WHEELER CORRECTIONAL FACILITY

Private Prison Medium Security Unknown Male

Facility Information

Original Design Capacity
1,524 (at 183% capacity)
Bed Capacity
2,874 beds
Current Population
2,786
Active Lifers
344 (12.3% of population) · Apr 2026 GDC report
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 →
Address
195 North Broad Street, Alamo, GA 30411
Mailing Address
P.O. Box 466, Alamo, GA 30411
County
Wheeler County
Opened
1998
Operator
Unknown
Warden
Shawn Gillis
Phone
(912) 568-1731
Fax
(912) 568-1710
Staff
  • Asst. Warden Security: Donovan Hamilton
  • Asst. Warden Programs: Heather Kersey
  • Chief of Security: Darriel Royal
  • Chief Unit Manager: Tina Guzman
  • Asst. Chief of Security: Karen Shepard
  • Business Manager: Gale Sexton
  • State Monitor: Vashti Brown

About

Wheeler Correctional Facility has a capacity of 2,874 inmates and was constructed and opened in 1998. The facility is privately operated by CoreCivic under contract with the Georgia Department of Corrections and is one of the two largest prisons in the state. Originally built to house 1,000-1,700 inmates, the facility doubled in size around 2010 and currently houses approximately 2,500 inmates. Housing consists of eight main units with a mix of configurations: three cellblocks with three pods each housing 80-88 inmates, three dormitory-style units with six pods housing approximately 48 inmates each, three dormitory-style units with seven pods housing 64-84 inmates, and two segregation units totaling 178 beds. The facility includes single cells, intensive therapeutic housing, and a CERT Team.

Mortality Statistics

45 deaths documented at this facility from 2020 to present.

Deaths by Year

  • 2026: 0
  • 2025: 7
  • 2024: 7
  • 2023: 6
  • 2022: 2
  • 2021: 4
  • 2020: 18

View all deaths at this facility →

Food Safety Inspections

Georgia Department of Public Health

Latest score: 94 (Nov 17, 2025)
View DPH report ↗

What the score doesn't measure. DPH grades kitchen compliance on inspection day — food storage, temperatures, pest control. It does not grade whether today's trays are clean. GPS reporting has found broken dishwashers at most Georgia state prisons we've documented; trays go out wet, stacked, and visibly moldy — including at facilities with recent scores near 100.

Who inspects. Most Georgia state prisons sit in rural counties — often with fewer than 20,000 people, several with fewer than 10,000. The environmental health inspector lives in that community and often knows the kitchen staff personally. Rural inspection regimes don't have the structural independence you'd expect in a city-sized health department. Read the scores accordingly.

Read the investigation: “Dunked, Stacked and Served: Why Georgia Prison Trays Are Making People Sick”

Recent inspections

DateScorePurpose
Nov 17, 202594Routine
May 19, 202597Routine
Dec 2, 202490Routine
Mar 18, 202496Routine
Sep 25, 202393Routine
May 3, 2023100Routine

Source: Georgia Department of Public Health — data last refreshed April 24, 2026. Search all Georgia inspections ↗

Location

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