Last updated October 4, 2026.(DS)

Hancock State Prison: Death, Vacancy, and a Facility Built for a Smaller System

Hancock State Prison sits on the edge of Sparta, in Hancock County, a close-security men's facility that opened in 1992 and was designed to hold 500 people. It now carries a rated capacity of 1,191 and, per GPS's facility records, a population of 1,189 — 99.8% of rated capacity, and more than twice what the original plant was built to hold. The facility houses many of the state's highest-risk prisoners under Tier I and Tier II close-custody management, with multiple segregation and isolation units and an annex area alongside dormitory housing. Its leadership, per GPS's personnel records, is Warden Joe Williams, with deputies Paul Anthony Sanford, Rashedah Fayola Mitchell (Care and Treatment), Chequita Adams (Administration), and Jeremy Andrew Foston.

What follows is an analysis of three interlocking threads: a mortality record that runs to 27 deaths since January 2020, 17 of them homicides; an officer-vacancy rate that reached 73.5% in October 2024, leaving 49 officers for more than 1,100 prisoners; and a documented pattern of gang violence, litigation, and state liability payouts that has made Hancock a recurring focal point in investigations of unconstitutional conditions inside Georgia prisons.

A Death Record That Runs to 27 Since 2020

GPS's mortality registry has recorded 27 deaths at Hancock State Prison since January 1, 2020. Seventeen of those are classified as homicides. Seven remain Unknown/Pending, two are Natural/Medical, and one is classified Other. The full list is maintained at GPS's facility death page.

The most recent entries are also the most concentrated. Albert Chapa died July 30, 2026, at Hancock State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 57. Jacorey Derrelle Pearson died April 7, 2026, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 36. Jerrod Johnson died February 18, 2026, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 27. Jaylin Bell died February 6, 2026, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 32. Steven Monroe Wood died January 25, 2026, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 54.

Andre Rashad Weems died September 9, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 36. Brian Smith died July 24, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 30. Corey Jose July died June 17, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 33. John T Childree died April 9, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 60. William Holeman died January 30, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. Prince Porter died January 30, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.

Travon Montrell Walthour died October 13, 2024, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 29. Ralph Thompson died October 8, 2024, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 53. Timothy Dale Hicks died August 22, 2023, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 37. Francisco Melgar-Saldivar died August 12, 2023, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 26. Roland Lamont Phillips died June 28, 2023, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 33.

Norman Jackson Samples died December 27, 2022, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 59. Zackery Phillip Brown died December 23, 2022, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 39. Terry Lee Bishop died October 18, 2022, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 49. Antione Lamar Bush died June 18, 2022, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 32. Charles Tristen Mckee died May 23, 2022, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 24.

Terrill Bernard Howard died October 17, 2021, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Other. He was 51. Michael Anthony Brown died June 26, 2021, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. He was 54. Dwayne Zackery died February 12, 2021, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 22. Rashad Bolton died January 4, 2021, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. He was 29.

The registry is a floor, not a ceiling: GDC reports deaths roughly two months late, so the count lags the actual toll. GPS separately holds 791 deaths from January 2015 through December 2019 drawn from the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project series — the Department's own cause coding obtained by open records request, not autopsy findings — which is not included in the since-2020 figure.

Gang Violence and the Anatomy of a Killing

The homicide record at Hancock is not a series of isolated incidents. It is a pattern in which gang affiliation determines who is safe and who is not, and in which the facility's own physical design has repeatedly been the instrument of death.

The most thoroughly documented case is that of Charles "Tristen" James McKee, 24, who identified as LGBTQ. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that McKee died May 23, 2022, after being stabbed 13 times in the back and head. A lawsuit filed on behalf of his family alleges that GDC placed McKee in a dorm with known gang members who were hostile to LGBTQ inmates, and that staff failed to act on his repeated requests to be moved the day before he was killed. The U.S. Department of Justice investigation found that McKee tried to escape gang members who were beating and stabbing him by jumping through stair railings to the floor below, but the gang members continued to stab him there; another prisoner who tried to stop the attack was seriously wounded. Cleveland Gary was convicted in Hancock County for the slaying — the AJC reported that he struck McKee six times in the head with a 17-inch homemade machete after a fight had already ended. The state paid $424,710 in a liability settlement tied to Hancock State Prison in connection with the 2022 incident, per the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through open records.

A second case, that of Corey Jose July, followed a similar arc three years later. July, 33, was stabbed multiple times in the prison yard on June 17, 2025. Prosecutors said surveillance video showed Vershaun Smith chasing July, cornering him at a locked gate, and stabbing him multiple times. A Hancock County jury convicted Smith of malice murder; Judge Alison T. Burleson sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. GPS's own reporting has described accounts of the July killing in a piece published in Spanish under the title "Muerte en una puerta cerrada," which notes that July had twenty months remaining on a Floyd County sentence and was eight days short of his thirty-fifth birthday. That GPS item carries a "not yet checked" fact-check tag and should be read as an account rather than a corroborated finding. A separate GPS piece on the July case, "Death at a Locked Gate," carries an unresolved fact-check status and is given no evidentiary weight here.

The January 2025 killings of William Holeman, 34, and Prince Porter, 38, were described by the AJC as gang-related violence. The two men were found dead in the same dorm about 15-20 feet apart. Porter had a single puncture wound in his upper back; Holeman had no visible marks on his body. A third prisoner was hospitalized. The coroner leaned toward homicide in at least one case. In September 2024, seven prisoners were disciplined for attacking an inmate in a gang-related assault at Hancock, according to records obtained by the AJC.

Other homicides in the registry carry their own documented circumstances. Roland Lamont Phillips, 33, died June 28, 2023, from multiple sharp-force injuries including 11 puncture wounds to the front torso and one to the neck; a murder warrant was served against his cellmate. Francisco Melgar-Saldivar, 26, died August 12, 2023, from strangulation and blunt force injuries. A claim filed against the state alleges he was not provided appropriate medical care after being attacked by another prisoner. Norman Samples, 59, died December 27, 2022, from blunt force injuries to the head and torso. Terry Lee Bishop, 49, died October 18, 2022, from blunt force trauma, acute toxicity of methamphetamine, and acute toxicity of cannabinoids; death data show he was beaten to death by another prisoner. Travon Walthour, 29, was killed October 13, 2024; four other prisoners were involved in his death according to GDC incident report data. Dwayne Zackery Jr., 22, died February 12, 2021, from a stab wound to the chest with a homemade knife; death data state he was stabbed by his cellmate. Rashad Bolton, 29, died January 4, 2021, from a puncture wound to the chest with a sharp object; his parents filed a lawsuit claiming he was stabbed to death. Cesar Arnold Pastrana Morales, 33, died March 13, 2020, from a stab wound to the chest; an incident report shows five other inmates were involved.

The state has paid out repeatedly in connection with Hancock deaths. Per the DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger, the $424,710 payout tied to the 2022 McKee incident was joined by $437,500 tied to the 2021 Bolton death, $600,000 tied to the 2019 death of Geberyesus Yemane Selassie, $13,800 tied to Freedie Barnes (2016), $250 tied to Rico Sterling (2016), and $2,000 tied to Michael Bolick (2015).

73.5% Vacant: Staffing Collapse and the Conditions It Produces

The violence at Hancock unfolds against a staffing picture that is among the worst in the Georgia system. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that 73.5% of correctional officer positions at Hancock State Prison were vacant as of October 2024 — leaving only 49 officers on staff for more than 1,100 prisoners. A separate AJC report put the figure at more than 70% vacant as of October 2024, describing Hancock as having one of the GDC's highest correctional officer vacancy rates.

That figure is not an outlier in isolation; it is the extreme end of a systemwide condition. Consultants found that staffing vacancies at 20 of Georgia's 34 prisons had reached "emergency levels," making it impossible to keep up with even basic protocols, and that cell locks at many prisons are broken — allowing prisoners to roam and gang members to intimidate other inmates. The AJC reported that short-staffing, safety problems, and corruption inside Georgia's prisons have allowed prisoners to operate large criminal enterprises from their cells, with 28 major drug-trafficking cases filed between 2015 and 2024. In January 2025, federal prosecutors announced charges against dozens of people for conspiring to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, oxycodone, and marijuana — including inmates at Wilcox, Telfair, and Macon state prisons, Georgia Diagnostic and Correctional Prison, and the privately operated Wheeler and Jenkins correctional facilities. Citing the consultants' findings, Gov. Brian Kemp proposed allocating an additional $600 million over 18 months to address staffing, emergency repairs, and infrastructure improvements.

GPS's own systemic reporting has documented that officer vacancies in Georgia's prisons have run between 49.3% and 60% systemwide for multiple years, against a national standard of no more than 10%. 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." GPS treats staffing collapse and gang assumption of facility control as the integrated structural finding that explains the per-facility violence, classification, mortality, and infrastructure-failure narratives — a frame that Hancock's numbers illustrate with unusual clarity.

GPS records show that in the twelve months from mid-2026, staffing-shortage reports at this facility were logged across multiple sources, several at critical severity. GPS has additionally received recurring reports of use-of-force incidents involving the facility's tactical team; these are receipt acknowledgments, not verified findings.

Contraband, Corruption, and the Economy Inside the Walls

GDC's own published contraband reports sketch the scale of what moves into and around Hancock. On March 8, 2026, five unidentified individuals were spotted near the facility; the Hancock County Sheriff's Office and GDC Canine responded, two subjects were found and arrested, and deputies subsequently stopped a fleeing vehicle and arrested three civilians with charges pending. Five duffle bags recovered near the facility contained 908 grams of marijuana, 5,484 grams of tobacco, 35 cellphones, 18 vapes, 39 lighters, two knives, 18 activation books, 12 SIM card keys, 52 cables, 14 pairs of earbuds, and assorted clothing and food.

The pattern is not new, and it has not been confined to visitors. In January 2019, Hancock State Prison officer Jasmine Nicole Hall was caught with water bottles containing compartments filled with meth, pot, ecstasy, and hydrocodone; phone evidence revealed an ongoing drug distribution scheme across eight prisons totaling over $5,000 in transactions, per AJC reporting. GDC's contraband data for Hancock shows staff-class actors in multiple years — including three officers in 2011, two in 2012, three in 2019, two in 2021, and one each in 2018, 2024, and 2026. GDC publishes arrests as reported, not convictions, and no dispositions are released.

Deaths in 2026 and the Question of Oversight

Four deaths have been recorded at Hancock in 2026 alone, and the official response to each has followed a similar script. Jacorey Pearson died April 7, 2026; the cause of death was not released and the body was turned over to the county coroner for transport to the GBI crime lab. The GDC Office of Professional Standards opened an investigation, which the Department described as standard procedure. Jaylin Bell died February 6, 2026, following an altercation with his roommate; his body was likewise turned over to the coroner and sent to the GBI crime lab. Steven Wood, serving life with possibility of parole for a murder conviction out of Cherokee County, died January 25, 2026, after an altercation with another inmate; the Office of Professional Standards opened an investigation. A fourth death was reported later in 2026, and a statewide lockdown followed a gang-related altercation at Smith State Prison.

The pattern of deaths under investigation while the underlying conditions remain unchanged is one GPS has documented systemwide. The DOJ's October 2024 findings concluded that sexual assault in GDC facilities is "rampant" and 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 (7.7%). GDC's own consultants, PREA Auditors of America, reviewed 388 PREA investigation files in May 2022 and found that not 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 DOJ's 2024 report described violence, sexual assaults, and gang-run prisons in Georgia, fueled by a culture of indifference.

GPS records show ten sources reporting alleged assault by another incarcerated person at Hancock over the twelve months ending September 2026, several at critical severity, with the U.S. Department of Justice named as an external recipient in the signal record. Inmate accounts collected by GPS describe a pattern of stabbings in housing units, of officers declining to enter buildings to conduct meaningful security and medical checks, and of injured people attempting to close and patch their own wounds. GPS has received accounts of a mass stabbing incident at the facility in which multiple people were injured and an air ambulance responded. These are receipt acknowledgments; GPS waits for corroborating evidence to surface.

Classification Drift and a Facility Built for 500

Hancock's rated capacity is 1,191. Its original design capacity was 500. That gap — a facility operating at more than twice what it was built to hold — is the physical expression of a pattern GPS has documented across Georgia's medium- and close-security facilities: classification drift, in which facilities operate at higher security levels than their designation implies, without the staffing or infrastructure to match. GPS's reporting has documented classification drift at Georgia prisons as of October 2025, with medium-security facilities housing close-security inmates without adequate staffing and infrastructure. GPS has also published a report titled "The Classification Crisis: How Four Medium Security Prisons Are Killing People," documenting classification drift issues; that title identifies four facilities but does not, by itself, establish which four.

The infrastructure dimension is systemwide. GPS has documented that most GDC facilities are 30-40+ years old, with patterns of deferred maintenance that have produced broken cell-door locks, inoperative surveillance and fire-alarm systems, mold and water failures, broken kitchen sanitization equipment, and pest infestations. The DOJ's October 2024 findings, the Guidehouse 2024 assessment, and Commissioner Oliver's public "end of life" statements all corroborate the pattern. GPS treats infrastructure collapse as a force multiplier for the violence, classification, gang-control, and mortality crises documented at the facility level.

Hancock's own profile reflects this: the facility has a long history of violence, including riots and homicides, and serious infrastructure problems such as inoperable locks and chronic understaffing. Family members who have contacted GPS describe conditions at the annex — a metal building, they say, without insulation or ventilation, where interior temperatures reportedly rise above 105°F, and where they allege the HVAC system was turned on for an inspection and then immediately shut off afterward. GPS has received these accounts; they are allegations from family members, not verified findings.

Food Service: A Clean Inspection Record and What It Does Not Measure

Against that backdrop, Hancock's food-safety record is conspicuously clean. The Georgia Department of Public Health has inspected the facility repeatedly, and the scores are near-perfect: 100 (Grade A) on June 25, 2026 (two inspections), 100 on December 18, 2025 (two inspections), 100 and 96 on May 27, 2025, 100 on December 31, 2024 (two inspections), 100 and 93 on June 25, 2024, and 100 on October 13, 2023 (two inspections). The single violation cited in the 96 score was for food-contact surfaces not cleaned and sanitized; the two violations behind the 93 concerned eating, tasting, drinking, or tobacco use and personal cleanliness.

GPS has documented a systemic pattern of food-service sanitation failure across GDC kitchens that DPH inspection scores systematically fail to capture: tray-sanitizing dishwashers broken for sustained periods, sustained roach and rodent infestation in kitchen and serving areas, and meals served on visibly contaminated trays. The pattern is hidden from DPH scores because inspections are scheduled walkthroughs that do not assess equipment under load, and because GPS has documented professional overlap between inspectors and facility staff in small-county settings. High DPH scores at GDC facilities coexist with sustained witness reports of equipment failure and food contamination; the contradiction is the analytical center of the GPS investigation "Dunked, Stacked, and Served." Hancock's scores should be read in that light — as a measure of what a scheduled walkthrough can see, not of what the kitchen does under load.

A Facility That Also Releases People

Not every event at Hancock is a death. In June 2026, a Fulton County judge vacated Marquez Powell's conviction following a joint motion from the Georgia Innocence Project and the Fulton County District Attorney's Office Conviction Integrity Unit, which cited newly developed DNA evidence; prosecutors dismissed all charges and Powell was released from Hancock State Prison. In January 2026, Earl White, a 54-year-old former inmate who had spent at least 12 years in and out of Georgia prisons, was released from Hancock. And in January 2026, at least two inmates were injured during a brawl inside the facility; officials did not detail the severity of the injuries or say whether the inmates were taken to a hospital.

Sources

This analysis draws on reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WGXA, 41NBC, and other Georgia outlets; Georgia Department of Public Health food-safety inspection records; the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through open records; GDC contraband reports and incident data; U.S. Department of Justice findings on Georgia's prisons; and GPS's own mortality registry, personnel records, and prior investigative reporting. Death counts and cause classifications are drawn from GPS's mortality registry and are a floor, not a ceiling, since GDC reports deaths roughly two months late. Inmate and family accounts referenced in this page were collected by GPS staff and are described in aggregate; they are receipt acknowledgments rather than verified findings.