GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION STATE PRISON

Last updated August 23, 2026.(DS)

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (GDCP) in Jackson is the state's largest prison and the central intake facility for every man entering Georgia's prison system. Opened in 1968 and renovated in 1998, the facility processes all male offenders entering the system, houses Georgia's male death-row unit, operates a 192-bed Special Management Unit for the most restrictive custody, and conducts state-ordered executions. Its housing includes eight cellblocks with single- and double-bunked cells, seven general-population dormitories, a 17-bed Segregated Transition Education Program (STEP) unit, and a medical unit. GDCP also maintains a CERT Team, Tactical Squad, and on-site fire station — making it, in the words of GPS's standing record, both a diagnostic center and one of the system's highest-security prisons. Warden Jacob Beasley has led the facility since July 2025.

The facility's official rated capacity is 2,487, but its original design capacity was just 500 — a five-fold expansion that mirrors the system-wide overcrowding GPS has documented across Georgia's prisons. As of the most recent GPS-tracked snapshot, GDCP held 2,477 people, operating at 99.6% of its rated capacity. GPS's own reporting has characterized the Georgia prison system as operating at 99.9% claimed capacity by inflated metrics, with actual overcrowding far exceeding original design specifications.

Death Row, Executions, and the Machinery of Capital Punishment

GDCP is where Georgia carries out its death sentences. Stacey Humphreys, 52, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on December 17, 2025, at the facility — what would have made him the 77th man and 78th person executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May declined to halt the execution, ruling that Humphreys failed to show his due process and equal protection rights would be violated. Humphreys was convicted in 2007 on two counts of murder for the 2003 killings of Cyndi Williams and Lori Brown, who were shot in a real estate office in an Atlanta suburb.

The death-row population at GDCP includes cases that raise structural questions about Georgia's capital sentencing. DeMarcus Ali Sears is sentenced to death in Georgia, but court records indicate his death sentence does not correspond to an underlying murder conviction — he was convicted of kidnapping with bodily injury. GPS's analysis of available records suggests Sears may be the only person on Georgia's death row serving a death sentence for a non-homicide offense, a combination that appears unique within the state's death-row population.

GPS has tracked 120 deaths at GDCP since 2020, a count that includes one execution, seven homicides, 17 suicides, four overdoses, two accidents, one death attributed to medical neglect, and 49 deaths where the cause remains unknown or pending. The most recent GPS-tracked deaths include Mark Rutledge, 72, who died on June 26, 2026, and whose death GDC's Office of Professional Standards is investigating with the body sent to a GBI crime lab; and Leonel Cedillo, 42, who died the following day. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has documented a series of violent deaths at the facility: Carrell Beontae Johnson, 32, died on June 6, 2023 from chopping injuries to the head and sharp force injuries to the torso; Elmer W. Pless, 65, died on May 15, 2023 by strangulation; Boyd Henry Williams, 64, died on October 3, 2022 from manual strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head; and Daniel Charriez, 46, died on February 23, 2022 from delayed complications of traumatic brain injury.

Medical Neglect and the Ronald Allen Case

The most fully documented case of medical neglect at GDCP involves Ronald Allen, a former inmate whose hands were severely damaged during a forced work assignment. According to GPS reporting, Allen was ordered to separate frozen beef patties with inadequate protective equipment — disposable gloves rather than insulated ones — during a prison riot response in April 2024. The cold-induced vascular injuries he sustained led to multiple surgeries and, ultimately, the amputation of his left hand and permanent damage to his right hand.

Allen filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia against the Georgia Department of Corrections and multiple defendants, alleging medical malpractice, negligence, and deliberate indifference to serious medical needs under the Eighth Amendment. Dr. Michael M. Neeki, listed as an expert witness in the case, opined that GDC and the defendants disregarded escalating complaints from Allen, provided inadequate treatments, engaged in delayed evaluations, and deviated from the standard of care in treating his cold-induced vascular injuries. Allen's maximum release date was June 10, 2024, and his GDC status is now listed as INACTIVE.

The Allen case is not an isolated incident. GPS staff have observed that rapid returns from medical without adequate treatment is a recurring pattern documented across multiple cases at GDCP. Inmate accounts collected by GPS describe a pattern of medical staff failing to enter information into medical records, and of injured incarcerated people being transported to outside hospitals in facility vehicles rather than by emergency medical services — a practice that generates no external incident reports. GPS records show 14 distinct sources reporting medical neglect allegations at GDCP over the past 12 months, with complaints filed to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.

Staff Misconduct, Contraband, and the Corruption Pipeline

GDCP has been a focal point for staff misconduct and contraband smuggling. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has documented that Officer Vera Jackson admitted to receiving thousands of dollars to provide death row inmate Eric Perkinson with information on upcoming shakedowns and staff; she pleaded guilty to violating her oath in 2018 and received five years' probation. In a separate case, former Counselor Gibbs was arrested on April 17, 2025 for failure to appear on an assault charge, and was subsequently charged with violation of oath of office, conspiracy, and crossing the guard line. Chief Counselor Bethune reported Gibbs's initial arrest to the Butts County Sheriff's Office.

The contraband problem extends beyond individual officers. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that newly convicted inmate Shane Tassi possessed a homemade shank and contraband cell phone within days of arriving at GDCP — photographed on social media displaying the shank and making a gang gesture. At the time of Zavala's guilty plea in a separate case, officers had seized 35 cellphones from him. GPS's own reporting has documented that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's investigative series identified 425+ GDC employee arrests since 2018 for on-the-job crimes, primarily contraband smuggling.

GPS records show 16 distinct sources reporting named staff misconduct allegations at GDCP over the past 12 months, and nine sources reporting unnamed staff misconduct. The systemic context is established by GPS's editorial findings: officer vacancies in Georgia's prisons have run between 49.3% and 60% systemwide for multiple years, against a national standard of no more than 10%, and the October 2024 DOJ findings letter explicitly concluded that "the leadership of the Georgia Department of Corrections has lost control of its facilities."

Violence, Classification Failures, and Protective Custody

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Charles Lee Broady Jr., despite requesting protection from threatening gang members, was moved to a location where six gang members attacked him with razor blades, nearly killing him. In a separate case, an individual who assaulted someone at Coastal State Prison in March 2020 — with no investigation conducted — reentered the prison system in 2022 and strangled his cellmate to death at GDCP.

The violence at GDCP occurs within a documented pattern of classification drift. GPS has documented that medium-security facilities across Georgia are housing disproportionate numbers of close-security inmates without adequate staffing and infrastructure. At GDCP specifically, GPS staff observed a pattern in which incarcerated individuals opt for general population placement over protective housing in order to access programming — a systemic issue warranting independent documentation. GDC placed an involuntary protective custody profile on Trey Adams, and GDC's own records acknowledged that Anthony Douglas Shoffner Jr., a former GDC corrections officer at GDCP now serving life without parole there, had expressed intent to harm Adams.

Inmate accounts collected by GPS describe a pattern of violence that significantly exceeds officially documented figures. Multiple witnesses report that incidents of violence have occurred without corresponding documentation or adequate medical response, and that following the discovery of deceased incarcerated people, orderlies were allegedly directed to clean cells before investigators could access them. GPS records show four sources reporting assault-by-inmate allegations and three sources reporting assault-by-staff allegations at GDCP over the past 12 months.

Food, Sanitation, and the Conditions of Daily Life

On March 26, 2025, GDCP received a perfect 100 (Grade A) food-safety inspection score from the Georgia Department of Public Health, with inspector Robert Waggoner conducting a routine inspection. But GPS's systemic findings document that DPH inspection scores systematically fail to capture food-service sanitation failures across GDC kitchens: tray-sanitizing dishwashers broken for sustained periods, sustained roach and rodent infestation, 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 food budget itself is stark. GPS has documented that GDC spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food (2024), with a proposed $1.60 per day in FY27 — under 60 cents per meal — versus the FDA Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day for an adult man's nutritionally adequate diet. The Marshall Project corroborated the pattern on May 16, 2026, independently reporting rats in kitchens, insects in food, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition across Georgia facilities.

At GDCP specifically, GPS staff characterized a food-allergy accommodation refusal as a serious safety issue rather than an administrative matter, and observed that caloric allotment and snack refusals fit a pattern tracked across multiple facilities. Inmate accounts collected by GPS describe kitchen staff withholding medically prescribed supplemental snacks from residents on medical diet profiles, and failing to provide medically prescribed higher-calorie meal trays. GPS records show three sources reporting food quality complaints and three sources reporting sanitation failure allegations at GDCP over the past 12 months.

Climate Control, Infrastructure, and the Physical Plant

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that almost every part of GDCP has been vandalized by prisoners, with widespread infrastructure failures. GPS's systemic findings document that most GDC facilities are 30-40+ years old, with deferred maintenance producing systemwide failures: broken cell-door locks, inoperative surveillance and fire-alarm systems, mold and water failures, broken kitchen sanitization equipment, and pest infestations.

At GDCP, climate control has been a long-running advocacy issue. Inmate witnesses report that air conditioning and heating systems in housing units are malfunctioning or inadequate, and that an air conditioning retrofit project involving contractors based in Duluth and Covington has been underway. Multiple sources report that large air conditioning units were installed at E House, but that the warden cancelled the air conditioning after Carrier units were installed. GPS records show six sources reporting inadequate climate conditions at GDCP over the past 12 months.

Inmate accounts collected by GPS describe cell doors that do not function properly in multiple locations, and a rumored lockdown plan that would address non-functional cell doors by welding expanded metal to cell exteriors or using padlocks as a workaround. Multiple sources report that cells in a housing unit have been secured with padlocks during lockdown periods, raising fire safety and emergency egress concerns. GPS staff observed and documented nighttime check procedures at the facility, and indicated that a nighttime check procedure was not consistent with standard welfare protocol.

The Washington State Prison Riot and the Documentation Gap

In January 2026, a gang-related riot at Washington State Prison — a separate facility elsewhere in the system — produced a documentation gap that illuminates how GDC handles deaths in custody. Four people died in the disturbance: Dajhmere Hall, 30, was found dead on January 9, two days before the riot; Teddy Jackson, 27, Ahmod Hatcher, 23, and Jimmy Trammell, 42 — who was approximately 72 hours from release after serving 10 years — were killed in the riot on January 11; and Silas Westbrook, 42, died of his injuries on January 17 after hospital release. Twelve inmates were subsequently charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, and gang participation.

Allen Wigington filed open records requests related to the deaths and riot, and published a Facebook post exposing what he alleged was GDC stonewalling. According to GDC's response to Wigington's records request, no incident reports were completed at Washington State Prison from January 9 through January 12 — despite four deaths occurring. GDC produced no documentation of any follow-up investigation, no witness interviews, no evacuation incident report, no death notification reports, and no riot incident report. The duty rosters GDC did provide showed only five officers working on January 9 and 10, working continuous duty totaling approximately 48 hours with no recorded breaks. The Georgia Department of Public Safety was the only agency that provided detailed reports in response to open records requests, documenting their actions securing the hospital and perimeter.

The Washington State Prison riot is not a GDCP event, but it is the same system. The documentation gap Wigington exposed — no incident reports, no death notifications, no investigation records — is the same pattern that inmate witnesses at GDCP describe: violence that goes undocumented, deaths that generate minimal paperwork, and an investigative function retained entirely within GDC without external oversight.

Sources

This analysis draws on reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Marshall Project, and WMAZ; federal court filings in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia; Georgia Department of Public Health inspection records; GDC open records responses; GPS's own investigative reporting and mortality database; and inmate and family accounts collected by GPS staff.