SMITH STATE PRISON
Facility Information
- Original Design Capacity
- 750 (at 147% capacity)
- Bed Capacity
- 1,526 beds
- Current Population
- 1,100
Why design capacity matters:
Adding beds to a prison does not increase medical facilities, educational programs, kitchen capacity, counseling services, or recreation areas. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Plata that severe overcrowding beyond design capacity violates the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Read: Brown v. Plata - A Legal Roadmap for Georgia's Prison Crisis →
Read: Brown v. Plata - A Legal Roadmap for Georgia's Prison Crisis →
- Address
- 9676 Hwy 301 North, Glennville, GA 30427
- Mailing Address
- P.O. Box 726, Glennville, GA 30427
- County
- Tattnall County
- Operator
- GDC (Georgia Dept. of Corrections)
- Warden
- Charles Mims
- Phone
- (912) 654-5000
- Fax
- (912) 654-5305
- Staff
- Deputy Warden Security: Rodney Foulks
- Deputy Warden Security: Keenan Carver
- Deputy Warden C&T: Willesha Warren
- Deputy Warden Admin: Ashley Kennedy
About
Smith State Prison in Glennville is a close-security prison for men that opened in 1993 and is designed for some of Georgia’s highest-custody prisoners. The facility uses a combination of cellblocks and dormitories with extensive segregation and special-management housing, and also hosts a residential substance-abuse and transitional program via a nearby center. Smith has been the site of multiple homicides and serious assaults and is frequently cited in media and federal findings as emblematic of the extreme violence and staffing shortages in Georgia’s close-security prisons.
Mortality Statistics
39 deaths documented at this facility from 2020 to present.
Deaths by Year
- 2026: 4
- 2025: 1
- 2024: 6
- 2023: 11
- 2022: 5
- 2021: 7
- 2020: 5