infection details are family allegations carried at low confidence, not court findings, and should be read as such.

What the court record does carry is the expert opinion of Dr. Michael M. Neeki, listed as an expert witness, who opined that GDC and the defendants disregarded Allen's escalating complaints, provided inadequate treatment, engaged in delayed evaluations, and deviated from the standard of care in treating his cold-induced vascular injuries. Allen's maximum release date was June 10, 2024, and his GDC status is listed as inactive.

GPS's own coverage of the Allen matter is uneven in reliability and should be weighted accordingly. One GPS-authored account of the case is tagged by GPS's own fact-check process as carrying unresolved issues and is given no evidentiary weight here. Other GPS reporting on the same matter — including a Spanish-language account describing the frozen-patty assignment and the request for protective gloves — is marked not yet checked. The underlying court filings and the expert opinion are the load-bearing record.

Deaths, Disputed Findings, and the Question of Investigation

Beyond the registry, the news record at GDCP includes a series of deaths reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Brandon Trace Burrell, 31, died January 28, 2024, from methamphetamine intoxication complicated by a physical altercation; he was assaulted by another inmate while under the influence and reportedly suffered numerous stab wounds. Carrell Beontae Johnson, 32, died June 6, 2023, from chopping injuries to the head and sharp force injuries to the torso. Elmer W. Pless, 65, died May 15, 2023, by strangulation. Boyd Henry Williams, 64, died October 3, 2022, from manual strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head. Daniel Charriez, 46, died February 23, 2022, from delayed complications of traumatic brain injury with a four-month interval.

The AJC also reported a case in which a person who assaulted someone at Coastal State Prison in March 2020 — with no investigation conducted — reentered the prison system in 2022 and strangled his cellmate to death at GDCP. That account, if accurate, describes a failure that began at another facility and ended here.

A separate death at GDCP has produced a sustained dispute over its official classification. Family members who contacted GPS describe being notified of the death by phone and being told the prison had classified it as a suicide. They dispute that finding. In their account, the person had received a death threat days before the death and was supposed to be housed alone in isolation; he asked for medical help shortly before he was found and was told he could be seen after count. Family members allege the death was a homicide and that an autopsy supports that reading. GPS's derived records note that GDC recorded the death as a suicide in 2023, months before the medical examiner certified the manner of death, and that the death summary lists hanging as the cause with postmortem toxicology negative for drugs and alcohol. The family's account and the official classification remain unreconciled.

GPS has received recurring accounts of deaths at this facility, and GPS records show nine death-in-custody reports across five months in the past year, with severity ranging from moderate to critical. Those are receipt acknowledgments, not findings.

Violence Inside a Facility Built for Classification

GDCP's design purpose is to sort people — to assess and route every man entering Georgia's prison system. The record of what happens to people while they are being sorted is its own indictment.

In January 2025, the AJC reported that despite Charles Lee Broady Jr.'s request for protection from threatening gang members, he was moved to a location where six gang members attacked him with razor blades, nearly killing him. In June 2024, the same outlet reported that Shane Tassi, newly convicted of malice murder and sentenced to life without parole plus 80 years, was photographed on social media within days of arriving at GDCP displaying a homemade shank and making a gang gesture; Tassi and two other inmates received disciplinary sanctions. The AJC also reported in March 2025 that almost every part of the prison had been vandalized by prisoners, with widespread infrastructure failures.

GPS staff have observed a pattern at GDCP in which incarcerated people opt for general-population placement over protective housing in order to access programming — a choice with obvious safety implications that GPS characterized as a systemic issue warranting independent documentation. GPS staff also observed that people at the facility were asked to identify specific individuals who had chosen general-population placements at other facilities over remaining at GDCP, reportedly in connection with accessing case plans and therapeutic community programming.

GPS records show four assault-by-inmate allegations across four months in the past year, three assault-by-staff allegations, and three excessive-force allegations across three months. GPS has received accounts of staff use of force at this facility. These are aggregate receipts.

Staffing, Lockdown, and the Machinery of Control

The staffing picture at GDCP sits inside a systemwide collapse that GPS has documented as an integrated structural finding. Officer vacancies in Georgia's prisons have run between 49.3 percent and 60 percent systemwide for multiple years, against a national standard of no more than 10 percent. The hiring pipeline cannot close the gap: acceptance rate under 15 percent, and 82.7 percent of new hires leave in their first year. Georgia ranks last of 50 states for correctional-officer pay. The October 2024 DOJ findings letter concluded that "the leadership of the Georgia Department of Corrections has lost control of its facilities" and faulted GDC for placing "too much blame on gangs and insufficient emphasis on understaffing."

At GDCP specifically, GPS records show six inadequate-climate signals across four months in the past year and four overcrowding reports across four months. GPS staff have observed reports of inadequate heating and cooling in housing units, and heat conditions at the facility have been a long-running advocacy issue. GPS staff also observed that a nighttime check procedure at GDCP was not consistent with standard welfare protocol, and documented those nighttime check procedures directly. Multiple inmate accounts describe welfare checks conducted by banging on doors and yelling, occurring several times a night.

Lockdown practice at the facility has drawn sustained attention. GPS records show a padlock lockdown acknowledged in staff records, and multiple accounts describe cells secured with padlocks during lockdown periods, extended daily lockdowns in at least one housing unit, and a lockdown during the 2025 holiday period attributed to staff shortages — with staff reportedly deployed to outside hospital assignments, leaving what witnesses described as a skeleton crew. GPS staff characterized a transfer to Coastal State Prison as pattern evidence. GPS has received accounts of a rumored sit-down protest at the facility; GPS staff report no specific operational intelligence regarding its organizers.

Staff Misconduct, Contraband, and the Vera Jackson Case

The clearest staff-corruption case in GDCP's recent history predates the current period but remains instructive. Officer Vera Jackson admitted she was paid several thousand dollars to provide death-row inmate Eric Perkinson with information on upcoming shakedowns and staff. She pleaded guilty to violating her oath and received five years' probation, the AJC reported.

More recent staff matters at the facility include the case of former Counselor Gibbs, who was charged with violation of oath of office, conspiracy, and crossing the guard line, and was arrested April 17, 2025, for failure to appear on an assault charge. Chief Counselor Bethune reported Gibbs's initial arrest to the Butts County Sheriff's Office, which processed the arrest. In a separate matter, Deivon Waller was sentenced to 240 months in federal prison plus a $2,000 fine and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and marijuana; he conspired to smuggle methamphetamine, marijuana, and cell phones into multiple Georgia state prisons using drones, according to WGXA. Asa James Ward, an inmate at GDCP, was sentenced to 56 months and a $1,500 fine, and Tristahn Ash was sentenced to 92 months and a $1,500 fine.

GPS records show 18 staff-misconduct-alleged-named signals across nine cases and seven months in the past year, with severity ranging from moderate to critical — the single largest signal category at this facility. A further nine unnamed staff-misconduct signals span five cases. GPS has received accounts of staff-on-inmate use of force at GDCP.

Death Row, Executions, and the Humphreys Litigation

GDCP houses Georgia's male death-row unit and carries out the state's executions. The most recent capital litigation to touch the facility is the case of Stacey Ian Humphreys, convicted in 2007 on two counts of murder for the 2003 killings of Cyndi Williams and Lori Brown, who were shot and killed in a real estate office in an Atlanta suburb.

Humphreys was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 7:00 p.m. on September 16, 2026, at GDCP. He would have been the first person executed in Georgia this year and the 55th by lethal injection in the state since 1976, according to reporting by the AJC and The Georgia Virtue. Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency on September 15, one day before the scheduled execution. A clemency hearing had been set for the same day.

The Humphreys case has already produced one halt. His execution was previously stopped in December after his lawyers argued that two State Board of Pardons and Paroles members had conflicts of interest. A Fulton County judge ruled that Board member Kimberly McCoy had a conflict of interest and must recuse herself, but found no conflict for the other member; the Georgia Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal. A December 2025 clemency meeting was postponed due to the litigation challenging the participation of Board members Kimberly McCoy and Wayne Bennett. Separately, U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May declined to halt the scheduled execution, ruling that Humphreys failed to show his rights to due process and equal protection would be violated. Humphreys' attorneys have filed a notice of appeal asking the Georgia Supreme Court to review a September 10 Cobb County Superior Court decision denying him a new trial.

One further death-row matter is documented in the court record: DeMarcus Ali Sears is sentenced to death in Georgia, and his death sentence does not correspond to an underlying murder conviction. Sears was convicted of kidnapping with bodily injury. GPS's derived records describe that combination as appearing unique within Georgia's death-row population.

The Washington State Prison Riot: A Different Facility, a Shared System

In January 2026, a gang-war riot at Washington State Prison — a different facility, roughly 150 miles from Jackson — killed four people and injured a fifth who died days later. The chronology matters because it is often confused with GDCP's record. Dajhmere Hall, 30, was found dead at Washington State Prison on Friday, January 9, 2026, two days before the riot; his cause is held Unknown/Pending. Teddy Dewayne Jackson, 27, Ahmod Dewayne Hatcher, 23, and Jimmy Lee Trammell, 42, were killed in the riot on January 11. Trammell was approximately 72 hours from release and had served 10 years. Silas Westbrook, 42, was injured on January 11 and died January 17 after hospital release.

The aftermath produced a records dispute that is itself part of the public record. Allen Wigington filed open records requests to GDC Legal Services for all incident reports from Washington State Prison from January 9 through January 12, and for duty post and staffing rosters over the same period. According to GDC Legal Services' response, no documentation of an investigation, no witness interviews, no death notification reports, no incident reports, no documentation of evacuation, and no documentation of the riot were produced — despite four deaths. Duty post rosters for the day of the riot were missing from the response. Rosters GDC did provide showed only five officers working on January 9–10, and those five reportedly worked 48 continuous hours with no recorded breaks. The Georgia Department of Public Safety was the only agency that provided detailed reports in response to open records requests; its troopers' role was limited to securing the hospital and the perimeter. The Washington County Coroner stated he had never heard of Dajhmere Hall, despite having previously confirmed Hall's death to media, and said he anticipated no further involvement. No public inquest was held despite Georgia law allegedly requiring one. In April 2026, twelve inmates were charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, and gang participation in connection with the disturbance. Washington State Prison was placed on continuous lockdown after the riot and had not reopened more than five months later.

The Washington State Prison episode is included here because it is frequently cited alongside GDCP's record and because the two facilities share the same systemwide staffing and oversight failures. It did not happen at GDCP.

What the Record Shows

GDCP is the facility where Georgia decides what a prison sentence will mean for every man entering the system, and where the state carries out its executions. Its 121 GPS-tracked deaths since 2020, its federal medical-neglect litigation, its disputed suicide finding, its documented violence, its padlock lockdowns, and its staffing collapse are not separate stories. They are the same institution operating under the structural conditions GPS has documented systemwide: vacancy rates near or above 50 percent, a hiring pipeline that cannot close the gap, gang control that DOJ and the 2024 Guidehouse assessment independently concluded effectively runs multiple facilities, and an investigative apparatus that GDC retains internally. GPS records show 15 medical-neglect signals across eight cases and nine months in the past year at this facility, with external complaints filed to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia; eight due-process signals across four cases with external complaints to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles; and six external complaints filed across three cases to bodies including the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, the Human and Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Washington County Coroner's Office.

The DPH food-safety record at GDCP is, on its face, clean: routine inspections on March 26, 2025, and May 27, 2026, both scored 100, Grade A. GPS has documented a systemic pattern across GDC kitchens in which high DPH scores coexist with sustained witness reports of equipment failure and food contamination, because inspections are scheduled walkthroughs that do not assess equipment under load. The contradiction between the score and the accounts is the analytical point, not either number alone.

Sources

This analysis draws on GPS's mortality registry and internal intelligence records; federal court filings in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, including the Allen and Hattaway matters; Georgia Department of Public Health food-safety inspection records; GDC statements and open records responses; and reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Georgia Virtue, WGXA, and WMAZ. It also draws on GPS's own investigative reporting and on inmate, family, and staff accounts collected by GPS staff. The systemwide staffing, infrastructure, food-service, and sexual-violence findings cited here are GPS systemic findings backed by underlying GPS evidence, the October 2024 DOJ findings letter, and the 2024 Guidehouse assessment.