WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ga. — Two days after a deadly riot at Washington State Prison left three men dead and more than a dozen injured, two former Georgia inmates say the violence was not an isolated incident — but the predictable outcome of years of neglect, understaffing, and lost opportunities inside the state’s prison system.
The Georgia Department of Corrections confirmed that three incarcerated men were killed during a riot Sunday at the Washington County facility. The incident remains under investigation.
For 54-year-old Earl White, who was released from Hancock State Prison on Jan. 7, the deaths came as no surprise.
White estimates he has spent at least 12 years in and out of Georgia prisons since the early 1990s. He is happily married and now rebuilding his life as a truck driver and artist.
He says surviving prison, and making it home, often feels like an exception, not the rule.
“For a person to walk out of a prison and come home, that’s a miracle,” White said. “Come home not beat up, not injured, not dead — that’s a miracle.”
Over the years, White says he was transferred repeatedly across the system, including time at Augusta State Medical Prison, Jackson Diagnostic, Wheeler, Effingham, Jefferson County camp, and most recently Hancock, a Level 5 high-security prison.
He describes conditions he believes create the environment for riots like the one at Washington State Prison: overcrowded dorms, chronic staffing shortages, and little to no supervision.
“All those conditions, after a while, it weighs on the person, and then yet, we turn inward and we start abusing each other, or we start thinking negative,” White said. “For us in prison, you desensitized to it, but when hope is gone, life inside of you is gone.”
According to White, when officers aren’t present, gangs and more violent inmates fill the vacuum.
He says many dorms house more than 50 men with just two televisions, no education programs, no job training, and no recreation.
White also describes filthy conditions — mold in showers, rats, insects, poor medical care, and food he says is sometimes spoiled — along with the disappearance of programs that once offered hope.
“When I first came to prison, they had GEDs, technical college, programs,” he said. “Now there’s nothing. And then everybody complains about the violence.”
Brandon is another former inmate who was released in Washington State in 2022. Today, he lives in Florida and own his own tattoo parlor.
He spent 15 years in the Georgia Department of Corrections and says what happened Sunday mirrors what he witnessed firsthand.
“The system — it is broken. It does not exist,” Brandon said. “You are alone in there. If it comes to life or death, there is no one coming to help you. I still get PTSD, because it’s happened to me. You know what I mean? I’ve done that, I’ve lived both sides of that. I’ve been stabbed. And so when I saw that, I’m hurting for these people.”
Brandon says gangs dominate daily life, committing robberies and stabbings regularly. He says he was robbed, beaten, and stabbed multiple times during his incarceration.
Like White, Brandon describes conditions inside prison facilities as dangerous and degrading.
“Washington State Prison is the worst prison I went to. I’ve never seen evil like I’ve seen inside the Georgia Department of Corrections,” he said. “People are running around with very deadly knives, using them every day. It’s a third world country in there.”
Long term, both men say meaningful reform must include staffing, mental health care, education, and job training.
“Give us programs and give us schools,” White said. “Give us other things that prison gave before, there’s so many different skills. We need advocates. Not somebody just dropping off Hi C’s and potato chips. We need somebody saying, ‘Hey, y’all, you know what? What can we do for you?'”
The Georgia Department of Corrections says the riot remains under investigation.
The agency has not yet responded to questions about staffing levels, conditions, or programming.