Last updated October 4, 2026.(DS)

Hays State Prison: A Facility Built for 500, Holding 1,100, and Burying Its Dead

Hays State Prison sits in Trion, in Chattooga County, and opened in 1990 with a design capacity of 500. It now carries a rated capacity of 1,101 and a population of roughly 1,100 — a facility operating at 99.9 percent of its rated capacity and at more than twice what it was built to hold. The Department describes it as a close-security men's facility housing some of the state's "most challenging offenders." Its plant includes several general-population dorms, a Fast Track unit, multiple Tier II special-management dorms, an outside fire station and infirmary, and large numbers of Level-II mental-health beds. Gabriel Illa has served as warden since November 2023, with deputies Jonathan D. Swinford, Alisa M. Hammock, and Christopher A. McAlister, and Christopher McAllister as Deputy Warden of Security.

What follows is an accounting of what that configuration has produced: a mortality record GPS has tracked since 2020, a homicide pattern that predates it, a staff-corruption docket running back to 2018, and a documented infrastructure failure the state's own consultants later confirmed.

Thirty-Five Deaths Since 2020, Nine Classified as Homicide

GPS's mortality registry records 35 deaths at Hays State Prison since January 1, 2020 — a floor, not a ceiling, since GDC reports deaths roughly two months late. Nine of those are classified as homicides. Nineteen remain Unknown/Pending, six are Natural/Medical, and one is an Accident. The full list is maintained at GPS's facility death registry.

The most recent entries: Corey Anwar Dubose died March 23, 2026, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Melvin Gay Johnson died January 27, 2026, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. Barcel Roylee Ward died November 28, 2025, at Hays State Prison; the cause is listed as Unknown/Pending. James Cannon died October 25, 2025, at Hays State Prison, listed as a Homicide. Raymont Savion Farley died June 15, 2025, at Hays State Prison, Natural/Medical. Tommy Joe Strickland died June 4, 2025, at Hays State Prison, Natural/Medical. Ralph Carter died March 5, 2025, at Hays State Prison; the cause is Unknown/Pending. Joey Griffin died December 26, 2024, at Hays State Prison, Unknown/Pending. Thomas Johnson died October 24, 2024, at Hays State Prison, Unknown/Pending. Lawrence L Williams died October 24, 2024, at Hays State Prison, listed as a Homicide. Mackendy Pierrette died September 13, 2024, at Hays State Prison, Unknown/Pending. Keith Johnson died August 19, 2024, at Hays State Prison, Unknown/Pending. Timothy Darmofal died May 22, 2024, at Hays State Prison, Unknown/Pending. Freddie Lee Iii Talley died May 6, 2024, at Hays State Prison, listed as a Homicide. Theron Morrell Hendrix died April 19, 2024, at Hays State Prison, Unknown/Pending. Jeremy Edward Price died March 2, 2024, at Hays State Prison, listed as a Homicide. Talore Stihles Blackford died October 28, 2023, at Hays State Prison, listed as a Homicide. Randoulf Gutierrez died October 19, 2023, at Hays State Prison, Unknown/Pending. Ronnie Joe Criswell died August 15, 2023, at Hays State Prison, Unknown/Pending. Robert Millan Cook died July 17, 2023, at Hays State Prison, Unknown/Pending. Quane Laquaus Johnson died January 15, 2023, at Hays State Prison, Unknown/Pending. Robert Lee Burton died December 13, 2022, at Hays State Prison, Unknown/Pending. Tony Christopher Williams died October 14, 2022, at Hays State Prison, Unknown/Pending. John Terrell Bohannon died September 20, 2022, at Hays State Prison, Unknown/Pending. Quintez Deshon Smith died August 29, 2022, at Hays State Prison, listed as a Homicide.

The Stabbing Record, in Detail

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has documented the specific mechanics of several of those homicides. Freddie Lee Talley, 31, died May 6, 2024, from a stab wound to the chest; the incident report records a murder involving four other prisoners and multiple sharpened weapons ranging from 10.5 to 22 inches. Officers recovered seven weapons ranging in length from 9 to 22 inches, and three incarcerated people received disciplinary reports but have not been charged. Jeremy Edward Price, 36, died March 2, 2024, from stab wounds to the neck and chest, classified as a homicide in incident reports and confirmed by his death certificate. His mother, Tammy Price, told the AJC she still does not know what happened to her child — and separately alleged that GDC is hiding its inability to protect prisoners from harm by omitting manner-of-death information from mortality reports.

Earlier cases follow the same shape. Talore Stihles Blackford, 31, died October 28, 2023, from multiple stab wounds to the neck. Quintez Smith, 25, died August 29, 2022, from multiple sharp force injuries. Jorge Renberto Ventura-Cabrera, 35, died June 5, 2021, from stab wounds to the neck, torso, and upper extremities, with an incident report showing two other incarcerated people involved. Anthony L. McGhee Jr., 34, died March 29, 2020, from complications of blunt force head trauma and sharp force trauma of the torso and extremities. The pattern is not new: GPS's own reporting documents three homicides at Hays within a single month in late 2012 and early 2013, alongside a correctional officer stabbed 22 times who survived the assault. In February 2013, 19-year-old Pippa Hall-Jackson was stabbed to death at the facility in what GPS reporting describes as a gang-related mistaken-identity incident.

Contraband, Corruption, and the Staff Who Fed It

The AJC's coverage of Hays extends well beyond the bodies. In 2019, the GBI uncovered evidence that Hays Lieutenant Lakeshia Thomas was arranging to bring marijuana into the facility for Gangster Disciples member Jarico Deshun Brown; she pleaded guilty in April 2022 and was sentenced to 15 years with two to serve in confinement. A separate federal case ended in the sentencing of a former Hays guard who smuggled methamphetamine and other contraband to incarcerated people for over a month. And in a case dating to 2018, Hays officer Voltaire Pierre was found to have received $7,000 over a four-month period for bringing in marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine concealed in noodle soup containers; he was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison.

The pattern is not unique to Hays — the AJC's investigative series has documented more than 425 GDC employee arrests since 2018 for on-the-job crimes — but Hays appears repeatedly in it. GPS records show seven assault-by-inmate signals at this facility over the twelve months from April through August 2026, drawn from at least three distinct cases, with a concentration of four sources in April 2026 alone. GPS has additionally received recurring accounts of a stabbing and of an officer restrained at Hays, and of a high-ranking ROLACC Blood leader attacked during an official inspection at the facility.

Locks, Liability, and What the State Has Paid Out

Georgia's Open Records settlement ledger records eleven state liability payouts tied to Hays State Prison between 2011 and 2022. The largest is $650,000, paid in connection with an incident involving Charles L. Broady Jr. in 2017. Estaban Mosqueda Romero's 2014 incident produced a $215,000 payout; Deborah Martin, as agent for Kendrick R. Martin, drew $250 for a 2017 incident. Joshua Blash's 2016 case settled for $80,000 and Monica Rodriguez's for $65,000 the same year. Synita Hudgins' 2022 incident produced $35,000; Cecelia Carson's 2020 case, $29,000. Alexander Williams' 2019 case settled for $23,000, Travarus Smith's 2017 case for $15,000, Uriah Raheem's 2019 case for $5,000, and Ricky Bernard McCoy's 2011 case for $450.

Those payouts sit against a documented physical failure. A 2012 audit found roughly 42 percent of locks at Hays non-functional or easily defeated — a figure the state's own Guidehouse 2024 assessment confirmed as part of a systemwide pattern of deferred maintenance. GPS treats that infrastructure collapse as a force multiplier for the violence, classification, and mortality crises documented at the facility level, and the DOJ's October 2024 findings, the Guidehouse assessment, and Commissioner Oliver's public "end of life" statements all corroborate the broader pattern.

Food Safety: High Scores, Repeated Violations

The Georgia Department of Public Health has inspected Hays' food service repeatedly, and the results are mixed in a way that GPS's own investigation of prison food argues is misleading. On June 22, 2026, the facility received an 82 (Grade B) with four violations — food not separated and protected, food-contact surfaces not cleaned and sanitized, wiping cloths improperly used and stored — and, on the same date, a 91 (Grade A) with one violation for improper cold holding. On November 18, 2025, Hays scored 87 (Grade B) with two violations and 92 (Grade A) with two more. On May 7, 2025, it scored 91 (Grade A) with one violation and 87 (Grade B) with two, including improper hot holding and improper date marking. On July 19, 2024, it scored 96 (Grade A) and 91 (Grade A). On December 27, 2023, it scored 87 (Grade B) and 83 (Grade B). On August 29, 2023, it scored 97 (Grade A) and 84 (Grade B).

GPS has documented a systemic pattern of food-service sanitation failure across GDC kitchens that DPH 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 Marshall Project independently reported in May 2026 on rats in kitchens, insects in food, and moldy trays across Georgia facilities. GDC spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food, with $1.60 proposed for FY27 — under 60 cents per meal — against an FDA Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day for an adult man's nutritionally adequate diet.

What the State Is Building Instead

In 2025, Georgia announced a $24 million "hardened" 126-bed unit at Hays State Prison — the pilot module in a $600 million prison spending surge that includes four identical modules statewide. The state's answer to a facility that has recorded 35 deaths since 2020, nine of them homicides, has been concrete. GPS has independently tracked 1,896 deaths in GDC custody system-wide since 2020.

Sources

This analysis draws on the Georgia Department of Public Health's food-safety inspection records for Hays State Prison; the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through Open Records; GPS's mortality registry and intelligence records; reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on homicides, contraband prosecutions, and GDC employee arrests at the facility; The Marshall Project's May 2026 investigation of Georgia prison food; the DOJ's October 2024 findings letter and the Guidehouse 2024 assessment; and GPS's own investigative reporting and systemic findings on infrastructure collapse, staffing, food service, and classification drift.