Last updated November 8, 2026.(DS)

Long Unit: A Small Prison, a Thin Clinical Staff, and Two Deaths Coded Natural

Long Unit sits in Ludowici, in Long County, a state prison for adult male felons that opened in 1975 and today holds roughly 205 people against a rated capacity of 212 — about 96.7 percent of design load. It is a close-security facility in GDC's own classification, run by Warden Jennifer R. Clark since June 2025, with Pamela Dennis as deputy. The facility profile describes it as a relatively small institution that has more recently been used to house specific populations, including officials and others whose cases draw public attention, under tighter control than many county facilities; like other units, it relies on dormitory housing, limited programming, and outside details. GDC's own records show it carrying an accreditation schedule and internal audits in July 2022 and January 2024.

What follows examines three threads: the deaths GPS has recorded at Long Unit since 2020 and what the coroner and GBI records say about them; the contracted clinical staffing behind the facility's mental health and dental care; and the gap between the facility's clean kitchen inspection scores and the systemwide pattern GPS has documented.

Two Deaths, Both Coded Natural

GPS's mortality registry records two deaths at Long Unit since January 2020, both categorized as Natural/Medical.

Cameron Ryan Paquette died February 13, 2024, at Long Unit; the registry lists his cause as Natural/Medical, and he was 43. The circumstances are documented in court-verified records with unusual specificity. Paquette collapsed — fell backward onto concrete — on the morning of February 13, 2024, while on a GDC work detail at the Ben Park / Bill Morris Park complex in Long County. Supervising officer C/O Dallas Dick last saw him alive at 0555 hours. After the collapse, CPR was begun by the supervising officer and another incarcerated man, and 911 was called. Wayne EMS transported him to Wayne Memorial Hospital in Jesup, where Dr. Gerald Filmore pronounced him dead at 0945 hours. GDC investigator Curtis McMicchael was on scene at the location where Paquette collapsed.

The GBI Coastal Lab autopsy, GBI case 2024-6000957, was performed by pathologist Dr. Atkinson on February 15, 2024. GBI Death Investigation Specialist Heather Brown confirmed the cause of death in writing on September 11, 2025. The Long County Coroner's death-investigation report, case 91-010-24, states the cause of death as hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and the manner as natural.

Charles E Daniels died August 24, 2020, at Long Unit; GPS's registry lists his cause as Natural/Medical, and he was 51. GDC coded his death as "Natural."

The two records sit at different evidentiary depths — one backed by a GBI autopsy and a coroner's report, the other by GDC's own coding — and GPS's registry carries both as natural. GPS has independently tracked 1,928 deaths in GDC custody systemwide since 2020, a figure that is always a floor because the Department reports deaths roughly two months late.

A Clinical Staff Measured in Fractions of a Position

The clearest public window into what Long Unit offers the people held there comes from the contracted health-services staffing matrices filed under the state's agreements with MHM Correctional Services. They are not reassuring.

Under MHM Amendment 9, Long Unit's total mental health allocation was 1.05 full-time equivalents — 42 hours per week — at a FY23 annual cost of $86,973.43. That total breaks down into 1.00 FTE Mental Health Counselor (40 hours per week, $75,071.91), a psychiatrist allocation of 1.00 FTE with 0.025 FTE noted ($7,544.82), and a psychologist allocation of 1.00 FTE with 0.025 FTE noted ($4,356.71). Amendment 13's staffing matrix carries the same structure forward: 0.025 psychologist FTE at 1.00 hour per week ($4,357 annually), 1.00 mental health counselor FTE at 40 hours per week ($75,072), and 0.025 psychiatrist FTE at 1.00 hour per week ($7,545), for a total of 1.05 FTE at 42 hours per week.

In plain terms, a facility holding more than 200 men has one full-time counselor and roughly one hour a week of psychiatrist and psychologist time each. Dental is starker still: Amendment 9 lists Long Unit's total dental allocation at 0.00 FTE and $0.00, and Amendment 13's matrix lists no dentist, no dental hygienist, and no dental assistant, with the total dental line left blank.

The Centurion Amendment 1 contract sets estimated weekly hours for nurse practitioners and physician assistants at Long Unit at 56 hours. The same exhibit lists Long Unit with a physical capacity of 125 offenders and marks on-site X-ray as "No" — a capacity figure that conflicts with GPS's standing record of 212 and appears to describe an older or narrower measurement of the physical plant rather than current rated capacity.

Clean Kitchen Scores and the Systemwide Contradiction

The Georgia Department of Public Health has inspected Long Unit's food service six times since August 2023, all routine inspections conducted by Timmy Brinkley, and the scores are uniformly high: 100 on August 9, 2023; 100 on February 12, 2024; 100 on December 18, 2024; 96 on June 30, 2025, with one violation for food-contact surfaces not cleaned and sanitized; 100 on December 23, 2025; and 99 on June 24, 2026, with one violation concerning warewashing facilities — installation, maintenance, use, and test strips.

Those scores deserve to be read alongside a pattern GPS has documented across the system. GPS's reporting describes food-service sanitation failure in GDC kitchens that scheduled DPH walkthroughs 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, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition across Georgia facilities. GPS treats the coexistence of high inspection scores and sustained witness accounts of equipment failure as the analytical center of its investigation "Dunked, Stacked, and Served" — the inspections assess a kitchen at a scheduled moment, not equipment under load.

The same body of GPS reporting documents that GDC spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food, with $1.60 per day proposed for FY27 — under 60 cents a meal — against an FDA Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day for an adult man's nutritionally adequate diet. Long Unit's scores are a data point about inspection, not a rebuttal of that figure.

Where Long Unit Sits in a System Under Federal Findings

Long Unit's profile notes that it has been specifically named in federal findings on unconstitutional conditions in Georgia prisons. The broader record those findings sit within is one GPS has documented extensively: officer vacancies running between 49.3 and 60 percent systemwide for multiple years against a national standard of no more than 10 percent; a hiring pipeline in which 82.7 percent of new hires leave in their first year; and Georgia ranking 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."

That staffing collapse has been described on the record by people who lived it. Russell Zirkle, a former GDC assistant warden, said in a timestamped interview that Smith State Prison was among facilities running a 70-80 percent officer vacancy rate — testimony GPS reported in "Two Commanders Say Georgia Hides Its Prison Staffing Crisis." Tyler Ryals, a former GDC sergeant forced out in 2024 after whistleblowing, told GPS he had personally been the only security person on the entire Telfair compound of roughly 1,250 maximum-security inmates.

GPS has also documented a systemic pattern of infrastructure decay across a prison system whose facilities are mostly 30 to 40 or more years old — broken cell-door locks, inoperative surveillance and fire-alarm systems, mold and water failures, broken kitchen sanitization equipment, and pest infestations — corroborated by the DOJ's October 2024 findings, the Guidehouse 2024 assessment, and Commissioner Oliver's public statements that facilities are reaching "end of life." Long Unit, opened in 1975, is of that generation.

Separately, GPS's reporting describes classification drift as a systemwide phenomenon: medium-security facilities housing close-security populations without the staffing and infrastructure that designation implies. Long Unit is itself designated close security, so the drift pattern does not map onto it directly; what does is the staffing arithmetic — a 1.05 FTE clinical allocation and a single warden's office overseeing a population of roughly 205.

Sources

This analysis draws on GDC records including the Centurion Amendment 1 contract exhibit and the MHM Amendment 9 and Amendment 13 staffing matrices, GDC internal audit calendars and accreditation schedules, and GDC mortality coding; Long County Coroner death-investigation records and GBI Coastal Lab autopsy records in case 2024-6000957; Georgia Department of Public Health food-service inspection reports for Long Unit; GPS's mortality registry and facility records; and GPS's own investigative reporting on staffing collapse, infrastructure decay, food service, and classification, including interviews with former GDC assistant warden Russell Zirkle and former GDC sergeant Tyler Ryals. The Marshall Project's May 2026 investigation of Georgia prison food is cited as independent corroboration of the food-service pattern.