Last updated October 4, 2026.(DS)

Washington State Prison: A Medium-Security Facility Where the Gang War Never Ended

Washington State Prison sits on the edge of Davisboro, in Washington County, a medium-security facility for adult male felons that opened in 1991. Its original design capacity was 500 beds; it is now rated for 1,548 and currently holds roughly 1,062 people — about 68.6% of rated capacity. It houses minimum- and medium-custody prisoners in dormitories and cellblocks, along with segregation and support units, and it runs work details for surrounding communities plus limited educational, vocational, and faith-based programming. What the public record of the past several years shows is a facility where gang violence, medical neglect, and infrastructure decay have converged — and where, on January 11, 2026, that convergence produced one of the deadliest single incidents in the Georgia Department of Corrections system in years.

The January 2026 Riot: Four Dead, Twelve Charged

The disturbance began around 1:25 p.m. on January 11, 2026, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. Multiple outlets, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reported that a fight starting among several incarcerated men on a sidewalk spilled into the visitation area. Staff deployed non-lethal weapons and had the facility under control by roughly 3 p.m. Three men were pronounced dead at the scene: Teddy Dewayne Jackson, 27, serving a 10-year sentence for aggravated assault out of Bibb County; Ahmod Dewayne Hatcher, 23, serving 20 years for aggravated assault out of Richmond County; and Jimmy Lee Trammell, 42, serving 20 years for first-degree burglary out of Fulton County — days from his scheduled release. Thirteen other incarcerated people and one correctional officer were injured.

A fourth man, Silas Rodrigioeuz Westbrook, 42, was treated for what were described as minor injuries and transferred to the Metro Reentry Facility, where he suffered a medical emergency on arrival on January 17 and was pronounced dead. GDC's Office of Professional Standards is investigating. The department characterized the disturbance as gang-affiliated, though WGXA noted the gang framing is described as suspected rather than established.

On April 28, 2026, GDC confirmed that 12 incarcerated men had been charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, gang participation, and unlawful acts of violence in a penal institution. 13WMAZ and 11Alive both reported the charges. The AJC reported that the 12 are accused of murder and other crimes in connection with the altercation. The facility was placed on lockdown on January 11 and, per GPS's own reporting, never fully reopened — a continuous lockdown that stretched past five months.

Five Deaths in Nine Days

The riot did not stand alone. GPS's mortality registry places Dajhmere Ladaveon Hall, 30, dead on January 9, 2026 — two days before the riot — with a cause the registry lists as Overdose. Together with Jackson, Hatcher, and Trammell on January 11 and Westbrook on January 17, that is five deaths at Washington State Prison inside nine days. GPS's own coverage described the sequence as five deaths in a single week.

The wider registry is starker. GPS has recorded 39 deaths at Washington State Prison since January 1, 2020. Twelve are classified as homicides, nine as natural or medical, seven as unknown or pending, six as overdose, and one each as medical neglect, suicide, use of force, accident, and other. The full list is maintained at https://gps.press/georgia-prison-deaths/facility/washington-state-prison/.

Among the named dead: Isreal Moses Jones died June 14, 2026, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 68. Courtney Davis died June 13, 2026, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 43. Deshawn Poole died June 9, 2026, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 34. Frank Smith died May 6, 2026, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 75. Silas Rodrigioeuz Westbrook died January 17, 2026, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 42. Teddy Dewayne Jackson died January 11, 2026, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 27. Jimmy Lee Trammell died January 11, 2026, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 42. Ahmod Dewayne Hatcher died January 11, 2026, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 23. Dajhmere Ladaveon Hall died January 9, 2026, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose, age 30. Taylor Allen Howard died December 16, 2025, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 66. Benjamin Horne died December 15, 2025, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose, age 51. Wayne Krier died November 5, 2025, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 77. Darrin Gresham died August 8, 2025, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 60. William Earl Long died July 16, 2025, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Accident, age 52. Michael Lareco Daniel died June 20, 2025, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 44. Lamontez Winkfield died May 11, 2025, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 22. Yoncey Jallah died April 23, 2025, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 49. Robert Washington died January 14, 2025, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. Dontavious Carter died January 7, 2025, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. Devonte Tiger Williams died August 9, 2024, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 26. Torrey Wayne Forrester died July 1, 2024, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 41. Johntavis Jermaine Kellom died May 2, 2024, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Overdose, age 36. Jacob Cole Henson died April 23, 2024, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Use of Force, age 31. Jimmy Lee Reed died April 2, 2024, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 66. Ronald Wayne Kidd died October 30, 2023, at Washington State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 61.

Several of these deaths carry independent documentation. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Devonte Tiger Williams, 26, died August 9, 2024, from multiple sharp force injuries to the torso, head, and neck. Michael Lee Jackson, 60, died August 17, 2022, from multiple blunt force injuries in the setting of hypertensive cardiovascular disease; an incident report shows two other incarcerated people were involved. Marquis Reshawn Jefferson, 26, died May 12, 2022, from stab wounds to the torso and arm, with an incident report dated May 11 indicating four others were involved. Separately, the AJC reported that Jacob Cole Henson, 31, died April 23, 2024, from multiple gunshot wounds after a fight with a GDC officer who had taken him to a hospital for treatment of injuries from a stabbing earlier that day. GPS's registry classifies Henson's death as Use of Force — the only such classification at this facility since 2020.

Six Officers on Duty

The staffing picture at Washington State Prison on the day of the riot is documented in a single number: GDC's response to a GPS open records request showed six officers on duty at the facility when the gang war broke out on January 11, 2026. That figure lands against a systemwide backdrop GPS has documented — officer vacancies running between 49.3% and 60% for multiple years against a national standard of no more than 10%, an acceptance rate under 15%, 82.7% of new hires leaving within their first year, and Georgia ranking 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."

The staffing collapse at Washington State Prison is corroborated on the record. Tyler Ryals, a former GDC sergeant forced out in 2024 after whistleblowing, told GPS he had personally been the only security person on the entire Telfair compound of roughly 1,250 maximum-security inmates; his witness statement was signed at Washington State Prison. Inmate accounts collected by GPS describe a facility where as few as one officer has been left to supervise all three East-side housing units — E, F, and G — particularly on weekends and holidays, and where control rooms are routinely left unoccupied.

The consequences of that thin coverage are described in the same accounts. GPS has received recurring reports that staff have left housing unit gates and doors unlocked while away from their posts, that lockdowns are not enforced inside the dormitories, and that contraband moves through laundry and sanitation details. Former inmates told 13WMAZ the riot was the predictable outcome of years of neglect, understaffing, and lost opportunities inside Georgia's prison system. Earl White, a former inmate, alleged to 13WMAZ that dorms house more than 50 men with just two televisions, no education programs, no job training, no recreation, mold in showers, rats, insects, poor medical care, and sometimes spoiled food — and that overcrowded dorms, chronic staffing shortages, and little to no supervision create an environment ripe for riots and inmate-on-inmate violence. Another former inmate, identified by 13WMAZ as Brandon, alleged that Washington State Prison was the worst prison he attended, describing a dangerous environment where people carry and use deadly knives daily with no intervention, and that he personally was robbed, beaten, and stabbed multiple times.

Gang Control, Classification Drift, and the Weapons Inside

The GDC's own framing of the January riot as gang-affiliated sits inside a systemwide pattern GPS has documented: approximately 31% of the system's roughly 49,000 incarcerated population are validated members of 315 different security threat groups — more than double the national average — and both the DOJ and the Guidehouse 2024 consultant assessment independently concluded that gangs effectively run multiple facilities, controlling access to phones, showers, food, and bed assignments.

At Washington State Prison, the physical plant appears to have fed the violence. The AJC reported that buildings with maintenance issues enabled prisoners to strip materials to make weapons, that locks didn't work, allowing easy cell escapes, and that understaffing left movements unmonitored. Those findings came from a consultant study commissioned by Gov. Brian Kemp in June 2024, which also found that officers working alone feared retribution for enforcing rules. State Rep. Billy Hitchens alleged to 41NBC that the prison system is not making meaningful progress toward preventing inmates from jamming or disabling cell-door locks, which allows inmates to roam freely and commit attacks.

GPS's own analysis of the facility's internal records describes a housing unit where a large proportion of the population at this medium-security prison is classified at the higher close-security level, where security threat groups have controlled multiple dormitories for the past one to two years, and where non-affiliated incarcerated people have been left to live in showers, under stairs, in TV rooms, or on the floors of other people's cells. GPS has received accounts that a group of incarcerated people cut a large hole in an exterior wall of a housing unit to receive contraband dropped by drone, that the opening was left unsecured for over a week and then patched with plywood, and that gang members were passing knives through an unlocked gate during the January 2026 disturbance.

The contraband problem is not new at this facility. GDC's own published contraband reports record incidents at Washington State Prison stretching back to 2010, with arrests reported across multiple years involving visitors, civilians, and staff-class actors. GDC publishes no dispositions — an arrest is not a conviction — and the department's running tally is not a consistent series. What the reports establish is that contraband entry at this facility has been a documented, recurring category for well over a decade.

Two federal cases illustrate what the contraband economy can support. WGXA reported that Luis Alfonso Ramirez directed a drug trafficking network from Washington State Prison using contraband cellphones; a federal investigation led by Homeland Security Investigations and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation resulted in Ramirez's indictment along with six accomplices for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribute controlled substances, with seizures of 35 kg of methamphetamine and 3.5 kg of fentanyl valued at $225,000, plus $145,000 in cash. The AJC separately reported that Jeffery White, serving a 20-year sentence, led a methamphetamine network believed to have distributed more than 200 pounds of crystal meth in Volusia County, Florida, in one year, with nearly 40 arrest warrants issued.

Medical Neglect and the Collapse of On-Site Care

GPS's registry classifies one death at Washington State Prison since 2020 as Medical Neglect — Latavious Lanier Kirkland, 31, who died December 21, 2020. The broader record of medical complaints at the facility is extensive and comes largely from family members and incarcerated people.

GPS has received recurring accounts describing a facility that lost its upper-level medical providers. According to those accounts, Washington State Prison previously had one MD and two PA/NPs; by early 2025 it lacked upper-level providers and treating RNs, and by mid-2026 had no MD present after three different medical directors resigned over a 20-month period. The infirmary, per these accounts, was converted to offices and store rooms, with its staff reduced to day shift only — leaving the facility without 24/7 medical care. In 2025, GDC planned to stop stationing medical doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants at most prisons, sharing them across multiple facilities instead.

The specific allegations cluster around medication continuity. GPS has received accounts of incarcerated people experiencing gaps of one to two weeks without medication during 2025, of diabetic patients facing gaps of up to 10 days, of routine medication gaps averaging four to five days per month, and of one person whose medications arrived late more than 80% of the time since arrival. Multiple accounts describe a nurse practitioner cancelling physician-ordered care — heart medications, immunosuppressants, respiratory medications, orthotic shoe profiles, prescribed dietary snacks — often without an examination. Family members report paying co-pays for medications that were then cancelled and never delivered. One family member reported that a physician ordered a shower chair during a chronic care telemedicine conference and that it had not been provided as of 2026; another reported that a doctor's order for a 2,800-calorie diet was entered by nursing staff and then removed by kitchen staff.

These accounts are not corroborated by court records or GDC documentation in the material available to GPS, and they should be read as allegations from people inside and their families rather than as established findings. What is documented is the aggregate: GPS records show seven medical-neglect signals at this facility over the past twelve months across four cases, with severity ranging from moderate to critical.

Food, Water, and the Gap Between Inspection Scores and What People Eat

The Georgia Department of Public Health has inspected Washington State Prison's food service ten times since June 2023, all routine, all conducted by inspector Justin Jones. The scores tell a story of gradual improvement punctuated by one bad year: 77 (Grade C) and 88 (Grade B) on June 29, 2023, with violations including food separated and protected, food-contact surfaces cleaned and sanitized, and proper cold holding temperatures; then 97, 95, 98, 94, 91, 91, 100, and 88 across 2024 through June 2026. The most recent pair, on June 1, 2026, produced a perfect 100 on one inspection and an 88 on another, the latter citing three violations including proper hot holding temperatures and insects, rodents, and animals not present.

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 because inspections are scheduled walkthroughs that do not assess equipment under load. The Marshall Project corroborated the broader pattern on May 16, 2026, independently reporting rats in kitchens, insects in food, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition across Georgia facilities, and quoting GPS connecting chronic underfeeding to the violence pattern the DOJ documented in October 2024. 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.

At Washington State Prison specifically, physical evidence submitted to GPS shows a meal consisting of rice with a tomato-based sauce in a styrofoam bowl. Physical documentation also shows commissary restriction notices imposing spending caps and item-level limits — on rice, soup, water, drink mix, chips, candy bars, soda, cupcakes, pies, cookies, and meat. Family members report that incarcerated people rely on commissary purchases to supplement meals they describe as inadequate, and that the restrictions have left people hungry. An anonymous tip received by GPS put it bluntly: "There giving us spoiled milk at washington! Only 30 in store for the last 6 months we are losing weight rapidly!" GPS has also received accounts describing blue water contamination at the facility, with staff having access to bottled water while incarcerated people are provided tap water alleged to be contaminated.

Infrastructure, Heat, and the Long Lockdown

Most GDC facilities are 30 to 40-plus years old, with documented patterns of deferred maintenance that have produced systemwide infrastructure failures: broken cell-door locks, inoperative surveillance and fire-alarm systems, mold and water failures, broken kitchen sanitization equipment, and pest infestations. Washington State Prison, opened in 1991, fits that profile. GPS has received accounts of ceiling sections falling in, roofing problems, deteriorating housing structures, rusted bunks, and black mold on shower walls. Physical evidence from the facility shows overcrowded or cramped cell conditions. GPS staff assessed a photographed cell at Washington State Prison as appearing consistent with a standard general population housing unit — a data point that cuts against the most extreme overcrowding claims while leaving the broader infrastructure complaints unaddressed.

The garment factory at the facility, located roughly 100 yards from the main housing areas, lacks air conditioning and reaches temperatures over 100 degrees during the summer, according to accounts GPS has received. GPS records five inadequate-climate signals at this facility concentrated in June and July 2026.

After the January 11 riot, the facility went on continuous lockdown and, per GPS's own reporting, never reopened. Family members describe a lockdown that stretched approximately 50 days, during which commissary access was withheld from the general population except for those on work details, and families were unable to send food or commissary items. GPS's internal analysis describes a two-tier system in the lockdown's aftermath: some incarcerated people retained prison jobs and free movement, and some were permitted $80 weekly commissary purchases, while the rest of the facility faced a $30 per week cap and denial of television, news, visitation, exercise, phones, law library, and religious services. One account describes a commissary resale operation running among incarcerated people after the January 2026 disturbance, generating over $1,000 in weekly profit.

Accountability: Who Was Charged, Who Wasn't

Twelve incarcerated men face felony murder and related charges. On the staff side, the record is thinner. GBI and the Ocmulgee Drug Task Force arrested Washington State Prison officer Adriana Carnelio, 27, roughly three days after the riot, on charges of cocaine and methamphetamine possession with intent to distribute plus firearms offenses, with a co-defendant identified as Q. Peacock. GPS has received accounts that a CERT officer was arrested following the disturbance, that an investigator and a correctional officer were transferred from the facility afterward, and that a staff member was fired.

GPS's internal analysis of the facility's own records describes a pattern in which several incarcerated people identified as involved in the January 2026 altercation were not sanctioned, charged, or transferred, and in which certain individuals were permitted to continue weekly commissary purchases and retain free-movement job assignments while the rest of the facility was locked down. GPS has received accounts that staff showed surveillance footage to senior officials regarding involvement in the incident. These are internal analytical findings and witness accounts, not adjudicated facts.

The leadership at the facility has been stable through the period. Veronica M. Stewart has served as warden since June 16, 2024. Her deputies include Tamishia V. Whipple (since January 2024), Tarra L. Tomlin Jackson (since January 2021), Helen R. Dogan (since January 2016), Tywanda F. King as Deputy Warden of Administration (since August 2026), and Tiauna F. Powell as Deputy Warden of Security (since September 2026). In November 2025, Commissioner Tyrone Oliver announced the appointment of Tamara Grier as Deputy Warden of Security, bringing more than 22 years of experience in Georgia's correctional system. GPS has received accounts that the warden and the Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment remained in position after the January 2026 melee, and that the warden was present during a 2026 medical visit involving nursing staff.

The Systemwide Frame

The DOJ's October 2024 findings letter concluded that Georgia prison officials are "deliberately indifferent" to unchecked deadly violence, widespread drug use, extortion, and sexual abuse at state lockups, and that sophisticated gangs run prison black markets trafficking in drugs, weapons, and electronic devices such as drones and smartphones. The findings followed a civil rights investigation. Georgia lawmakers responded by allocating more than $600 million in new funding to GDC for staffing positions, salary improvements, and a backlog of maintenance projects including lock repairs, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Washington State Prison's record sits inside that frame rather than outside it. GPS has independently tracked 1,896 deaths in GDC custody system-wide since 2020. At this facility alone, the figure is 39 — a floor, since GDC reports deaths roughly two months late, and since GPS's registry holds only the 2020-onward series for this count. Twelve of those 39 are classified as homicides. The January 2026 riot, the charges that followed, the continuous lockdown, the medical complaints, the commissary restrictions, and the infrastructure failures are not separate stories. They are the same story told at different scales.

Sources

This analysis draws on reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 13WMAZ, 11Alive, WGXA, WTOC, WFXL, and 41NBC; Georgia Department of Public Health food-service inspection records; Georgia Department of Corrections public statements, contraband reports, and open records responses; federal court filings and the U.S. Department of Justice's October 2024 CRIPA findings letter; GPS's mortality registry, contraband database, personnel records, and internal intelligence signals; GPS's own investigative reporting on the January 2026 riot and its aftermath; and inmate, family, and staff accounts collected by GPS staff.