PULASKI STATE PRISON

Pulaski State Prison, a women's facility in Hawkinsville, Georgia, has accumulated more than a decade of public-record evidence pointing to deficient medical care, supervisory sexual misconduct, security collapse, and constitutional violations identified by the federal government. Coverage by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, court filings, and a 2022–2023 U.S. Department of Justice civil rights investigation form the documentary spine of what is known about the facility. More recent reporting and accounts collected by Georgia Prisoners' Speak (GPS) describe a sustained crisis under newly appointed Warden Wendy Jackson, characterized by allegations of retaliation, intimidation, extended lockdowns, and a non-functional grievance process.

A Decade of Medical Neglect Under Dr. Yvon Nazaire

The most systemic medical failure documented at Pulaski State Prison is the death toll associated with the facility's former medical director. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that at least 22 women died under Dr. Yvon Nazaire's care at Pulaski State Prison between 2005 and 2015 — a figure the publication treated as a confirmed finding. Two of those cases reached the courts. According to court findings and parallel reporting in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bonnie Rocheleau, who had long suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, failed to receive adequate care when she developed pneumonia at the facility, and died in March 2015. In a separate case, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, and court findings confirmed, that Mollianne Fischer was left in a vegetative state in May 2014 after she failed to receive adequate medical care at the prison.

GPS staff have observed that systemic concerns regarding medical care extend across Georgia's women's prison facilities, with Pulaski representing one of the most acute documented examples. Accounts collected by GPS also raise concerns about provider-level accountability and whether staff associated with denial-of-care outcomes faced meaningful consequences within GDC's personnel structure.

Supervisory Sexual Misconduct and the McMillian Arrest

In May, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the arrest of Deputy Warden Alonzo L. McMillian on charges of sexual contact with a prisoner at Pulaski State Prison. According to the reporting, arrest warrants alleged that McMillian had a "sexual relationship" with a prisoner and engaged in improper sexual contact with her on February 24 and 25. McMillian was booked into the Pulaski County jail on May 2 and released the next day on a $10,000 bond. GDC spokesperson Joan Heath confirmed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that both McMillian and a co-accused supervisor, Clark, were terminated by GDC on May 2 following the arrests.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution framed the case as potentially indicative of a larger pattern, reporting that the alleged sexual misconduct of two prison supervisors could signal a systemic problem within the GDC. The newspaper also placed the arrests within a broader accountability context, noting that they came as the prison system faced a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. Independent prison-policy expert Michele Deitch was quoted in the same coverage analyzing the implications of the case.

Federal Civil Rights Findings

The U.S. Department of Justice's investigation of Georgia prisons, conducted across 2022 and 2023, documented constitutional violations at Pulaski State Prison — a finding that GDC has acknowledged and that has been independently reported in the press. While the DOJ's broader inquiry into the Georgia Department of Corrections encompasses systemic violence and deficient conditions across the state's prisons, Pulaski's inclusion places the facility within the scope of federally documented Eighth Amendment concerns. GPS has documented these DOJ findings as foundational to the public accountability record at the facility.

Security Collapse: Stabbings, Disturbances, and Gang Extortion

Reporting and GDC-acknowledged accounts converge on a picture of severe security degradation. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that officers and staff at Pulaski State Prison did not notice a problem until someone from outside the facility called to report a stabbing — a prisoner who told investigators she had been assaulted hours earlier by ten people who stomped, hit, and kicked her. The failure of internal supervision to detect a multi-attacker assault until external notification arrived speaks to the staffing and observation gaps the DOJ has flagged across the system.

A separate disturbance compounded that picture. On July 15, 2023, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, inmates at Pulaski State Prison destroyed building property; eleven were directly involved using weapons that included broomsticks, a crowbar, metal spray, shanks, and locks, and chemical spray was deployed to quell the disturbance as nine security staff responded. The numerical mismatch — nine staff confronting eleven armed participants amid broader unrest — illustrates the staffing-to-population ratios under which the facility has been operating.

GDC has separately acknowledged that gang members have been using violence to extort incarcerated women and their families at the facility. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Pamela Dixon's daughter being subjected to gang extortion at Pulaski State Prison, giving a name and a family to a phenomenon GDC concedes is occurring. GPS staff have observed patterns of gang violence and extortion consistent with these reports. GPS has also received accounts of an in-custody assault at the facility in which a prior warning call reportedly went unaddressed in the period leading up to the incident.

The Wendy Jackson Era: Retaliation, Lockdowns, and Grievance Failure

Reporting on Pulaski State Prison's most recent period centers on the appointment of Wendy Jackson as warden and the conditions that have followed. According to reporting that GDC has acknowledged, within roughly ten months of Jackson's appointment a pattern of retaliatory housing assignments, extended lockdowns, staff intimidation, and a non-functional grievance process had emerged at the facility. GDC's own statements have registered allegations of intimidation, retaliation, and unsafe conditions under the new warden, while GPS has separately characterized the period as one of "crisis conditions" and a sustained pattern of abuse encompassing intimidation, retaliation, extended lockdowns, and grievance-process failures.

Family members and advocates, in accounts collected by GPS, have raised parallel allegations of staff retaliation against incarcerated women and of intimidation directed at those who attempt to escalate concerns. GPS staff have additionally observed grievance-system failures consistent with the reported breakdown. Inmate accounts collected by GPS describe recurring patterns during extended lockdown periods of restricted access to water, showers, clean clothing, phone calls, and commissary, alongside allegations of personal-property confiscation. GPS has also documented concerns about a tier-program designation process at the facility and has observed what staff identified as a potential Eighth Amendment issue tied to alleged water-shutoff conditions.

Conditions and Inspections

Beyond the security and personnel record, basic facility conditions have drawn scrutiny. A 2026 food service inspection at Pulaski State Prison resulted in a failing score, with documented findings that included a nonfunctional handwashing sink, sewage backups in both kitchen and food service areas, and food waste storage exposed to pests. These inspection findings, which GPS has documented, frame the lockdown-period deprivation accounts within a broader environment of infrastructure failure that affects the facility population at all times — not only during disciplinary or security-driven restrictions.

Sources

This analysis draws on reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; court findings in the Rocheleau and Fischer matters; the U.S. Department of Justice's 2022–2023 civil rights investigation of Georgia prisons; statements attributed to GDC and GDC spokesperson Joan Heath; and observations and accounts collected by Georgia Prisoners' Speak from incarcerated individuals, family members, and facility-adjacent sources.