Hancock State Prison

Hancock State Prison, a medium-security GDC facility in Sparta, has become one of the most visible case studies in Georgia's prison-violence crisis. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's running coverage of in-custody deaths, a 2024 U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the Georgia Department of Corrections, and Georgia Prisoners' Speak (GPS) reporting on classification drift converge on the same picture: a facility designated as medium security but housing close-security populations, operating with roughly three-quarters of its correctional officer positions vacant, and recording a sustained sequence of homicides — including four reported inmate deaths in the opening months of 2026 alone. This analysis traces the documented deaths, the staffing collapse identified by the state's own consultants, the federal findings on gang control and indifference, and the contraband economy that connects Hancock to a wider pattern in Georgia's prisons.

A Sustained Sequence of In-Custody Deaths

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's homicide-tracking coverage of Georgia prisons documents a continuous chain of violent deaths at Hancock running back at least five years. 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 involved. Rashad Bolton, 29, died on January 4, 2021 from a puncture wound to the chest; his parents subsequently filed a lawsuit claiming he was stabbed to death. The AJC reported that Dwayne Zackery Jr., 22, died on February 12, 2021 from a stab wound to the chest inflicted with a homemade knife, with death data attributing the killing to his cellmate.

The pace did not slow. Charles "Tristen" James McKee, 24, died on May 23, 2022 after being stabbed 13 times in the back and head. The U.S. Department of Justice investigation, as the AJC reported, found that McKee — who identified as LGBTQ — tried to escape gang members by jumping through stair railings to the floor below, only to continue being stabbed there; another prisoner attempting to intervene was seriously wounded. The AJC further reported that staff had failed to act on McKee's repeated requests the day before to be moved, and a lawsuit alleges he had been placed in a dorm with known gang members hostile to LGBTQ inmates. A Hancock County jury convicted Cleveland Gary for the killing; the AJC reported that Gary struck McKee six times in the head with a 17-inch homemade machete after a fight had already ended.

Terry Lee Bishop, 49, died on October 18, 2022 from blunt force trauma combined with acute methamphetamine and cannabinoid toxicity, with death data indicating he was beaten to death by another prisoner. Norman Samples, 59, died on December 27, 2022 from blunt force injuries to the head and torso. Roland Lamont Phillips, 33, died on June 28, 2023 from 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; a claim filed against the state alleges he was not provided appropriate medical care after being attacked by another prisoner. Travon Walthour, 29, was killed on October 13, 2024, with GDC incident-report data identifying four other prisoners as involved. In January 2025, the AJC reported, William Holeman, 34, and Prince Porter, 38, were found dead in the same dorm about 15–20 feet apart in what was described as gang-related violence; Porter had a single puncture wound to his upper back, Holeman had no visible marks, and a third prisoner was hospitalized.

The pattern has continued into 2026. According to GDC announcements covered by 41NBC, Steven Wood — serving life with possibility of parole for a Cherokee County murder conviction — died on January 25, 2026 following an altercation with another inmate, and Jaylin Bell, 32, died on February 6, 2026 following an altercation with his roommate. Both bodies were turned over to the county coroner for transport to the GBI crime lab, and the GDC Office of Professional Standards opened investigations the agency characterized as standard procedure. 41NBC also reported the death of Jacorey Pearson at Hancock, with cause not released; GPS's mortality database records his date of death as April 5, 2026 and additionally records the February 18, 2026 death of Jerrod Johnson, 27, at the facility — bringing the GPS-tracked count to four Hancock deaths in the first four months of 2026, all categorized as homicides. GPS's mortality database lists 26 total deaths tracked at the facility, including the September 9, 2025 death of Andre Rashad Weems, 36; the June 17, 2025 death of Corey Jose July, 33; and the July 24, 2025 death of Brian Smith, 30.

A 73.5% Officer Vacancy and "Emergency-Level" Staffing

The structural explanation supplied by the state's own retained consultants is staffing collapse. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that consultants found staffing vacancies at 20 of Georgia's 34 prisons had reached "emergency levels," making it impossible to keep up with even basic protocols, with broken cell locks at many prisons allowing prisoners to roam and gang members to intimidate other inmates. Hancock sits at the leading edge of that crisis: the AJC reported that as of October 2024, more than 70 percent of correctional officer jobs at Hancock were vacant, with one figure placing the vacancy rate at 73.5 percent — leaving only 49 officers on staff for over 1,100 prisoners. Citing the consultants' findings, Governor Brian Kemp proposed allocating an additional $600 million over 18 months to address staffing, emergency repairs, and infrastructure improvements across the state's prisons.

GPS's own analytical reporting frames Hancock within a wider documented pattern of "classification drift" — medium-security facilities operating de facto as close-security facilities without the staffing or infrastructure that designation requires. GPS reporting describes statewide correctional-officer vacancies averaging 50 percent while prison populations have effectively doubled relative to original design capacity, and notes John Morgan Coleman, an 82-year-old serving a life sentence, being transferred from a medium-security setting into close-security Level 5 conditions at Hancock — a transfer GPS cites as exemplifying the misclassification dynamic. GPS's investigative report The Classification Crisis: How Four Medium Security Prisons Are Killing People situates Hancock among the four medium-security facilities its analysis identifies as concentrating disproportionate harm.

DOJ Findings and Gang Control

The 2024 U.S. Department of Justice report, as summarized in the AJC's coverage, described violence, sexual assaults, and gang-run prisons in Georgia, fueled by a culture of indifference. GPS reporting on the DOJ investigation describes Georgia's in-prison homicide rate as nearly eight times the national average, with homicides rising from 8–9 annually in 2017–2018 to 37 in 2023 and 100 in 2024, and 333 total deaths in GDC custody in 2024 — characterized as the deadliest year in state history. GPS's analytical reporting notes that a roughly $700 million budget increase across FY2022–FY2026 has not produced measurable safety improvements at the facilities documented in the Classification Crisis report.

The contraband economy connects Hancock to the wider gang-run system the DOJ described. The AJC reported that 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. A January 2019 case illustrates the staff side of that economy at Hancock specifically: the AJC reported that Hancock officer Jasmine Nicole Hall was caught with water bottles whose hidden compartments held methamphetamine, marijuana, ecstasy, and hydrocodone, with phone evidence revealing an ongoing distribution scheme spanning eight prisons and over $5,000 in transactions. A separate federal indictment reported by the AJC charged dozens of people in a drug-trafficking conspiracy involving cocaine, methamphetamine, oxycodone, and marijuana, with implicated inmates at Wilcox, Telfair, and Macon state prisons, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, and the privately operated Wheeler and Jenkins correctional facilities. GPS reporting documents recurring assault patterns at Hancock that GPS aggregate records corroborate: across the most recent twelve months, GPS's intelligence system records four distinct sources reporting inmate-on-inmate assault allegations at the facility at critical and high severity, with external complaints registered to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Earlier Litigation and Documented Failures-to-Protect

The wrongful-death litigation arising from Hancock predates the most recent surge and centers on alleged failures to act on known risk. The AJC reported that Amanuel Selassie Geberyesus, placed in solitary after being repeatedly attacked by gang members, told counselors he was having suicidal thoughts; contrary to a counselor's advice, prison officials placed him in a regular cell, where he hung himself in March 2019. The pending civil claim filed by Rashad Bolton's parents over his January 2021 stabbing death, the lawsuit alleging Charles "Tristen" McKee was placed in a dorm with known gang members hostile to LGBTQ inmates, and the state claim alleging Francisco Zaldivar Melgar-Saldivar was denied appropriate medical care after being attacked by another prisoner together describe a recurring failure-to-protect theory: incarcerated people whose vulnerability was known to staff, placed or kept in housing where they were then killed.

A September 2024 episode reported by the AJC — in which seven prisoners were disciplined for a gang-related assault on an inmate at Hancock, according to records obtained by the paper — reinforces that the dynamic is contemporary rather than historical. GPS has additionally received reports of an inmate beaten to death by a cellmate at Hancock, consistent with the deaths described in GDC announcements covered above.

Statewide Context: The January 2026 Lockdown

Hancock's 2026 deaths occurred against the backdrop of a statewide event reported in GPS's investigative coverage as a "Blood on Blood" factional war between ROLACC and G-Shine sets that produced a system-wide GDC lockdown. GPS reporting describes coordinated gang violence across 13 facilities, multiple stabbings with two life-flight helicopter dispatches, and the deployment of 50-person TAC squads. The same GPS coverage describes a January 11, 2026 outbreak at Washington State Prison in which four people were killed — including, GPS reports, Jimmy Trammell, who had 72 hours remaining on his sentence — and after which Washington State Prison reportedly remained on continuous lockdown. GPS reporting additionally documents nine people hospitalized after a gang fight at Wilcox State Prison and a separate incident in which five inmates were stabbed at Hancock with two airlifted to hospitals. Hancock's death cluster in January and February 2026 is properly read in that statewide context rather than as an isolated facility event.

Inspections and Facility Compliance

DPH food-safety inspection records present a markedly different picture of the facility's regulatory file than its violence record suggests. Per Georgia Department of Public Health records, Hancock received scores of 100 (Grade A) on routine inspections conducted October 13, 2023; June 25, 2024 (with a paired 93 on a second food service); December 31, 2024; May 27, 2025 (with a paired 96); and December 18, 2025 — all conducted by inspector William Minton. These scores reflect food-safety compliance specifically; they are not evaluations of security operations, medical care, or housing conditions, and the divergence between routine A-grade kitchen inspections and the violence patterns documented above is itself notable.

Facility Leadership

GPS's personnel database records the current deputy-warden bench at Hancock as Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment Rashedah Fayola Mitchell (since February 2026), Deputy Warden of Administration Chequita Adams (since January 2026), and Deputy Warden of Security Tamikia Nicole Mahoney (since September 2024, after years in the Correctional Assistant Superintendent role at the facility dating back to 2019). Deputy Wardens Jeremy Andrew Foston and Paul Anthony Sanford held positions at Hancock through 2025.

Sources

This analysis draws on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's running coverage of Georgia prison homicides and the 2024 U.S. Department of Justice investigation it summarized; reporting from 41NBC and GDC announcements on individual in-custody deaths; civil filings and a state claim arising from the deaths of Amanuel Selassie Geberyesus, Rashad Bolton, Charles "Tristen" James McKee, and Francisco Zaldivar Melgar-Saldivar; Georgia Department of Public Health food-safety inspection reports; GPS-tracked mortality and personnel records; and Georgia Prisoners' Speak's own investigative coverage of classification drift, the January 2026 statewide lockdown, and the Classification Crisis report on medium-security facilities.