Last updated October 4, 2026.(DS)

Pulaski State Prison: A Women's Facility Built on a Lethal Medical Record

Pulaski State Prison sits in Hawkinsville, in Pulaski County, and has held adult women since it opened in 1994. The compound runs multiple double-bunked dormitory buildings alongside segregation units used for disciplinary and protective custody, and it offers GED classes, basic education, and limited vocational and treatment programs. Its original design capacity was 500; its current rated capacity is 1,223, and GPS's facility records put the population at 1,185 — roughly 96.9% of rated capacity. What the numbers cannot show is the record that has accumulated inside those buildings: a documented pattern of deaths under a single contract physician, a state liability payout approaching a million dollars, federal findings of unconstitutional conditions, and a mortality registry that has recorded 30 deaths at this facility since January 1, 2020.

Thirty Deaths Since 2020, and a Physician's Record

GPS's mortality registry records 30 deaths at Pulaski State Prison since January 1, 2020 — a figure that is a floor, not a ceiling, because GDC reports deaths roughly two months late. The registry's cause coding is itself a finding: 19 of those 30 deaths are classified Unknown/Pending, seven Natural/Medical, two Suicide, and two Other.

The most recent deaths on the registry are Kristi Ray Perkins, who died July 12, 2026, at Pulaski State Prison, with the cause listed as Natural/Medical, age 59; Monika Yvette Bradley, who died July 5, 2026, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 43; Tulia Eustache, who died June 3, 2026, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 66; Karen Michelle Lindsey, who died May 24, 2026, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 59; and Denecia Nichelle Randall, who died March 30, 2026, at Pulaski State Prison, with the cause listed as Suicide, age 28.

Before them: Ronika Lashawn Carswell died December 12, 2025, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Natural/Medical, age 50. Candace Lajon Morgan died June 11, 2025, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Natural/Medical, age 41. Esmeralda Carillo Hernandez died May 22, 2025, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Natural/Medical, age 50. Stephanie Sabrina Gary died March 5, 2025, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Natural/Medical, age 55. Lesley Bell Owens died July 23, 2024, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 49. Tracy Michelle Graves died May 16, 2024, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 45. Ramada Lesha Butts died April 16, 2024, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 52. Sheila Britton died September 22, 2023, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 60. Cynthia Mccain died September 3, 2023, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 65. Pharina S Peterson died May 1, 2023, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 75. Sandra Sipsy died January 24, 2023, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 54. Christina Marie Buttery died December 21, 2022, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 34. Monica Mae Cutts died August 15, 2022, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 29. Tammy Lowann Baker died May 26, 2022, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 54. Sharon Ann Fuquea died April 16, 2022, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 56. Margaret Ann Palmer died January 21, 2022, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 55. Tanya Marie Abbs died November 28, 2021, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 36. Sandtoro Pearson died October 1, 2021, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Natural/Medical, age 44. Kathleen Conger Murphy died September 28, 2021, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Natural/Medical, age 71. Melissa Christine Thacker died July 25, 2021, at Pulaski State Prison, with the cause listed as Suicide, age 27. The full registry list is published at https://gps.press/georgia-prison-deaths/facility/pulaski-state-prison/.

Against that registry sits a body of reporting on how these women died. GPS's published investigation found that 22 women died under a doctor at Pulaski State Prison, and that the same physician had a history of malpractice deaths in New York before Georgia hired him. GPS's reporting further describes that the state hired him despite knowing about that record, that he was praised for cutting costs by denying women medical care, and that the denials resulted in deaths — and that the state gave him a raise anyway. The curated GPS event record places at least 22 women's deaths under Dr. Yvon Nazaire's care at Pulaski State Prison and Emanuel Women's Facility between 2005 and 2015, with the deaths at Emanuel Women's Facility. These are GPS's own investigative findings, and the underlying claims trace to a period when family accounts were often the only available source; they should be read as GPS's documented reporting rather than as independently adjudicated findings.

Settlements, Suits, and What the State Has Paid

The state's own liability ledger corroborates that Pulaski has produced compensable harm. According to the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger, obtained through open records, the state paid $925,000 in a 2015 settlement tied to Pulaski State Prison in the case of Bonnie Rocheleau, and $300,000 in a separate 2015 settlement tied to the facility in the case of Kimery Finger. The same ledger records an $85,000 payout in 2024 in the case of Makayah Howard, $30,000 in 2013 in the case of Kari A Quinn, and $15,900 in 2018 in the case of Dante Coleman. Together these are court-verified, state-recorded payouts — not allegations.

The Rocheleau name recurs in the reporting. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Bonnie Rocheleau failed to get adequate care at Pulaski State Prison when she developed pneumonia, leading to her death. In the same reporting, the AJC described the case of Mollianne Fischer, who failed to receive adequate medical care at Pulaski State Prison and was left in a vegetative state.

Violence, Supervision, and the Federal Findings

The AJC reported that officers and staff at Pulaski State Prison did not notice a problem until someone from outside called to report a stabbing — and that the prisoner reported being assaulted hours earlier by 10 people who stomped, hit, and kicked her. In a separate 2023 incident, the AJC reported that on July 15, 2023, incarcerated people at Pulaski destroyed building property; 11 were directly involved using weapons including broomsticks, a crowbar, metal spray, shanks, and locks, and chemical spray was used to quell them as nine security staff responded.

The federal government has documented the broader pattern. GPS's systemic findings record that the U.S. Department of Justice's October 2024 findings letter concluded that sexual assault in Georgia prisons is "rampant" and that GDC does not reasonably protect incarcerated people, including LGBTI individuals, from sexual harm — and that the DOJ documented at-knifepoint sexual assaults at Pulaski State Prison specifically. The same systemic record notes that of 456 sexual-abuse allegations recorded in 2022, only 35 were substantiated (7.7%), and that 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.

Two Pulaski supervisors were arrested in that context. The AJC reported that Deputy Warden Alonzo L. McMillian was arrested at the Hawkinsville prison and booked into the Pulaski County jail on May 2, 2024, and released the next day on a $10,000 bond. Arrest warrants stated that McMillian had a "sexual relationship" with a prisoner and specifically engaged in improper sexual contact with her on February 24 and 25. GDC spokesperson Joan Heath confirmed to the AJC that both McMillian and Clark were terminated May 2 following their arrests on charges of sexual contact with prisoners. The AJC reported that the arrests came as the prison system faced a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, and that the alleged sexual misconduct of two prison supervisors could signal a larger systemic problem within GDC.

Food Service: Failing Scores, Then Passing Ones

The Georgia Department of Public Health's food-safety inspections at Pulaski State Prison trace a repeating cycle of failure and followup. On July 14, 2026, the facility scored 63 — a Grade F — on a routine inspection with 10 violations cited, including no certified food protection manager, inadequate handwashing facilities, and improper disposition of returned or unsafe food. Nine days later, on July 23, 2026, a followup inspection scored 96, Grade A, with two violations cited.

The same pattern appears earlier in 2026: a routine inspection on January 29 scored 67, Grade F, with eight violations including handwashing and food-protection-manager findings; a followup on February 6 scored 96, Grade A. In 2025, a September 30 followup scored 78 (Grade C) and an August 7 routine scored 73 (Grade C), both with six violations. A February 11, 2025 routine scored 83 (Grade B). In 2024, scores ran 90 (Grade A, October 8), 82 (Grade B, June 6), and 91 (Grade A, January 18). A June 27, 2023 routine scored 92, Grade A.

GPS has documented a systemic pattern of food-service sanitation failure across GDC kitchens that DPH inspection scores systematically fail to capture — broken tray-sanitizing dishwashers, sustained roach and rodent infestation, and meals served on visibly contaminated trays. GPS's analysis holds that 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. The Marshall Project independently reported on May 16, 2026, in a piece by Schwartzapfel titled "Rats, Insects and Mold," documenting rats in kitchens, insects in food, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition across Georgia facilities. GPS's systemic findings also record that GDC spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food (2024) and has proposed $1.60 per day in FY27 — under 60 cents per meal — against the FDA Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day for an adult man's nutritionally adequate diet.

Leadership, Lockdowns, and the Reports Families Are Making

Wendy A. Jackson has held the warden's post at Pulaski State Prison since April 16, 2025. Shelley Elizabeth Hermann serves as Deputy Warden of Administration, Kasann Mahogany as Deputy Warden, and Andrea Showers as Deputy Warden. GPS's published investigation described Jackson as an "untested warden," and reported that families of people incarcerated at Pulaski are sounding the alarm about the new warden.

GPS's reporting describes accounts of retaliation, intimidation, and unsafe conditions under the new warden — retaliatory housing, extended lockdowns, staff intimidation, and a grievance process that families and advocates describe as non-functional. GPS staff records indicate the facility was under active lockdown in 2024–2025. Multiple sources at Pulaski report lockdown conditions in which water access to cells was cut off for multiple days, shower access was denied for extended periods, clean clothing was unavailable for nearly two weeks, phone access was limited to a single call, and personal property — including locks — was confiscated. GPS has received accounts of a warden engaging in a direct verbal confrontation with an incarcerated person during a facility inspection.

GPS records show, over the past 12 months, multiple reports of medical neglect alleged at this facility, including at critical severity; multiple family reports expressing fear for an incarcerated person's life; and multiple reports of media-outreach attempts. GPS has also received accounts of gang extortion at Pulaski, including reporting that Pamela Dixon's daughter was subjected to gang extortion at the facility. GPS staff analysis has identified patterns of gang violence and extortion at Pulaski, and family members and advocates have raised allegations of intimidation and staff retaliation against incarcerated women. GPS has received accounts of an assault at the facility in 2024 and of a safe-housing request denied following that assault.

The systemic context matters here. GPS's findings record 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%, and that the October 2024 DOJ findings letter concluded that "the leadership of the Georgia Department of Corrections has lost control of its facilities" while faulting 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 — Pulaski among them.

Sources

This analysis draws on GPS's mortality registry and facility records; Georgia Department of Public Health food-safety inspection reports; the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through open records; reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; The Marshall Project's May 16, 2026 investigation by Schwartzapfel; the U.S. Department of Justice's October 2024 findings letter on Georgia prisons; GDC public statements and the GDC Office of Professional Standards; and inmate, family, and staff accounts collected by GPS.