HAYS STATE PRISON

Last updated August 23, 2026.(DS)

Hays State Prison: Violence, Contraband, and a System at the Breaking Point

Hays State Prison in Trion, Chattooga County, opened in 1990 as a men's facility with an original design capacity of 448. Today it is rated for 1,101 people and holds 1,103 — 100.2% of rated capacity, and roughly two and a half times the population the physical plant was designed for. The Department describes Hays as housing some of the state's "most challenging offenders." The facility 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. GPS's mortality database records 35 deaths at Hays since 2020, nine of them homicides. The most recent was Corey Anwar Dubose, 47, who died on March 23, 2026, of natural or medical causes; the most recent homicide was Melvin Gay Johnson, 35, who died on January 27, 2026.

A Homicide Record That Predates the Current Crisis

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has documented a sustained pattern of fatal violence at Hays stretching back years. Anthony L. McGhee Jr., 34, died on March 29, 2020, from complications of blunt force head trauma and sharp force trauma of the torso and extremities. Jorge Renberto Ventura-Cabrera, 35, died on June 5, 2021, from stab wounds to the neck, torso, and upper extremities; the incident report shows two other incarcerated people were involved. Quintez Smith, 25, died on August 29, 2022, from multiple sharp force injuries. Talore Stihles Blackford, 31, died on October 28, 2023, from multiple stab wounds to the neck.

The pace did not slow. Jeremy Edward Price, 36, died on March 2, 2024, from stab wounds to the neck and chest — a death classified as homicide in incident reports and confirmed by his death certificate. His mother, Tammy Price, told the AJC she still did not know what happened to her child, and the AJC reported in January 2025 that she alleges the GDC is hiding its inability to protect prisoners from harm by omitting manner-of-death information from mortality reports. Two months after Price's death, Freddie Lee Talley, 31, died on May 6, 2024, from a stab wound to the chest. The AJC reported that officers recovered seven weapons ranging in length from 9 to 22 inches, and that the incident report records a murder involving four other prisoners and multiple sharpened weapons ranging from 10.5 to 22 inches. Three incarcerated people received disciplinary reports but had not been charged as of the AJC's reporting.

GPS's own reporting has documented earlier, equally severe episodes. In late 2012 and early 2013, three homicides occurred at Hays within a single month, and a correctional officer was stabbed 22 times and survived. Pippa Hall-Jackson, 19, was stabbed to death at Hays in February 2013 in what GPS reporting describes as a gang-related mistaken-identity incident. GPS has also documented that a 2012 audit found approximately 42% of cell-door locks at Hays non-functional or easily defeated — a finding the Guidehouse 2024 assessment confirmed as part of a systemwide pattern of deferred maintenance that GPS treats as a force multiplier for facility-level violence.

Staff Smuggling and the Contraband Pipeline

The AJC has reported on multiple Hays staff members convicted of smuggling contraband. Officer Voltaire Pierre received $7,000 during a four-month period in 2018 for bringing marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine into the facility in noodle soup containers; he was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison. Lieutenant Lakeshia Thomas was recorded arranging to smuggle marijuana for Gangster Disciples member Jarico Deshun Brown; the GBI uncovered the evidence in 2019, and Thomas pleaded guilty in April 2022 and was sentenced to 15 years with two to serve in confinement. A former guard at Hays was sentenced in early 2025 for smuggling methamphetamine and other contraband to incarcerated people for over a month, according to federal officials.

These cases sit inside a larger pattern the AJC has documented: more than 425 GDC employee arrests since 2018 for on-the-job crimes. GPS's systemic findings connect this to the staffing collapse — officer vacancies running between 49.3% and 60% systemwide for multiple years, an acceptance rate under 15%, and 82.7% of new hires leaving in their first year. 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." Approximately 31% of the system's roughly 49,000 incarcerated people are validated members of 315 different security threat groups — more than double the national average — and DOJ and the Guidehouse 2024 assessment independently concluded that gangs effectively run multiple facilities, controlling access to phones, showers, food, and bed assignments.

The State's Own Ledger: Settlements at Hays

The Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger, obtained through open records, shows eleven liability payouts tied to Hays State Prison between 2011 and 2022. The largest was $650,000 to Charles L. Broady Jr. for a 2017 incident. Estaban Mosqueda Romero received $215,000 for a 2014 incident. Joshua Blash received $80,000 and Monica Rodriguez $65,000, both for 2016 incidents. Synita Hudgins received $35,000 for a 2022 incident; Cecelia Carson $29,000 for 2020; Alexander Williams $23,000 for 2019; Travarus Smith $15,000 for 2017; Uriah Raheem $5,000 for 2019. Two smaller payouts — $450 to Ricky Bernard McCoy for a 2011 incident and $250 to Deborah Martin as agent for Kendrick R. Martin for a 2017 incident — round out the ledger. These settlements represent the state's own financial acknowledgment of liability tied to incidents at Hays, though the underlying claims are not detailed in the ledger itself.

Food Safety: Scores That Mask a Deeper Problem

The Georgia Department of Public Health has conducted routine food-safety inspections at Hays since at least August 2023, and the scores have been mixed. On August 29, 2023, two inspections produced scores of 97 and 84; the lower-scoring inspection cited four violations including food-contact surfaces not cleaned and sanitized, improper cold holding temperatures, and improper hot holding temperatures. On December 27, 2023, scores were 87 and 83, with violations including inadequate handwashing facilities, improper cold holding temperatures, and physical facilities not maintained and clean. On July 19, 2024, scores were 96 and 91. On May 7, 2025, scores were 91 and 87, with the lower-scoring inspection citing improper hot holding temperatures and improper date marking and disposition. The most recent inspections, on November 18, 2025, produced scores of 92 and 87, with violations including food not separated and protected, food-contact surfaces not cleaned and sanitized, and improper eating, tasting, drinking, or tobacco use.

GPS's systemic findings caution against reading these scores as evidence of adequate food service. GPS has documented a 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 Marshall Project independently corroborated this pattern in May 2026, reporting rats in kitchens, insects in food, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition across Georgia facilities. GDC spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food — under 60 cents per meal — versus the FDA Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day for an adult man's nutritionally adequate diet. GPS treats the contradiction between high DPH scores and sustained witness reports of equipment failure and food contamination as the analytical center of its investigation "Dunked, Stacked, and Served."

A Leadership Vacancy and a Hardened Future

GPS's internal analysis records that the warden of Hays State Prison died unexpectedly in 2026, creating a vacancy in the facility's leadership. The facility's current personnel records list Christopher McAllister as Deputy Warden of Security, with a start date of July 5, 2026. The facility is also the site of a $24 million "hardened" 126-bed unit announced by the state in 2025 — the first of four identical modules planned statewide as part of a $600 million prison spending surge. GPS reporting has characterized this as a continuation of the state's preference for construction over reform, noting that the DOJ has already declared Georgia's prisons unconstitutional and that the root causes — chronic understaffing, violence, medical neglect, and food deprivation — remain unaddressed.

GPS records show that in the 12 months ending mid-2026, the facility logged six assault-by-inmate signals across three months (April through July 2026), with four sources concentrated in April alone. Inmate accounts collected by GPS describe a 2026 stabbing incident at Hays involving two incarcerated people, with two individuals transported to an outside hospital and the facility placed on lockdown. GPS has also received recurring reports of biohazard mattresses being re-issued to incarcerated people at Hays.

Sources

This analysis draws on reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, including its homicide-tracking coverage and investigative series on GDC employee arrests; Georgia Department of Public Health food-safety inspection records; the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through open records; GPS's own mortality database and investigative reporting; and inmate and family accounts collected by GPS staff.