Last updated October 11, 2026.(DS)

Pulaski State Prison: Lethal Medical Neglect, a Failing Kitchen, and a Warden Under Family Scrutiny

Pulaski State Prison in Hawkinsville opened in 1994 as a medium-security women's facility and today holds roughly 1,186 women against a rated capacity of 1,223 — about 97 percent full, and more than double the 500 people the compound was originally designed to hold. The physical plant is a set of double-bunked dormitory buildings plus segregation units used for disciplinary and protective custody. It offers GED classes, basic education, and limited vocational and treatment programs. Against that ordinary institutional backdrop, the public record is anything but ordinary: a contract physician whose tenure is tied to at least 22 deaths, a $925,000 state liability payout, a deputy warden arrested for sexual contact with a prisoner, a kitchen that has swung between A and F grades within a single year, and a death registry that GPS has logged at 30 people since January 2020.

A Doctor, a Body Count, and a State That Kept Paying

The most consequential thread in Pulaski's public record is medical care. GPS's published investigation found that 22 women died under a doctor at Pulaski State Prison, and that the same physician had a history of malpractice deaths in New York before Georgia hired him. According to GPS's reporting, the state hired him despite knowing about that record, praised him for cutting costs by denying women medical care, and gave him a raise even as the denials resulted in deaths. Those are GPS's own findings, and they carry the weight — and the limits — of an investigation built substantially on family and internal accounts.

The settlement ledger corroborates the pattern from a different direction. Georgia's Department of Administrative Services risk-management records, obtained through open records, show a $925,000 liability payout tied to Pulaski in connection with Bonnie Rocheleau, whose incident date is recorded as March 19, 2015. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in January 2025 that Rocheleau failed to get adequate care at Pulaski when she developed pneumonia, leading to her death. The same AJC reporting described Mollianne Fischer, who failed to receive adequate medical care at the facility and was left in a vegetative state. Four other Pulaski settlements appear in the same state ledger: $300,000 tied to Kimery Finger (2015), $85,000 tied to Makayah Howard (2024), $30,000 tied to Kari A. Quinn (2013), and $15,900 tied to Dante Coleman (2018).

The pattern is not confined to one physician's tenure. GPS's intelligence system records multiple reports of alleged medical neglect at Pulaski over the past twelve months, including signals rated at critical severity — a category of report that has continued to accumulate even as the facility's leadership has changed.

Thirty Deaths Since 2020, and a Registry That Keeps Growing

GPS's mortality registry records 30 deaths at Pulaski State Prison since January 1, 2020 — a figure that is a floor, not a ceiling, because GDC reports deaths roughly two months late. The causes break down as 11 natural or medical, 14 unknown or pending, three suicides, and two classified as other. The full list is maintained at gps.press/georgia-prison-deaths/facility/pulaski-state-prison/.

The most recent entries are also the ones that drew public attention. Kristi Ray Perkins died July 12, 2026, at Pulaski State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, and she was 59. Monika Yvette Bradley died July 5, 2026, at Pulaski State Prison, cause Unknown/Pending, age 43. Tulia Eustache died June 3, 2026, cause Unknown/Pending, age 66. Karen Michelle Lindsey died May 24, 2026, cause Unknown/Pending, age 59. Denecia Nichelle Randall died March 30, 2026, at age 28; the registry lists the cause as Suicide. Ronika Lashawn Carswell died December 12, 2025, Natural/Medical, age 50. Candace Lajon Morgan died June 11, 2025, Natural/Medical, age 41. Esmeralda Carillo Hernandez died May 22, 2025, Natural/Medical, age 50. Stephanie Sabrina Gary died March 5, 2025, Natural/Medical, age 55. Lesley Bell Owens died July 23, 2024, Unknown/Pending, age 49. Tracy Michelle Graves died May 16, 2024, Unknown/Pending, age 45. Ramada Lesha Butts died April 16, 2024, Unknown/Pending, age 52.

Further back: Sheila Britton died September 22, 2023, Natural/Medical, age 60. Cynthia Mccain died September 3, 2023, Unknown/Pending, age 65. Pharina S. Peterson died May 1, 2023, Natural/Medical, age 75. Sandra Sipsy died January 24, 2023, Natural/Medical, age 54. Christina Marie Buttery died December 21, 2022, Unknown/Pending, age 34. Monica Mae Cutts died August 15, 2022, Suicide, age 29. Tammy Lowann Baker died May 26, 2022, Natural/Medical, age 54. Sharon Ann Fuquea died April 16, 2022, Unknown/Pending, age 56. Margaret Ann Palmer died January 21, 2022, Unknown/Pending, age 55. Tanya Marie Abbs died November 28, 2021, Unknown/Pending, age 36. Sandtoro Pearson died October 1, 2021, Natural/Medical, age 44. Kathleen Conger Murphy died September 28, 2021, Natural/Medical, age 71. Melissa Christine Thacker died July 25, 2021, Suicide, age 27.

For context on scale: GPS has independently tracked 1,913 deaths in GDC custody system-wide since 2020.

Two of the deaths in the registry carry a documented investigative trail. GDC's Office of Professional Standards investigated the deaths of both Perkins and Bradley as standard procedure, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was separately tasked with determining their causes of death. In the case of Perkins, officials reported no signs of an altercation or foul play. Bradley's cause is recorded as undetermined. GDC also stated that a July 9 mechanical failure in the facility's air conditioning — resolved the same day — showed no indication of connection to the deaths.

A Deputy Warden, a Prisoner, and a Bond Hearing in Pulaski County

In May 2024, the AJC reported that Deputy Warden Alonzo L. McMillian was arrested at the Hawkinsville prison and booked into the Pulaski County jail on May 2, then released the next day on $10,000 bond. Arrest warrants stated that McMillian had a "sexual relationship" with a prisoner and engaged in improper sexual contact with her on February 24 and 25. GDC spokesperson Joan Heath confirmed that both McMillian and a second man, Clark, were terminated on May 2 following their arrests on charges of sexual contact with prisoners. The AJC's coverage framed the alleged misconduct of two prison supervisors as a possible signal of a larger systemic problem within GDC — reporting that ran as the prison system faced a U.S. Department of Justice civil rights investigation.

That framing is consistent with GPS's systemic finding on sexual violence in Georgia prisons. The October 2024 DOJ findings letter concluded that sexual assault is "rampant" 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 percent. GDC's own consultants, PREA Auditors of America, 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. GPS's systemic finding specifically identifies DOJ-documented at-knifepoint sexual assaults at Pulaski State Prison among the documented clusters.

A Kitchen That Scored 63, Then 96, Then 67

The Georgia Department of Public Health's food-service inspection record for Pulaski reads as a facility in recurring crisis punctuated by rapid corrections. On July 14, 2026, the facility scored 63 — a Grade F — on a routine inspection with 10 violations cited, including the absence of a certified food protection manager, inadequate handwashing facilities, and improper disposition of returned or unsafe food. Nine days later, on July 23, a followup inspection scored 96, Grade A, with two violations.

The same swing appears earlier in the year. A January 29, 2026 routine inspection scored 67, Grade F, with eight violations including hands not clean and properly washed and inadequate handwashing facilities. A February 6 followup scored 96, Grade A.

The pattern reaches back further. A September 30, 2025 followup scored 78, Grade C, with six violations including inadequate handwashing facilities, improper hot holding temperatures, and plumbing and backflow problems. An August 7, 2025 routine inspection scored 73, Grade C. A February 11, 2025 routine scored 83, Grade B. An October 8, 2024 routine scored 90, Grade A, with three violations including sewage and waste water disposal and the presence of insects or rodents. A June 6, 2024 routine scored 82, Grade B, with seven violations. A January 18, 2024 routine scored 91, Grade A. A June 27, 2023 routine scored 92, Grade A.

Those scores sit inside a documented statewide problem. GPS has documented a systemic 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, in GPS's analysis, because inspections are scheduled walkthroughs that do not assess equipment under load. GDC spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food (2024) and has proposed $1.60 per day in FY27 — under 60 cents per meal — against the FDA Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day for an adult's nutritionally adequate diet. The Marshall Project independently reported on rats in kitchens, insects in food, and moldy trays across Georgia facilities in May 2026, quoting GPS connecting chronic underfeeding to the violence pattern DOJ documented in October 2024.

Violence, Lockdowns, and a Grievance Process Families Describe as Broken

The AJC reported that on July 15, 2023, incarcerated people at Pulaski destroyed building property; 11 were directly involved using weapons including broomsticks, a crowbar, metal spray, shanks, and locks, and chemical spray was used as nine security staff responded. In a separate January 2025 account, the AJC reported that officers and staff at Pulaski did not notice a problem until someone from outside called to report a stabbing — the injured prisoner reported being assaulted hours earlier by 10 people who stomped, hit, and kicked her.

GPS's own reporting has described accounts of a facility where supervision is thin enough that incarcerated women call their families to get help because officers do not respond to emergencies. That account is drawn from a first-person piece published through GPS's Tell My Story project, and it has not yet completed GPS's fact-checking process; it should be read as one person's account rather than a corroborated finding. A separate GPS-authored piece, also not yet fact-checked, describes a facility in crisis receiving an untested warden.

Wendy A. Jackson has served as Warden since April 16, 2025. Her deputies are Shelley Elizabeth Hermann (Administration, since April 2025), Kasann Mahogany (Care and Treatment, since 2019), and Andrea Showers (Security, since 2023). GPS's reporting has described accounts of retaliation, intimidation, extended lockdowns, and a non-functional grievance process under the new warden, and families of incarcerated women have raised concerns about the leadership change. GPS records show multiple reports of family fear for the safety of incarcerated people at Pulaski over the past year, including signals rated at critical severity, along with reports of media-outreach attempts by people inside the facility.

Multiple witnesses have described lockdown conditions at Pulaski in which incarcerated people went without water access in their cells for multiple days, without showers for extended periods, without clean clothing for nearly two weeks, and with sharply limited phone access. GPS has received accounts of personal property confiscated during lockdowns, including locks, which families believe left purchased property vulnerable to theft. GPS has also received accounts of staff retaliation against incarcerated people for outside contact, and of an assault at the facility in 2024 followed by a denied safe-housing request. These are accounts GPS has received; they have not been independently corroborated.

Infrastructure, Staffing, and the Structural Backdrop

Pulaski's individual failures sit inside a systemwide condition GPS treats as a force multiplier. Most GDC facilities are 30 to 40-plus years old, with documented patterns of deferred maintenance that have produced 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.

Officer vacancies in Georgia's prisons have run between 49.3 percent and 60 percent systemwide for multiple years, against a national standard of no more than 10 percent. The October 2024 DOJ findings letter 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 percent of the system's roughly 49,000 incarcerated population are validated members of 315 different security threat groups — more than double the national average. DOJ and the Guidehouse assessment independently concluded that gangs effectively run multiple facilities, controlling access to phones, showers, food, and bed assignments. Tyler Ryals, a former GDC sergeant forced out in 2024 after whistleblowing, told GPS he had personally been the only security person on the entire Telfair compound of roughly 1,250 maximum-security inmates.

At Pulaski specifically, GPS staff have observed patterns of gang violence and extortion, and GPS's reporting has described gang members using violence to extort incarcerated people and their families — including an account involving Pamela Dixon, whose daughter was subjected to gang extortion at the facility. An incarcerated woman has reported that Pulaski housed three people per cell and 120 women in a dorm built for far smaller capacity, and that she was assigned a top bunk despite a serious medical condition.

Sources

This analysis draws on Georgia Department of Public Health food-service inspection records; the Georgia Department of Administrative Services risk-management settlement ledger obtained through open records; GDC statements and Office of Professional Standards notifications; reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Marshall Project; GPS's own published investigations and Tell My Story first-person accounts; GPS's mortality registry and intelligence records; and the October 2024 U.S. Department of Justice findings letter and the 2024 Guidehouse assessment. Some GPS-authored accounts cited here have not completed GPS's internal fact-checking process and are identified as such in the text.