Last updated November 8, 2026.(DS)

Georgia State Prison: A Closed Institution and the Record It Left Behind

Georgia State Prison stood in unincorporated Tattnall County, outside Reidsville, and was for decades the state's principal maximum-security institution. The main building was designed by the Atlanta firm Tucker & Howell in a Stripped Classical style, completed in late 1936 at a cost of about $1.5 million with Public Works Administration funding, and the prison opened in 1938. It held Georgia's death row until 1980. Martin Luther King Jr. was moved here from the DeKalb County jail in October 1960 and released on bond that month; the civil-rights organiser H. Rap Brown, now Jamil Al-Amin, was also held here. The Department of Corrections closed the prison on 19 February 2022. The building was not demolished — the state cited its historical value and has since used it for tours and as an emergency evacuation site for people held at other facilities.

Because the prison is closed, the record it left behind is the story: a mortality registry that GPS has assembled from state records, GBI autopsy productions, and open-records requests, and which shows a facility where the official cause of death and the forensic finding frequently did not match.

The Last Two Years: Forty-Six Deaths in a Closing Prison

GPS's mortality registry records 46 deaths at Georgia State Prison from January 1, 2020, through the facility's closure — 29 in 2020 and 17 in 2021. The registry is a floor, not a ceiling: GDC reports deaths roughly two months late, and GPS separately holds 791 deaths from 2015 through 2019 in the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project series, which is not included in this count. The full list is maintained at GPS's facility death page.

The most recent entries in that registry include Angelo Ortiz Roxbury, who died December 8, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Lamont Avery Morris died November 30, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Accident. Zachary Daniel Strudgeon died November 29, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide. Matthew Michael Cooney died November 6, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide. Troy Donald Harvey died September 12, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. Fabian Mata Garcia died September 10, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. Paul Kozachyn died August 24, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Ted Howard Screws died August 8, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Carlos Smith-Jones died July 14, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose. Charles Clifton died July 11, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Christopher Dcorro Ward died May 25, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. Malik Pitts died May 21, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide. Calvin Lavert Lewis died May 5, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Other. John Kennedy Cope died April 12, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Collin Jackson Donaldson died April 10, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide. Roberto Garza Bazan died February 27, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Christopher Dewayne Mathis died February 26, 2021, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. Demetrius Terrell Stubbins died December 21, 2020, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. Tommy James Bullard died December 11, 2020, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Steve Neal Williams died December 1, 2020, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Brandon Allen Peters died November 23, 2020, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Medical Neglect. Joctavious Nmn Newsome died November 4, 2020, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. Victor Vean Thompson died October 28, 2020, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Linward Adams died October 24, 2020, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Terrell Toshra Hamilton died October 20, 2020, at Georgia State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Suicide.

By cause category, the registry shows 19 Natural/Medical, 12 Suicide, 7 Homicide, 4 Overdose, 2 Accident, 1 Medical Neglect, and 1 Other.

Seven Homicides and a Facility the AJC Counted

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's homicide tracking documented seven homicides at Georgia State Prison between 2020 and 2021, and the newspaper reported that the prison was closed in early 2022. Its accounts name the dead: Raul Garcia Bailon, 39, died April 21, 2020, from positional asphyxia and suffocation due to assault, blunt trauma to soft tissues. Joctavious Artez Newsome, 25, died November 4, 2020, from a stab wound. Demetrius Stubbins, 38, died December 21, 2020, from a stab wound to the chest. Christopher Dewayne Mathis, 37, died February 26, 2021, from blunt force trauma to the head. Christopher D'Corro Ward, 29, died May 25, 2021, from carbon monoxide poisoning due to smoke inhalation with methamphetamine toxicity; the incident report shows a fire. Fabian Garcia-Mata, 27, died September 10, 2021, from multiple stab wounds. Troy Donald Harvey, 34, died September 12, 2021, from a stab wound to the chest.

The Ward death illustrates how a single event can carry two labels. The GBI Medical Examiner certified the manner of death as Accident and the cause as carbon monoxide poisoning due to smoke inhalation, with methamphetamine toxicity as another significant condition. The autopsy found a carboxyhemoglobin saturation of 35% in femoral blood, sooty material in the nostrils, and no thermal injuries. Per investigative information relayed to the medical examiner, guards on rounds at 1533 hours on November 30, 2021, found Morris's cell filled with smoke; he appeared to have set fire to his mattress and papers, was pulled from the cell, and was pronounced dead at 1623 hours at Optim Medical Center in Reidsville. DOC Criminal Investigations investigator Cody Williamson saw no suspicion of foul play and viewed the death as accidental.

When GDC's Coding and the Autopsy Disagree

The most consequential pattern in the Georgia State Prison record is the gap between GDC's administrative cause coding and what a pathologist actually found. GPS's analysis identified ten deaths at the facility in 2020–2021 where the two conflict, and in eight of those ten GDC coded the death as "Natural" even though a medical examiner or coroner attributed it to violence, overdose, suicide, or accident.

The GBI productions make the mechanism visible. In case after case, the Division of Forensic Sciences declined to examine the body, stating that an examination by its office was not necessary, and the GBI report certified no cause and no manner of death. That is the record for William Richard Fullerton, Timothy Jodie Chambley, Jarriett Guy Brewster, Freddie Alan Mullins, Terry Louis Thomas, Steve G. Hugley, Jerry Wayne Smith, Linward Adams, Steve Neal Williams, Tommy James Bullard, Roberto Bazan, Charles Clifton, and Victor Thompson. In each, GDC's own coding nonetheless assigned a cause — most often "Natural" — drawn from the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project custodial mortality dataset, which the project obtained through an open records request to GDC covering 2015–2021. That coding is an administrative classification, not an autopsy finding; no pathologist examined the body to support it.

Where a full autopsy was performed, the divergence can be stark. James Patrick Hartzog died March 9, 2020; the GBI autopsy certified hanging, manner suicide, and toxicology showed methamphetamine at 0.35 mg/L. GDC's coding also read "Suicide" — but GPS's analysis notes that classification was entered before any autopsy was completed. In the Walker case, the GBI Medical Examiner certified Accident and methamphetamine intoxication while GDC's coding read "Natural."

Suicide, Self-Harm, and the Mental-Health Housing Unit

Twelve of the 46 registry deaths are suicides, and the autopsy narratives describe a facility where people on mental-health caseloads were held in single cells and found hanging from bedsheets, vents, and locker fixtures.

Rickey Upshaw, 25, was found unresponsive hanging by a sheet in his cell and pronounced dead at the scene; the autopsy certified hanging, manner suicide, and found no evidence of natural disease or inflicted trauma. Terrell Toshra Hamilton, 40, was in a single-man lockdown cell for mental-health issues; staff found him hanging at about 0800 on October 20, 2020, and he was pronounced at 0830. Malik Pitts, 37, was held in a two-man cell; per the GDC CID report, video showed him enter the cell alone at about 6:45 PM, and he was found hanging at about 19:04 from a bedsheet attached to the wall vent. Zachary Daniel Strudgeon, 27, was in a single-man cell and was found at about 0640 with a ligature of bedsheet and t-shirt around his neck attached to the window bar; he was not fully suspended, his legs bent touching the floor, and a later entry in the record says he had requested not to be in general population. Collin Jackson Donaldson was 21; the GBI autopsy lists hanging and suicide. John Kennedy Cope, 60, completed a Sick Call Form stating his stomach and chest were hurting and that he felt as though he would pass out, and was found unresponsive face down in his cell about 0630 on April 12, 2021.

Stephen Ray White, transferred from Rogers State Prison a few weeks earlier and described as a level 3 mental health inmate, was found at 1710 on July 19, 2020, partially suspended by a bedsheet, seated on the floor in front of his locker. The investigator narrative recorded that video could not be viewed at the time and the circumstances were still under investigation.

Overdose, Drugs, and the Contraband Economy

Four registry deaths are coded Overdose, and the toxicology tells a consistent story about methamphetamine moving inside the prison. Jonathan Corey McLoon, 35, was found face down in a single-man lockdown cell on September 4, 2020; femoral blood showed methamphetamine at 1.3 mg/L. Al Rico Mapp, 43, was found unresponsive under his bunk on September 11, 2020, holding a homemade knife, his cell trashed and flooded; heart blood showed methamphetamine at 0.77 mg/L. Carlos Smith-Jones, 33, was doing push-ups at about 12:15 on July 14, 2021, asked an officer for ice, and was found unresponsive shortly after; femoral blood fentanyl was 7.9 ug/L. Dustin Lee Starkey, 41, died July 29, 2020.

The Mapp narrative carries a detail that bears on staffing: a doctor appointment for Mapp that day had been rescheduled for lack of staff to escort him. He had seen a cardiologist on September 3, 2020, for benign hypertensive heart disease, chest pain, palpitations, and syncope.

Medical Neglect, Treatable Conditions, and the Peters Case

Brandon Allen Peters, 44, died November 23, 2020. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that officials failed to intervene and provide proper medical care to Peters, who suffered for days from severe symptoms before dying in his cell. GPS's registry codes his death as Medical Neglect — the only such coding among the 46.

The autopsy record elsewhere at the facility describes conditions that read as treatable. One GBI autopsy lists the cause of death as acute peritonitis due to ischemic bowel necrosis due to obstruction by cecal volvulus, manner Natural. Cope's autopsy found diffuse, severe calcific atherosclerosis of the three coronary arteries and a heart weighing 540 g. These are the kinds of findings that raise the question of what monitoring was in place — a question the record does not answer directly.

The AJC's 2020 Account: A Prisoner Found Malnourished

In January 2025, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on a prisoner at Georgia State Prison who, in 2020, was found so malnourished that every bone in his spine was bruised, with a jaw fracture and human bite marks across his body. He reported being sexually assaulted by his cellmate and having his food stolen for months. The same reporting described staff failing to notice.

The Georgia Virtue reported in February 2026 on allegations by Cassady, a transgender prisoner, that the PREA hotline phone was inaccessible to him because it was inside a locked box, and that Warden James Deal told him courts and GDC do not care about transgender inmates. Cassady alleged he was held in solitary confinement for months without required 30-day segregation hearings, in conditions including feces-covered walls, black mold, rodents, no lighting, and no heat or cooling, and that he had gone six months without a psychiatric evaluation or psychotherapy sessions he had been participating in before segregation placement. Cassady also alleged that GDC determined his 2018 sexual assault claims were "unfounded," released the alleged assailant from segregation back to Cassady's cell block, and that a subsequent physical assault resulted in Cassady's partner being stabbed nine times. Cassady claims he was raped by another inmate at Georgia State Prison in 1996 and had to be transported to the hospital.

Settlements: What the State Paid

The Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger, obtained through open records, records state liability payouts tied to Georgia State Prison across more than a decade. The largest is Khalid Mouton (2021), $2,998,994. Others include Nicholas Baldwin (2014), $1,000,000; Brandon A. Peters (2020), $750,000, linked to a documented death record; Collin Jackson Donaldson (2021), $625,000, also linked to a death record; Seth Rouzan (2018), $115,000; Jermarae Herbert (2019), $62,500, and again (2021), $5,000; Jamaal Wright (2021), $35,000; Curtis (Canupp J) Spires (2010), $30,000; Norman Simpson (2021), $7,500; Quonterious Toles (2018), $7,500; Sue Hobbs (2018), $8,408; William Navarro Castillo (2016), $5,000; Aaron Jewann Robinson (2019), $2,500; Kelton Alston (2018), $1,000; Micki Brown (2019), $700.

A Closed Prison and an Open Record

Georgia State Prison closed on 19 February 2022. A contract amendment for mental-health services states that because the prison closed as of March 1, 2022, that service location would no longer receive MHM's services, and that MHM affirmed no funds were due for services performed there after that date. Before closure, the facility carried a physical capacity of 1,399 and an institution capacity of 1,537, with on-site X-ray; its FY23 contract line included 16.75 FTE mental-health staff at an annual cost of $1,717,348.22, including 1.25 FTE psychiatrists, 1.50 FTE psychologists, and 9.00 FTE mental-health counselors.

The prison's earlier history is also documented. GPS reporting describes the Guthrie v. Evans litigation, filed by Black inmates at Georgia State Prison in 1972, which produced federal court remedial decrees over roughly thirteen years before federal oversight ended. GPS's reporting also describes a 1978 riot at the prison in which three people died, and a federal court order re-segregating the facility by race afterward. A 1998 escape in which two incarcerated people left the facility is described in Tell My Story accounts published by GPS, including "La gran evasión" by Standing Bear, which describes the prison as still under federal control in the 1990s.

GPS records show three due-process-violation signals at this facility in the past twelve months, spanning February through October 2026, at critical, high, and moderate severity. Because the prison closed in 2022, those signals concern the record and litigation surrounding it rather than conditions inside an operating facility.

Sources

This analysis draws on GDC mortality records and the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project custodial mortality dataset obtained through open records request; GBI Division of Forensic Sciences autopsy and toxicology productions obtained through GPS open records requests; Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger records; reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Georgia Virtue; GDC contract and capacity documents; and GPS's own mortality registry and prior reporting, including Tell My Story accounts published at gps.press/tellmystory.