Last updated October 24, 2026.(DS)

Pulaski State Prison: A Women's Facility Built for 500, Rated for 1,223, and Still Losing People

Pulaski State Prison sits in Hawkinsville, in Pulaski County, and has held women since it opened in 1994. The compound was designed for 500 people. Its current rated capacity is 1,223, and GPS's facility records put the population at 1,186 — roughly 97 percent of rated capacity, and more than twice the number the plant was built to hold. The physical plant is a set of multiple double-bunked dormitory buildings plus segregation units used for disciplinary and protective custody. Pulaski offers GED classes, basic education, and limited vocational and treatment programs.

What follows traces four threads that GPS's records and reporting connect at this facility: a contract physician whose tenure here is tied to a documented cluster of deaths; a state liability ledger that records seven-figure payouts tied to this prison; a security and supervision record that includes a deputy warden arrested for sexual contact with a prisoner and a stabbing no officer noticed until an outside caller phoned it in; and a food-service record that swung between failing and passing grades within a single month in 2026.

The Physician, the Deaths, and the Settlement Ledger

GPS's own published investigation into Pulaski reported that 22 women died under a doctor at the facility. That reporting describes a physician who had a history of malpractice deaths in New York before Georgia hired him, and who was hired despite the state's awareness of that record. GPS's investigation further describes the doctor being praised for cutting costs by denying women medical care — and describes those denials resulting in deaths, with the state giving the physician a raise afterward. These are GPS's findings as published; they rest on the documentary and source record assembled in that investigation rather than on a court adjudication of the physician's conduct.

The state's own liability ledger gives the medical-neglect thread a hard financial floor. Records from the Georgia Department of DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger, obtained by open records request, show a $925,000 payout tied to Pulaski State Prison in connection with Bonnie Rocheleau, for an incident dated 2015. A second 2015 payout of $300,000 is tied to the facility in connection with Kimery Finger. The ledger also records $85,000 tied to Makayah Howard (2024), $30,000 tied to Kari A. Quinn (2013), and $15,900 tied to Dante Coleman (2018).

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in January 2025 on two women whose care at Pulaski is at the center of this record. The AJC reported that Bonnie Rocheleau failed to get adequate care at the facility when she developed pneumonia, leading to her death, and that Mollianne Fischer failed to receive adequate medical care there, resulting in her being left in a vegetative state.

Thirty Deaths Since 2020, and the Names Behind the Number

GPS has recorded 30 deaths at Pulaski State Prison since January 1, 2020. That figure is a floor, not a ceiling: GDC reports deaths roughly two months late, so the registry lags the institution. The full list is maintained at https://gps.press/georgia-prison-deaths/facility/pulaski-state-prison/.

The most recent entries are Kristi Ray Perkins, who died July 12, 2026, at Pulaski State Prison, with GPS's registry listing the cause as Natural/Medical at 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 registry listing Suicide, age 28.

Before them: Ronika Lashawn Carswell died December 12, 2025, at Pulaski State Prison, Natural/Medical, age 50; Candace Lajon Morgan died June 11, 2025, at Pulaski State Prison, Natural/Medical, age 41; Esmeralda Carillo Hernandez died May 22, 2025, at Pulaski State Prison, Natural/Medical, age 50; Stephanie Sabrina Gary died March 5, 2025, at Pulaski State Prison, 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.

Further back: Sheila Britton died September 22, 2023, at Pulaski State Prison, Natural/Medical, 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, Natural/Medical, age 75; Sandra Sipsy died January 24, 2023, at Pulaski State Prison, Natural/Medical, 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, with the registry listing Suicide, age 29; Tammy Lowann Baker died May 26, 2022, at Pulaski State Prison, Natural/Medical, 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, Natural/Medical, age 44; Kathleen Conger Murphy died September 28, 2021, at Pulaski State Prison, Natural/Medical, age 71; and Melissa Christine Thacker died July 25, 2021, at Pulaski State Prison, with the registry listing Suicide, age 27.

Of the 30, GPS's registry codes 14 as Unknown/Pending, 11 as Natural/Medical, three as Suicide, and two as Other. The size of the Unknown/Pending bucket is itself a finding: for nearly half the women who died here since 2020, the public record GPS holds does not yet establish a cause.

GDC's public statements on two of these deaths illustrate how thin that record can be. The Department announced that Kristi Perkins died on July 12 at Pulaski State Prison, with the cause undetermined and no signs of an altercation or foul play reported, and that the GDC Office of Professional Standards was investigating as standard procedure. It announced that Monika Bradley died on July 5 at Pulaski State Prison, cause undetermined, with the Office of Professional Standards investigating as standard procedure. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating to determine the causes of death for Perkins and Bradley. GDC also stated that a mechanical issue with air conditioning occurred on July 9 and was resolved the same day, and that there was no indication the deaths were related to that issue.

Supervision, Sexual Misconduct, and the Deputy Warden Arrest

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

GPS's systemic findings place that arrest inside a documented pattern rather than a one-off. The October 2024 DOJ findings letter concluded that sexual assault in GDC facilities is "rampant" and that the department does not reasonably protect incarcerated people, including LGBTI individuals, from sexual harm; GPS's findings record the DOJ-documented at-knifepoint sexual assaults at Pulaski State Prison among the specific clusters. Of 456 sexual-abuse allegations recorded systemwide in 2022, only 35 were substantiated — 7.7 percent — and 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.

The supervision record at Pulaski extends beyond the misconduct case. The AJC reported that officers and staff at the facility 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. The AJC also documented a July 15, 2023 disturbance in which 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 as nine security staff responded.

A first-person account published in Georgia Prisoners' Speak — Tell My Story under the title "The Fire Alarm Kept Ringing and No One Came" describes the same supervision vacuum from inside. The author, writing as Trigger Cat, describes being at Pulaski from 2023 through July 2025 and finding "the security bubble was empty," with no officers stationed in the dorms and hours passing without supervision. She describes inmates calling their families so the families could call the facility to send help during medical emergencies, fights, and overdoses. She describes fights lasting more than thirty minutes, blood and other fluids left on the floor, and mass punishment of entire dorms — loss of commissary, lockdown — after incidents. She also describes block movement failing repeatedly, with no officer arriving to escort people to medical, dental, education, and mental-health appointments on specific dates in May 2024, and people left sitting outside for hours in extreme cold and rain with no bathroom when they did leave the dorm.

GPS records show recurring reports along these lines at Pulaski over the past year: four family-safety-concern signals, including critical and high-severity entries; three family-fear-for-life signals; three medical-neglect allegations; and three staff-misconduct allegations naming individuals. Three external complaints were filed to oversight bodies in that period, including to the GDC Commissioner, GDC Inmate Affairs, and the GDC Ombudsman. GPS has received accounts of lockdown conditions at the facility in which water access, showers, clean clothing, and phone access were cut for extended periods.

Warden Wendy Jackson and the Conditions Reports

Wendy A. Jackson has held the warden's post at Pulaski since April 16, 2025. GPS's published investigation described Jackson as an "untested warden," and reported that families of people incarcerated at the facility were sounding the alarm about the new leadership. Her deputies, per GPS's leadership records, are Shelley Elizabeth Hermann (Deputy Warden of Administration), Kasann Mahogany (Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment), and Andrea Showers (Deputy Warden of Security).

Tyler Ryals, a former GDC officer, wrote on Facebook on August 20, 2026 that since beginning public advocacy he had been notified that Pulaski State Prison "has been routinely abandoned with 'skeleton crews' of only a handful of officers just like the majority of the male prisons." Five days later, on August 25, Ryals wrote that Dorm 8, both A and B sides, was on lockdown; that on the B side toilets were "reportedly overflowing and flooding," there was no proper air or ventilation, and there was "only ONE working shower for over 90 women"; and that Warden Wendy Jackson had placed everyone on store restriction for two weeks. He called on GDC to investigate conditions in Dorm 8 immediately. These are Ryals's public assertions, not GPS findings.

GPS's systemic work supplies the frame. Officer vacancies in Georgia's prisons have run between 49.3 and 60 percent systemwide for multiple years against a national standard of no more than 10 percent; the hiring pipeline cannot close the gap, with an acceptance rate under 15 percent and 82.7 percent of new hires leaving in their first year; and Georgia ranks 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." GPS records four equipment-failure signals at Pulaski in July and August 2026, three of them concentrated in August.

Food Service: Failing Grades, Followups, and What the Scores Miss

The Georgia Department of Public Health inspected Pulaski's food service eleven times between June 2023 and July 2026, and the record is a sawtooth. Routine inspections produced scores of 92 (June 2023), 91 (January 2024), 82 (June 2024), 90 (October 2024), 83 (February 2025), 73 (August 2025), 67 (January 2026), and 63 (July 2026). Followup inspections produced 78 (September 2025), 96 (February 2026), and 96 (July 2026). The January 29, 2026 routine inspection — a Grade F at 67 — cited eight violations including a person in charge not demonstrating knowledge or performing duties, hands not clean and properly washed, and inadequate handwashing facilities. The July 14, 2026 routine inspection — a Grade F at 63, ten violations — cited the absence of a certified food protection manager, handwashing failures, and improper disposition of returned, previously served, reconditioned, and unsafe food. Nine days later, a followup scored 96 with two violations, including sewage and waste water disposal and garbage and refuse disposal.

That pattern — a failing routine score converted to an A on a scheduled followup — is the analytical center of GPS's investigation "Dunked, Stacked, and Served," which examined why Georgia prison trays are making people sick. 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 pattern is hidden from DPH scores, in GPS's analysis, 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 Schwartzapfel's "Rats, Insects and Mold" — on rats in kitchens, insects in food, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition across Georgia facilities. GPS's findings note 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 an FDA Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day for an adult man's nutritionally adequate diet.

What the Record Supports, and What It Does Not

Pulaski's documented history is not a story of a single failure. It is a facility built for 500 people holding nearly 1,200; a medical record that produced a $925,000 state payout and a cluster of deaths GPS's reporting ties to one physician; a supervision record in which a deputy warden was arrested and terminated and a stabbing went unnoticed until an outside caller phoned it in; and a kitchen that failed two routine inspections in six months and passed both followups. GPS has recorded 30 deaths here since 2020, 14 of them with no cause yet established in the public record.

Some of what circulates about Pulaski remains allegation rather than finding. GPS has received accounts of retaliation against incarcerated women for using the grievance system and for outside contact, and accounts of a physical assault preceded by a warning call to the facility that went unaddressed. Those accounts are recorded; they are not established fact, and this page does not treat them as such.

Sources

This analysis draws on Georgia Department of Public Health food-service inspection reports for Pulaski State Prison (2023–2026); the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger, obtained by open records request; GDC public death announcements and statements; reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on medical care, the 2024 deputy warden arrest, and the 2023 disturbance; The Marshall Project's May 16, 2026 investigation of Georgia prison food; GPS's own published investigations into Pulaski State Prison and into food-service sanitation across GDC facilities; a first-person narrative published in Georgia Prisoners' Speak — Tell My Story; public Facebook posts by former GDC officer Tyler Ryals; GPS's mortality registry, facility records, and personnel records; and inmate, family, and staff accounts collected by GPS.