METRO REENTRY FACILITY

Analysis written on August 9, 2026.

Metro Reentry Facility sits in DeKalb County, a GDC-operated reentry center built on the site of the former Metro State Prison and reopened in 2018. With a design capacity of 355 and a population of 340, it is meant to house men within two years of release or parole eligibility, offering intensive programming—cognitive-behavioral classes, vocational training, and family reunification—to reduce recidivism. But GPS records show a facility where reentry ambitions collide with the same crumbling infrastructure, underfunding, and institutional neglect that plague Georgia’s larger prison compounds. Thirty-two people have died in Metro Reentry’s custody since 2020, including one man who was transferred there after surviving a deadly riot at another prison, only to die on arrival.

The Death of Silas Westbrook and the Washington State Prison Riot

On January 11, 2026, a gang-related disturbance erupted at Washington State Prison, leaving three men dead at the scene—Teddy Dewayne Jackson, 27; Ahmod Dewayne Hatcher, 23; and Jimmy Lee Trammell, 42, who was days from release—and a fourth, Dajhmere Ladaveon Hall, 30, found dead two days before the riot. Silas Rodrgiouez Westbrook, 42, was among the injured. GDC stated he was hospitalized with minor injuries, then transferred to Metro Reentry Facility. He suffered a medical emergency upon arrival and was pronounced deceased on January 17. GDC’s Office of Professional Standards opened an investigation, and Westbrook’s body was taken to the GBI crime lab to determine an official cause of death. GPS’s mortality database records his cause as unknown/pending.

Westbrook’s death made him the fifth person to die in that single week across Georgia’s prison system. His case illustrates how violence can migrate: a man injured in a riot at a maximum‑security prison 150 miles away was moved to a facility nominally dedicated to reentry, where he died. Criminal charges—felony murder, aggravated assault, and gang participation—were later filed against 12 incarcerated individuals in connection with the Washington State Prison disturbance. The transfer of a riot-injured person into a reentry center raises unanswered questions about medical triage and supervision in a system where, according to GPS’s tracking, 1,860 people have died in GDC custody since 2020.

Conditions Inside a Reentry Facility: Heat, Water, and Food

Across multiple accounts collected by GPS, incarcerated people at Metro Reentry describe a facility without air conditioning, where drinking water is hot and tastes heavily of chlorine, causing cramps and diarrhea. Ice, when available, is reportedly hoarded and sold by some residents, leaving others without relief from the heat. The food, those inside say, is so unappetizing it induces nausea.

These conditions do not exist in a vacuum. GPS’s systemic investigation has documented that GDC spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food—under 60 cents per meal—compared to an FDA Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day for a nutritionally adequate diet. The Marshall Project independently corroborated these findings in May 2026, reporting rats in kitchens, insects in food, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition across Georgia facilities, and quoting GPS analysis linking chronic underfeeding to the violence the U.S. Department of Justice flagged in its October 2024 findings. GPS has also documented systemic sanitation failures—tray‑sanitizing dishwashers broken for sustained periods, roach and rodent infestations in kitchen areas, and meals served on contaminated trays—while Department of Public Health inspection scores, often conducted as scheduled walkthroughs, fail to capture equipment failures under load. At Metro Reentry, a facility intended to prepare men for a productive return to society, basic deprivations undercut the mission.

Broken Promises: Reentry Rhetoric and the Reality of Collapse

In a written response to GPS’s 2026 gubernatorial candidate questionnaire, Keisha Lance Bottoms pledged to “strengthen Georgia’s transition centers and ensure efficient job placement, housing assistance, counseling, and case management, both before and after release”—and to provide substance use treatment, mental health services, and workforce apprenticeships rapidly to people leaving state prisons. That promise, made to reduce recidivism, stands in stark contrast to the conditions residents describe at Metro Reentry.

The facility is embedded in a prison system where officer vacancies have run between 49% and 60% for years, Georgia ranks last in the nation for correctional‑officer pay, and the DOJ’s October 2024 findings letter concluded that “the leadership of the Georgia Department of Corrections has lost control of its facilities.” The systemic staffing collapse, documented by GPS and independent consultants, means that even reentry centers—designed to be lower‑security and program‑rich—suffer from the same neglect that fuels violence elsewhere. For the men housed there, many of them older and medically vulnerable, the absence of reliable air conditioning, potable water, and edible food suggests a system that is merely warehousing bodies rather than rebuilding lives.

A Pattern of Deaths, Known and Unknown

Of the 32 deaths GPS has recorded at Metro Reentry since 2020, 20 are attributed to natural or medical causes, 11 remain unknown or pending, and one was an accident. Many of the deceased were in their 60s: Donald Woods (65), Cedric Clement Pierce (61), Samuel Hunt (64), Wilson Beavers (66), John Whitfield (61), and others. The concentration of pending causes among 2026 deaths, including Westbrook’s, signals possible gaps in medical oversight—particularly concerning given that the state spends approximately 14 times more on medical care for incarcerated people ($432 million) than on food. Westbrook’s death, following a transfer for “minor injuries,” underscores the disconnect between reported narratives and outcomes inside the facility. As GPS continues to track mortality, the unanswered questions surrounding these 11 deaths raise the possibility that conditions at Metro Reentry are contributing to a quiet but persistent toll.

Sources

This analysis draws on official GDC statements regarding the death of Silas Westbrook; GPS’s systemic findings on officer vacancies, food spending, infrastructure collapse, and sanitation failures, corroborated by The Marshall Project’s May 2026 investigation; GPS’s mortality database and facility records; inmate accounts collected by GPS staff; and written responses to the GPS 2026 candidate questionnaire from gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms.