SCREVEN COUNTY PRISON

Analysis written on August 2, 2026.

Screven County Prison is a privately run medium-security institution in Sylvania, Georgia, under the direction of Warden Steven Scroggins since January 2024. The facility holds 135 people, according to GPS records. As with many facilities in the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) system, Screven County has been shaped by the systemic failures that a Department of Justice investigation found unconstitutional in 2024—pervasive understaffing, infrastructure decay, and violence facilitated by gang control. GPS reporting has documented these crises across the state, and while Screven County’s relatively small population and private operation set it apart from the large state-run facilities at the center of the DOJ’s findings, it operates within the same institutional ecosystem.

A Single Death, Cause Unknown

GPS’s mortality database records one death at Screven County Prison since tracking began in 2020. Nicholas Rashad Jenkins died in custody on July 15, 2023. The cause and manner of his death are listed as unknown pending investigation—a classification that mirrors GDC’s broader failure to transparently disclose how people die behind bars. GPS’s investigation into the department’s death reporting found that GDC abruptly stopped publishing causes of death in early 2025, after having briefly included them in monthly death lists. For Jenkins and thousands of others, the gap means families and the public are left without answers. Across the GDC system, GPS has tracked 1,859 deaths since 2020, a number that is almost certainly an undercount given GDC’s two-month reporting lag.

The Broader Georgia Prison Crisis

Although Screven County is privately operated, it exists within the GDC’s jurisdiction, and the systemic failures documented by GPS and federal investigators extend to facilities throughout the state.

Staffing Collapse and Gang Control. Officer vacancies across Georgia’s prisons have run between 49% and 60% for years, with some facilities reaching 80%. The hiring pipeline cannot close the gap—over 80% of new hires leave within their first year—and Georgia ranks last in the nation for correctional officer pay. In the October 2024 findings letter, the DOJ concluded that GDC leadership had “lost control of its facilities,” attributing the breakdown in part to understaffing that has allowed gangs to effectively run entire compounds. GPS has documented that an estimated 31% of the incarcerated population are validated gang members, more than double the national average, and that gangs control access to phones, showers, food, and bed assignments. A former sergeant forced out after whistleblowing, Tyler Ryals, told GPS he was once the sole security officer on a compound of 1,250 maximum-security individuals.

Infrastructure in Decay. Most GDC prisons are 30 to 40 years old, suffering from deferred maintenance that has produced broken cell-door locks, inoperative surveillance and fire-alarm systems, mold, water failures, and pest infestations. Audits as early as 2012 at Hays State Prison found 42% of locks non-functional, a problem confirmed by a Guidehouse assessment in 2024. Commissioner Oliver has publicly stated that many facilities are at the “end of life.” GPS treats this infrastructure collapse as a force multiplier, worsening the violence, classification, and mortality crises observed facility by facility.

Food Deprivation and Sanitation Failures. GPS has documented that GDC spends less than $1.70 per person per day on food—roughly 56 cents per meal—against a standard estimate of around $10 per day for a nutritionally adequate diet. The Marshall Project independently corroborated reports of rats in kitchens, insects in food, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition in 2026. GPS’s own investigation, “Dunked, Stacked, and Served,” found that high health inspection scores coexist with persistent food-service sanitation breakdowns, including broken dishwashers, roach infestations, and meals served on contaminated trays, because inspections are scheduled and do not assess equipment during normal operation.

Sexual Violence. The DOJ found sexual assault “rampant” in Georgia prisons, noting that of 456 allegations in 2022, only 35 were substantiated. GDC’s own consultants reviewed 388 PREA investigation files and found none met legal standards. Georgia has never submitted a PREA certification of full compliance. While the DOJ’s high-profile examples came from state-run facilities like Pulaski, Smith, and Lee Arrendale State Prisons, the systemic nature of the violence—exacerbated by understaffing and a failure to protect LGBTI individuals—creates a dangerous environment system-wide. GPS has additionally documented the deaths of three women strangled at Lee Arrendale’s A Unit between 2022 and 2024.

Leadership Under Private Operation

Screven County Prison’s warden, Steven Scroggins, assumed the role in January 2024 under the facility’s private operator. Private prisons in Georgia have historically faced less public scrutiny than state-run institutions, and GDC’s own data on conditions, staffing, and incidents is often harder to obtain for contracted facilities. In a system where accountability is already fractured—the DOJ found GDC leadership had lost control—privately operated facilities like Screven County represent a further layer of opacity. GPS’s reporting has consistently shown that the combination of for-profit management and systemic underfunding can accelerate the deterioration of safety and care.

Sources

This analysis draws on GPS’s systemic findings on the Georgia Department of Corrections, based on the Department of Justice’s October 2024 investigation, the Guidehouse 2024 assessment, the Marshall Project’s 2026 food investigation, and GPS’s own investigations into food, infrastructure, staffing, and sexual violence. The death of Nicholas Rashad Jenkins is recorded in GPS’s mortality database, sourced from GDC death lists and open-records responses. Personnel data comes from GPS’s tracking of facility leadership.