Last updated October 4, 2026.(DS)

Johnson State Prison: Deaths, Sanitation Failure, and a Facility That Outgrew Its Design

Johnson State Prison sits in Wrightsville, in Johnson County, and has held adult men since it opened in 1992 — a facility built for 500 people that today carries a rated capacity of 1,612 and a population of roughly 1,544. It is a medium-security prison with 15 housing units, including general-population dorms, mental-health supportive-living units, and segregation; it ran for a period as a juvenile boot camp before reverting to adult custody, and it now supplies labor details to local governments alongside standard education, counseling, and faith-based programming. Against that institutional profile, three threads dominate the public record: a mortality count that GPS's registry puts at 88 deaths since January 1, 2020, with 12 classified as homicides; a food-service sanitation record that includes two consecutive failing inspections in December 2023; and a wrongful-death case that produced the largest liability payout tied to this facility in the state's open-records settlement ledger.

A Mortality Record That Runs Through the Whole Facility

GPS's mortality registry — built from the Department's own cause coding obtained by open records request, not from autopsy findings — records 88 deaths at Johnson State Prison since January 1, 2020. The yearly distribution is uneven but persistent: 13 deaths in 2020, 14 in 2021, 6 in 2022, 15 in 2023, 15 in 2024, 18 in 2025, and 7 in the first months of 2026. By cause category, 50 are listed as Unknown/Pending, 12 as Natural/Medical, 12 as Homicide, 8 as Other, 5 as Suicide, and 1 as Overdose. The Unknown/Pending share — more than half the total — is itself a finding: it means the state's own coding has not resolved a cause for the majority of people who died here.

The most recent deaths GPS has recorded at the facility include Ernest Perez, who died June 23, 2026, at age 61, with the registry listing the cause as Homicide; Martrese Jamon Mckay, who died April 18, 2026, at 30, listed as Suicide; Dale Way, who died March 28, 2026, at 76, cause Unknown/Pending; Michael Elias Peschel, who died March 14, 2026, at 36, listed as Homicide; Anthony Shivers, who died February 11, 2026, at 41, listed as Overdose; Joseph Lamar Sanders, who died January 27, 2026, at 54, listed as Homicide; and Phillip Lamar Byrd, who died January 18, 2026, at 46, listed as Homicide.

Further back, the registry names Calvin R Norwood, who died December 30, 2025, at 72, cause Unknown/Pending; Marc Charles Neermann, who died November 2, 2025, at 69, cause Unknown/Pending; Roger James, who died October 29, 2025, at 68, cause Unknown/Pending; Aubrie Henley, who died October 5, 2025, at 69, cause Unknown/Pending; Jarvis Dontez Walker, who died September 26, 2025, at 39, cause Unknown/Pending; Matthew Glenn Maynard, who died September 14, 2025, at 65, cause Unknown/Pending; Loy Alpheus Iii Windham, who died July 31, 2025, at 54, cause Unknown/Pending; Larry Sherall Richards, who died July 29, 2025, at 86, cause Unknown/Pending; Russell Scott Carter, who died July 23, 2025, at 42, cause Unknown/Pending; Justin Haley Freeman, who died July 20, 2025, at 44, cause Unknown/Pending; Robert Glenn Tanner, who died July 15, 2025, at 56, cause Unknown/Pending; Joseph Wayne Clayton, who died July 12, 2025, at 32, cause Unknown/Pending; Dewayne Bess, who died July 10, 2025, at 63, cause Unknown/Pending; Robert Joseph Pruett, who died June 26, 2025, at 61, cause Unknown/Pending; John Charles Rhoten, who died June 15, 2025, at 54, cause Unknown/Pending; Paul Russell Brewster, who died June 9, 2025, at 48, listed as Homicide; Robert Barnwell, who died May 4, 2025, at 80, cause Unknown/Pending; and Justin Brandon Hulett, who died February 12, 2025, at 38, listed as Homicide. The full list is maintained at GPS's facility death registry: https://gps.press/georgia-prison-deaths/facility/johnson-state-prison/

The homicide cases that reached public reporting are a subset of that registry count. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Jerry Lee Brown, 61, died November 12, 2020, from stab wounds to the head and blunt force injury to the face. Donald Prescott Lee, 41, died November 16, 2023, from blunt force trauma to the head, neck, and torso. Michael Page, 53, died June 29, 2023, with the manner ruled a homicide but no cause stated and the death certificate not yet received. Kenneth Adam Robinson, 50, died August 10, 2024, with incident report data showing a homicide while the death certificate had not been received. In each of those cases the AJC's homicide-tracking coverage documented the death; the registry and the news record align on the names and dates.

The Henegar Case: Five Hours, a Prior Attack, and a $4 Million Settlement

The most fully documented death at Johnson State Prison is that of David Lamar Henegar, 44, who died October 16, 2021. The AJC reported that Henegar was beaten to death over approximately five hours by his cellmate, Antone Hinton-Leonard, and was found with multiple injuries including a broken neck and ribs, a fractured nose and breastbone, a torn lung and liver, and brain and scalp hemorrhages. The registry lists the cause as manual strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head.

A lawsuit filed by Betty Wade and David Jacob Henegar against three corrections officers and a prison manager alleges that staff could have prevented the death but failed to protect him. The complaint alleges that Hinton-Leonard — described in the filing as a mentally ill cellmate who had previously attacked Henegar — choked him over the course of hours, stomped on his chest, and strangled him, while neighboring prisoners screamed for officers to intervene and none did. The AJC further reported allegations that staff failed to act on repeated reports from other prisoners about Hinton-Leonard's mental health problems and a prior choking incident a week before the fatal attack, and that Henegar, who had a disability, was kept in custody past his scheduled release date because of an administrative delay — leaving him exposed to the attack. Hinton-Leonard was charged with murder and, as of the AJC's April 2026 reporting, was awaiting trial with the criminal case scheduled to begin later that month.

The state's open-records settlement ledger records a $4,000,000 liability payout to Betty Wade for the Estate of David Lamar Henegar, tied to Johnson State Prison and to a documented death record. It is the largest settlement in the facility's ledger by a wide margin. The same ledger records a $1,449,640 payout tied to Jerry Brown (2020), $400,000 tied to Ucollos Owens (2015), $100,000 tied to Andrick Jackson (2023), $40,000 tied to Cleveland D Dunn (2018), $2,000 tied to Larry Singletary (2016), and $1,500 tied to Antione Caldwell (2020).

Food Safety: Two Fs in Nine Days, Then a Slow Climb Back

The Georgia Department of Public Health's food-service inspection record for Johnson State Prison is the most granular public documentation of conditions inside the facility's kitchen. On December 11, 2023, a routine inspection scored 64 — a failing grade — with nine violations cited, including the person in charge not demonstrating knowledge or performing duties, inadequate handwashing facilities, and food not separated and protected. Nine days later, on December 20, 2023, a follow-up inspection scored 67, also failing, with six violations including food separation, cold holding temperatures, and cleanable food and nonfood-contact surfaces.

The scores improved unevenly after that. A July 24, 2023 follow-up had scored 91 (Grade A), but a June 27, 2023 routine inspection scored 75 (Grade C) with seven violations including no certified food protection manager, inadequate handwashing facilities, and improper cold holding. In 2024 the facility scored 86 in March (four violations, including no certified food protection manager and food-contact surfaces not cleaned and sanitized) and 96 in December (three violations). In 2025 it scored 80 in March (seven violations, including inadequate handwashing facilities and improper hot holding and cooling) and 88 in October (six violations). The most recent inspection in the record, on June 22, 2026, scored 86 (Grade B) with six violations, including food-contact surfaces not cleaned and sanitized and toxic substances not properly identified, stored, or used.

Those scores sit inside a documented systemwide pattern. GPS has documented food-service sanitation failure across GDC kitchens that 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, in GPS's analysis, because inspections are scheduled walkthroughs that do not assess equipment under load. GPS treats the contradiction between high DPH scores and sustained witness reports of equipment failure as the analytical center of its investigation into Georgia prison food. The Marshall Project corroborated the broader pattern in a May 16, 2026 investigation, independently reporting rats in kitchens, insects in food, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition across Georgia facilities. GDC's food budget — approximately $1.69 per person per day in 2024, with $1.60 proposed for FY27, under 60 cents per meal — is the structural backdrop GPS cites against the FDA Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day for an adult man's nutritionally adequate diet.

Physical evidence submitted to GPS indicates unsanitary food-service conditions at the facility, including institutional food trays with visible contamination or residue in multiple compartments and persistent residue consistent with inadequate cleaning practices. A public social media report regarding the prison included photographic documentation of those conditions. Separately, a case regarding food safety and unsanitary trays at Johnson State Prison was opened on April 10, 2026, following a Facebook report from Samantha Graves Della Rocca.

Violence, Escape, and the Infrastructure Behind Them

Beyond the homicides, the facility's public record includes an escape on April 5, 2023, for which GDC issued no news release, according to the AJC. That silence is consistent with a broader pattern GPS has documented: GDC's public communications frequently do not acknowledge incidents at individual facilities.

GPS has documented that most GDC facilities are 30 to 40-plus years old, with deferred maintenance producing systemwide infrastructure failures — broken cell-door locks, inoperative surveillance and fire-alarm systems, mold and water failures, broken kitchen sanitization equipment, and pest infestations. The DOJ's October 2024 findings, the Guidehouse 2024 assessment, and Commissioner Oliver's public "end of life" statements all corroborate that pattern, and GPS treats infrastructure collapse as a force multiplier for the violence, classification, and mortality crises documented at the facility level. The staffing picture compounds it: 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%, the hiring pipeline cannot close the gap, and Georgia ranks last of 50 states for correctional-officer pay. The DOJ's October 2024 findings letter concluded that GDC leadership "has lost control of its facilities" and faulted the Department for placing too much blame on gangs and insufficient emphasis on understaffing.

In the twelve months covered by GPS's internal signal records, the facility shows a concentration of reports that track the public record: seven sanitation-failure signals across three months, six due-process-violation signals, five assault-by-inmate signals, five death-in-custody reports, four food-quality complaints, four mental-health-crisis-unattended signals, three medical-neglect allegations, and three staff-misconduct allegations. April 2026 alone accounts for four separate buckets at or above the three-source threshold — death-in-custody, assault-by-inmate, food-quality, and sanitation. GPS has additionally received recurring reports of raw sewage flooding common areas and multiple cells in the facility's mental-health unit, with conditions in cells housing people with disabilities reportedly persisting for days without repair. These are receipt-acknowledgment records, not adjudicated findings.

What the Facility Was Built to Hold, and What It Holds Now

Johnson State Prison was constructed in 1991 and opened in 1992 with a design capacity of 500. Its current rated capacity is 1,612, and its population stands at approximately 1,544 — roughly 95.8% of rated capacity, and more than three times the number of people the original plant was designed to hold. The facility's 15 housing units include general-population dorms, mental-health supportive-living units, and segregation. It is not a designated ex-law-enforcement facility under GDC policy, a point that has surfaced in family and inmate accounts concerning housing placements.

The state's response to systemwide crowding has included modular construction. GDC installed ModCorr MaxMod modular housing units at Dodge, Lee, Montgomery, and Hays state prisons and a 20-bed Medical Intensive Infirmary at Johnson State Prison, adding a total of 524 beds across the program; the project was celebrated at a July 21 ceremony. A separate account describes the Johnson infirmary as a 4,800-square-foot facility designed by NELSON Worldwide. GPS has separately reported on the contracting behind the modular program, including five executed Design-Build-Install agreements with ModCorr LLC signed April 25, 2025.

Leadership at the facility has turned over recently. Ryan Beland has served as warden since June 16, 2026; the current deputy warden of security is Tiffany C Sailem, and the deputy wardens are Willie E Carr, Chabara L Davis-Bragg, Matthew Newkirk (administration), and ADA Y Messer. Kochelle Watson appears in GDC-stated records as a warden of the facility, a title that predates the current appointment.

Sources

This analysis draws on the Georgia Department of Public Health's food-service inspection record for Johnson State Prison; the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through open records; GPS's mortality registry and internal signal records; reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the Henegar litigation, the facility's homicide deaths, and the April 2023 escape; The Marshall Project's May 2026 investigation of Georgia prison food; GDC public statements and the DOJ's October 2024 findings letter; and family, inmate, and anonymous accounts collected by GPS staff.