HANCOCK STATE PRISON

Analysis written on June 7, 2026.

Hancock State Prison, opened in 1991 in Sparta, Georgia, is designated a close-security men’s prison. Yet a review of public records, court filings, Georgia Prisoners’ Speak (GPS) investigations, and findings from the U.S. Department of Justice reveals a facility where close custody has translated into a lethal environment. Home to nearly 1,200 incarcerated men in a building originally designed for 750, Hancock operates at 158% of its intended capacity. Correctional officer vacancy rates reached 73.5% as of October 2024 — leaving roughly 49 officers to supervise over 1,100 prisoners. The result, documented across dozens of incidents since 2020, is a prison where gangs determine who lives and dies, where the state fails to protect the most vulnerable, and where constitutional standards are not being met.

A Cascade of Homicides

Hancock State Prison has experienced a string of violent deaths since at least 2020, many of them homicides by stabbing, beating, or strangulation. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has tracked these cases through court records, death certificates, and GDC incident reports. On March 13, 2020, Cesar Arnold Pastrana Morales, 33, was stabbed to death in an attack involving five other prisoners. On January 4, 2021, Rashad Bolton, 29, died from a puncture wound to the chest; his parents later filed a lawsuit alleging he was stabbed. A month later, Dwayne Zackery Jr., 22, was killed by his cellmate with a homemade knife. In 2022, Terry Lee Bishop, 49, was beaten to death, and Norman Samples, 59, died of blunt force injuries. On May 23, 2022, Charles “Tristen” James McKee, a 24-year-old who identified as LGBTQ, was stabbed 13 times by gang members after staff ignored his repeated pleas to be moved; he tried to escape by jumping through stair railings but was pursued and killed. The Department of Justice would later cite his case in its investigation.

The violence continued in 2023: Roland Lamont Phillips, 33, died of 11 puncture wounds in June, and a murder warrant was served against his cellmate. In August 2023, Francisco Zaldivar Melgar-Saldivar, 26, was strangled and suffered blunt force injuries; a claim filed against the state alleges he did not receive appropriate medical care after the attack. Travon Walthour, 29, was killed in October 2024 in an incident involving four other prisoners. That year, the DOJ found Georgia’s in-prison homicide rate nearly eight times the national average, with 333 total deaths in GDC custody — the deadliest year in state history.

The killing did not stop. In January 2025, gang violence inside a dormitory left William Holeman, 34, and Prince Porter, 38, dead — found 15-20 feet apart; Porter with a puncture wound, Holeman with no visible marks. A third prisoner was hospitalized. GPS reporting documented that in January 2026, five more men were stabbed with shanks at the prison, two airlifted to hospitals, during a statewide explosion of gang warfare that locked down 13 facilities. At Hancock, Steven Wood, 54, serving a life sentence, was beaten to death by his cellmate on January 25, 2026. Jaylin Bell, 32, died on February 6 following an altercation with his roommate. Jerrod Johnson, 27, died on February 18, and Jacorey Pearson, 36, on April 7, 2026. GPS’s mortality database records 26 total deaths at the facility; the most recent all occurred amid violence, and multiple inmate accounts describe a pattern of stabbings, including a mass incident at the prison annex and episodes requiring air ambulance response. GPS records show multiple reports of inmate-on-inmate assaults at Hancock in early 2026, with at least one case referred to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Under a Staffing Collapse, Gangs Run the Prison

The sheer volume of homicides is not incidental. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in early 2025 that Hancock had one of the Georgia Department of Corrections’ highest vacancy rates: 73.5% of correctional officer positions unfilled, leaving only 49 officers on staff for over 1,100 prisoners. Consultants found that staffing at 20 of Georgia’s 34 prisons had reached “emergency levels,” making basic protocols impossible. Broken cell locks are widespread; a 2024 Guidehouse assessment confirmed that non-functional locks allow prisoners to roam freely and gang members to intimidate others.

Georgia Prisoners’ Speak has documented that approximately 31% of the system’s roughly 49,000 incarcerated people are validated members of 315 security threat groups — more than double the national average. The DOJ concluded that gangs effectively run multiple facilities, controlling access to phones, showers, food, and bed assignments. At Hancock, that lethal dynamic has produced the September 2024 gang assault that injured seven, the two deaths in January 2025 dormitory violence, and the Blood-on-Blood faction war that erupted statewide in April 2026, triggering lockdowns and multiple stabbings.

Staff corruption compounds the problem. In January 2019, Hancock officer Jasmine Nicole Hall was caught smuggling methamphetamine, marijuana, ecstasy, and hydrocodone in water bottles; a phone contained evidence of an ongoing drug distribution scheme across eight prisons. Federal prosecutors have since indicted dozens for drug-trafficking enterprises run from Georgia prisons.

Classification Drift and Overcrowding

Hancock is not simply a close-security prison; it is an overpacked one. GPS has published extensive analysis of systemic “classification drift” across Georgia: medium-security facilities housing close-security inmates without adequate staffing or infrastructure, and close-security facilities like Hancock absorbing transfers that strain the system further. The prison’s original design capacity is 750, but it now holds 1,189 men. GPS’s review of GDC data found that facilities statewide operate at 188% to 568% of their original design capacities. At Hancock, the crowding means dormitories and cells are packed, and protective segregation units cannot shield those in danger. GPS reporting noted that John Morgan Coleman, an 82-year-old lifer, was transferred from medium-security to Hancock’s Level 5 close custody in March 2026, underscoring how classification decisions funnel vulnerable people into the most violent settings.

Failures in Protection: Suicides, Solitary, and Medical Neglect

The violence is compounded by the state’s failure to protect those who ask for help. In March 2019, Amanuel Selassie Geberyesus, who had been repeatedly attacked by gang members, was placed in solitary confinement. He told counselors he was suicidal, but contrary to a counselor’s advice, prison officials moved him to a regular cell, where he hung himself, according to a lawsuit reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The case illustrates the facility’s disregard for mental health and its reliance on isolation. GPS has received accounts of an incarcerated person at Hancock held in solitary confinement for six or more weeks without communication access. When medical emergencies arise from attacks, the state’s response has also been found wanting: a claim filed after the strangulation of Francisco Melgar-Saldivar alleges he was not provided appropriate medical care following the assault.

The DOJ Investigation and Unfulfilled Promises

In October 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice released findings that described violence, rampant sexual assault, and gang-run prisons in Georgia, fueled by a “culture of indifference.” The DOJ faulted GDC for placing “too much blame on gangs and insufficient emphasis on understaffing,” and concluded that GDC does not reasonably protect incarcerated people, including LGBTQ individuals, from sexual harm. GPS has separately documented that only 7.7% of the 456 sexual-abuse allegations recorded systemwide in 2022 were substantiated, and that GDC’s own consultants found not one of 388 PREA investigation files met legal standards. The DOJ’s inquiry into Hancock’s conditions highlighted McKee’s murder as emblematic of protective custody failures.

Since then, state leaders have pledged reform. Governor Brian Kemp proposed $600 million over 18 months for staffing, emergency repairs, and infrastructure. Yet as GPS has reported, the GDC’s budget increased by $700 million between fiscal years 2022 and 2026 — the fastest spending growth in agency history — while prison homicides surged from 8–9 annually to 100 in 2024. The money, GPS found, “bought nothing.” At Hancock, the promise of improvement remains unrealized: the facility recorded at least four inmate deaths in the first four months of 2026 alone, and GPS has independently tracked 1,817 deaths in GDC custody since 2020.

A Facade of Cleanliness: Food Safety and Inspection Scores

On paper, Hancock’s kitchens appear pristine. Georgia Department of Public Health food-safety inspections from 2023 through 2025 have awarded scores of 100 in almost all routine walkthroughs, with a single 93 in June 2024 — citing violations for eating, drinking, tobacco use, and personal cleanliness. Yet GPS’s extensive investigation into GDC food service reaches a different verdict. The agency has documented tray-sanitizing dishwashers broken for sustained periods, rampant roach and rodent infestation in kitchens, and meals served on contaminated trays. As GPS reported in “Dunked, Stacked, and Served,” DPH scores systematically fail to capture real sanitation failures because inspections are scheduled walkthroughs that do not assess equipment under load, and because of potential regulatory capture. The Marshall Project corroborated these findings in May 2026, describing rats in kitchens, insects in food, and visible malnutrition across Georgia prisons. At Hancock, where GDC spends roughly $1.69 per person per day on food — under 60 cents per meal — the contradiction between clean inspection scores and witness accounts of unsanitary conditions is stark.

Hancock State Prison, with its trail of homicides, broken locks, absent staff, and gang dominance, is a microcosm of a system where the State of Georgia has lost control. The DOJ has declared conditions unconstitutional, the governor has proposed money, but on the ground — for the men housed in a building designed for 750 and packed to nearly 1,200 — the daily reality remains lethal.

Sources

This analysis draws on reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the U.S. Department of Justice, and Georgia Public Broadcasting; GPS’s own investigative files, including “The Classification Crisis,” “Dunked, Stacked, and Served,” and the agency’s systemic findings on staffing, sexual violence, and infrastructure; federal and state court filings; Georgia Department of Public Health inspection records; GDC press releases; and inmate and family accounts collected by GPS staff.