HANCOCK STATE PRISON

Last updated August 29, 2026.(DS)

A Close-Security Prison Built for Half Its Population

Hancock State Prison in Sparta opened in 1991 as a close-security men's facility with an original design capacity of 500. It now operates with a rated capacity of 1,191 and held 1,177 people as of the most recent GPS population snapshot — 98.8% of its rated capacity, but more than double what the facility was originally built to hold. The prison houses many of the state's highest-risk prisoners under Tier I and Tier II close-custody management, with multiple segregation and isolation units and an annex area alongside dormitory housing. The facility's leadership includes Warden Joe Williams, who has held the post since January 2025, and four deputy wardens overseeing security, care and treatment, and administration.

The population served at Hancock is exclusively male, and the facility's security classification reflects its role as a destination for people GDC considers among its most difficult to manage. GPS's own reporting has documented a pattern of classification drift across the Georgia system — medium-security facilities operating as close-security without adequate staffing or infrastructure — but Hancock sits at the far end of that spectrum by design: it is a close-security prison absorbing close-security populations, with the staffing and infrastructure failures that have come to define the system as a whole.

A Death Toll Driven by Homicide

GPS has tracked 27 deaths at Hancock State Prison since its mortality records began on January 1, 2020. Of those, 17 are classified as homicides — a rate of fatal violence that dwarfs the facility's natural and medical deaths, which account for just two of the 27. Seven deaths remain classified as unknown or pending, and one falls into an "other" category. The most recent recorded death was Albert Chapa, 57, who died on July 30, 2026, with his cause of death still pending.

The homicide count at Hancock is not an artifact of a single bad year. The deaths stretch across the entire period GPS has tracked, and the names attached to them tell a consistent story. Jacorey Derrelle Pearson, 36, died on April 7, 2026, and his death is classified as a homicide. Jerrod Johnson, 27, died on February 18, 2026 — also a homicide. Jaylin Bell, 32, died on February 6, 2026, following what GDC described as an altercation with his roommate. Steven Monroe Wood, 54, died on January 25, 2026, after an altercation with another inmate; he was serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for a murder conviction out of Cherokee County. Andre Rashad Weems, 36, died on September 9, 2025, also classified as a homicide.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has documented the broader pattern at Hancock in granular detail. Roland Lamont Phillips, 33, died on June 28, 2023, from multiple sharp-force injuries including 11 puncture wounds to the front torso and one to the neck; a murder warrant was served against his cellmate. Francisco Zaldivar Melgar-Saldivar, 26, died on August 12, 2023, from strangulation and blunt force injuries. Norman Samples, 59, died on December 27, 2022, from blunt force injuries to the head and torso. Terry Lee Bishop, 49, died on October 18, 2022, from blunt force trauma combined with acute toxicity of methamphetamine and cannabinoids; death data indicate he was beaten to death by another prisoner. Dwayne Zackery Jr., 22, died on February 12, 2021, from a stab wound to the chest with a homemade knife, reportedly inflicted by his cellmate. Rashad Bolton, 29, died on January 4, 2021, from a puncture wound to the chest with a sharp object. Cesar Arnold Pastrana Morales, 33, died on March 13, 2020, from a stab wound to the chest, with an incident report showing five other inmates were involved.

The McKee Case and the DOJ's Findings

The most heavily documented death at Hancock is that of Charles "Tristen" James McKee, 24, who died on May 23, 2022, after being stabbed 13 times in the back and head. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that McKee, who identified as LGBTQ, had repeatedly asked to be moved the day before his murder, stating his life was in danger. A lawsuit filed by his family alleges he was placed in a dorm with known gang members who were hostile to LGBTQ inmates. The U.S. Department of Justice investigation into his death found that McKee tried to escape gang members who were beating and stabbing him by jumping through stair railings to the floor below, but the gang members continued to stab him there; another prisoner who tried to stop the attack was seriously wounded.

A Hancock County jury subsequently convicted Cleveland Gary of McKee's murder. The AJC reported that Gary struck McKee six times in the head with a 17-inch homemade machete after a fight had already ended. The state of Georgia paid a $424,710 liability settlement tied to McKee's death, according to the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through open records.

McKee's death is not the only one that has cost the state money. The settlement ledger shows a $437,500 payout tied to Rashad Bolton's 2021 death, a $600,000 payout tied to Geberyesus Yemane Selassie's 2019 death, and smaller payouts for Freedie Barnes ($13,800, 2016), Michael Bolick ($2,000, 2015), and Rico Sterling ($250, 2016). In total, the state has paid at least $1,478,260 in liability settlements tied to deaths and incidents at Hancock since 2015, per the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger — a figure that understates the human cost but documents the state's own acknowledgment of liability in multiple cases.

Gang Violence and the January 2025 Dorm Killings

The gang-related violence at Hancock is not confined to individual killings. On January 30, 2025, two prisoners were found dead in the same dorm about 15 to 20 feet apart following what the AJC described as gang-related violence. William Holeman, 34, and Prince Porter, 38, were the victims. Porter had a single puncture wound in his upper back; Holeman had no visible marks on his body. A third prisoner was hospitalized as a result of the same incident, with no information available on his condition the following day. The coroner leaned toward homicide in at least one of the cases.

The January 2025 dorm killings were not an isolated event. In September 2024, seven prisoners were disciplined for attacking an inmate in a gang-related assault at Hancock, according to records obtained by the AJC. Travon Walthour, 29, was killed at Hancock on October 13, 2024, with four other prisoners involved in his death according to GDC incident report data. And in June 2025, Vershaun Smith chased Corey July across the prison yard, cornered him at a locked gate, and stabbed him multiple times — a killing captured on surveillance video. A Hancock County jury convicted Smith of malice murder in August 2026, and Judge Alison T. Burleson sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

GPS records show six sources contributing assault-by-inmate allegations at Hancock over the 12 months from January 2026 through August 2026, with severity ratings of critical and high, and one external complaint filed to the U.S. Department of Justice. The pattern is consistent with the facility's documented history: gang-related violence is not an occasional disruption at Hancock but a structural feature of daily life.

Staffing Collapse and the Vacancy Crisis

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Hancock State Prison has one of the GDC's highest correctional officer vacancy rates, with 73.5% of positions vacant as of October 2024 — leaving only 49 officers on staff for over 1,100 prisoners. A separate AJC report put the figure at more than 70% vacant as of October 2024. These numbers place Hancock among the worst-staffed facilities in a system where officer vacancies have run between 49.3% and 60% systemwide for multiple years, against a national standard of no more than 10%.

GPS's systemic findings place Hancock's staffing crisis in the context of a broader collapse. The October 2024 DOJ findings letter explicitly 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." Approximately 31% of the system's roughly 49,000 incarcerated people are validated members of 315 different security threat groups — more than double the national average. DOJ and the Guidehouse 2024 consultant assessment independently concluded that gangs effectively run multiple facilities, controlling access to phones, showers, food, and bed assignments.

The staffing crisis at Hancock is not a recent development. Consultants found that staffing vacancies at 20 of Georgia's 34 prisons have reached "emergency levels," making it impossible to keep up with even basic protocols, and that cell locks at many prisons are broken. The AJC reported that broken cell locks allow prisoners to roam and gang members to intimidate other inmates. Gov. Brian Kemp proposed allocating an additional $600 million over 18 months to address staffing, emergency repairs, and infrastructure improvements, citing the consultants' findings — but the proposal came after years of documented deterioration. GPS has documented that the state added $700 million to its corrections budget between FY 2022 and FY 2026 — the fastest spending growth in agency history — while prison homicides rose from 8 annually to 100 in 2024.

Staff Misconduct and Contraband

The staffing crisis at Hancock has created openings for corruption. In January 2019, Hancock State Prison officer Jasmine Nicole Hall was caught with water bottles containing compartments filled with methamphetamine, marijuana, ecstasy, and hydrocodone. Phone evidence revealed an ongoing drug distribution scheme across eight prisons totaling over $5,000 in transactions, according to the AJC. Hall's case is one data point in a broader pattern the AJC has documented: short-staffing, safety problems, and corruption inside Georgia's prisons have allowed prisoners to operate large criminal enterprises from their cells, with 28 major drug-trafficking cases filed between 2015 and 2024.

GPS has received accounts of use of force by the Interdiction Response Team at Hancock, including reports of physical force involving furniture and doors. These reports are aggregate in nature and have not been independently corroborated by GPS at the time of this writing. They sit alongside the documented violence — both inmate-on-inmate and the structural violence of understaffing — that defines the facility's recent history.

Food Safety Scores and the Limits of Inspection

Against this backdrop of violence and understaffing, the Georgia Department of Public Health's food-safety inspection scores for Hancock State Prison present a striking contrast. The facility received a score of 100 (Grade A) on December 18, 2025, in two separate routine inspections. It received another 100 on May 27, 2025, alongside a second inspection that day scoring 96 (Grade A) with one violation cited for food-contact surfaces. The facility scored 100 on December 31, 2024, in two inspections, and 100 on June 25, 2024, alongside a 93 (Grade A) with two violations cited for proper eating, tasting, drinking, or tobacco use, and personal cleanliness. Two inspections on October 13, 2023, both scored 100.

These scores are, on their face, excellent. But GPS's systemic findings document a pattern of food-service sanitation failure across GDC kitchens that DPH inspection 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, GPS has found, because inspections are scheduled walkthroughs that do not assess equipment under load, and because GPS has documented professional overlap between inspectors and facility staff in small-county settings. High DPH scores at GDC facilities coexist with sustained witness reports of equipment failure and food contamination — a contradiction that is the analytical center of GPS's investigation "Dunked, Stacked, and Served."

The food budget context makes this contradiction more acute. GDC spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food as of 2024, and has 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 independently corroborated the pattern in May 2026, reporting rats in kitchens, insects in food, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition across Georgia facilities.

The Wider System: Hancock in Context

Hancock State Prison does not exist in isolation. The DOJ's October 2024 findings letter concluded that sexual assault is "rampant" in Georgia prisons and that GDC does not reasonably protect incarcerated people, including LGBTI individuals, from sexual harm. Of 456 sexual-abuse allegations recorded in 2022, only 35 were substantiated — 7.7%. GDC's own consultants reviewed 388 PREA investigation files in May 2022 and found that not one met the law's standards. Georgia has never submitted a PREA certification of full compliance to the U.S. Department of Justice in the law's two-decade history.

The McKee case at Hancock sits squarely within this pattern. A lawsuit alleges he was placed in a dorm with known gang members who were hostile to LGBTQ inmates, leading to his death. The DOJ investigation found he tried to escape gang members who were beating and stabbing him by jumping through stair railings, only to be stabbed further on the floor below. The state paid $424,710 to settle the liability claim tied to his death.

The systemic violence at Hancock is part of a statewide pattern that GPS has documented extensively. Prison homicides in Georgia surged from 8-9 annually in 2017-2018 to 100 in 2024, with 333 total deaths in GDC custody that year — the deadliest year in state history. The DOJ found Georgia's in-prison homicide rate is nearly eight times the national average. GPS has independently tracked 1,890 deaths in GDC custody since 2020.

The January 2025 gang-related dorm killings at Hancock occurred in the same period as a broader wave of gang violence across the system. On January 11, 2026, a gang-war riot at Washington State Prison — a separate facility elsewhere in the system — killed four people: Teddy Jackson, 27; Ahmod Hatcher, 23; Jimmy Trammell, 42, who was days from release; and Silas Westbrook, 42, who died of his injuries on January 17 after hospital release. A fifth man, Dajhmere Hall, 30, was found dead at Washington State Prison on January 9, two days before the riot. Twelve inmates were subsequently charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, and gang participation in connection with the Washington State Prison disturbance. GPS's open-records production showed that only six officers were on duty at Washington State Prison when the January 11 riot began.

The Washington State Prison riot is not a Hancock event, but it is the same phenomenon: gang-controlled facilities, catastrophic understaffing, and a death toll that continues to climb. At Hancock, the pattern is documented in the facility's own mortality records, in the AJC's reporting, in the DOJ's investigation of McKee's death, and in the state's own settlement ledger.

Sources

This analysis draws on reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 41NBC, and The Marshall Project; federal court filings and the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation into Georgia prisons; Georgia Department of Public Health food-safety inspection records; the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through open records; GDC incident report data and public statements; GPS's own mortality database and systemic findings; and inmate and family accounts collected by GPS staff. The facility's leadership information is drawn from GPS's personnel database, and the mortality figures are drawn from GPS-tracked death records beginning January 1, 2020.