Last updated October 4, 2026.(DS)

Rogers State Prison: A Farm Prison's Death Record and the Case That Won't Close

Rogers State Prison sits outside Reidsville in Tattnall County, a medium-security men's facility that opened in 1983 and was later expanded. Its original design capacity was 448; it is now rated for 1,391. GPS's current population snapshot puts 1,299 men inside — about 93 percent of rated capacity. Housing consists of dormitories and cellblocks plus segregation units, and the institution carries an unusual mission for a Georgia prison: a large farm, dairy, canning plant, and meat production operation that supplies food to other state prisons, worked largely by incarcerated labor. The warden is LEE C Clark, whose deputies include Marjorie L Montgomery (Security), Tina Kelley, Michael L Goettie, and Yolanda Byrd.

What follows is an analysis of two threads that converge at Rogers: a mortality record that GPS has tracked since 2020, and a single death — Taylor Hunt's — that the state closed as a suicide and that the physical evidence, in GPS's review, does not close.

Fourteen Deaths Since 2020

GPS's mortality registry records 14 deaths at Rogers State Prison since January 1, 2020. Five are coded as suicides, four as natural or medical, three as overdoses, and two remain unknown or pending. The registry is a floor, not a ceiling: GDC reports deaths roughly two months late, so the true count is likely higher.

The most recent is John Meeks, who died February 19, 2026, at age 49; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. Randy Eugene Stewart died July 17, 2025, at 60, of natural or medical causes. Justin Waymon Hollingsworth died June 26, 2025, at 43; the registry lists suicide. David Edward Wood died February 4, 2025, of natural or medical causes. Taylor Anthony Hunt died September 28, 2024, at 29; the registry lists suicide. Shawn Remar Johnson died July 23, 2024, at 34, of natural or medical causes. Randall Henry Baker died December 6, 2023, at 38, of natural or medical causes. William Joseph Smiley died August 15, 2023, at 41, of an overdose. Bradley Lyle Weitzel died March 21, 2023, at 40; cause unknown or pending. Caleb Sexton died April 22, 2022, at 21, of an overdose, and Timothy Brent Jenkins died April 7, 2022, at 22, also of an overdose — two men in their early twenties dead of drugs within fifteen days of each other. Jeremy Lasean Walton died June 12, 2021, at 31; Michael Glenn Mckee died May 22, 2021, at 59; and Chad Walker Jeter died March 17, 2021, at 43. All three are coded as suicides.

The overdose cluster is notable for a facility that is not a designated treatment prison, and it sits against a systemwide backdrop GPS has documented: three overdoses in a two-year window at one medium-security farm prison is the kind of figure that rarely surfaces in GDC's public accounting.

The Hunt Case: A Suicide Ruling and Evidence That Doesn't Fit

Taylor Hunt died at Rogers State Prison in September 2024. GDC officially ruled the cause of death suicide by hanging in the shower. Two autopsies were performed — one by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, one by an independent examiner — and both, according to the state's account, ruled the death a suicide.

GPS's own review of the case file points elsewhere. Autopsy photos in GPS's possession show ligature marks consistent with strangulation, and GPS's review of those photos — provided by Hunt's family through a Department of Justice channel, since the autopsy report itself remains withheld from the family by GBI — is consistent with strangulation rather than suicide by hanging. That finding is flagged as disputed in GPS's records, and it is the central factual conflict in the case: the state's two autopsies say suicide; the physical evidence GPS has examined, in its assessment, does not.

A second body of physical evidence raises separate questions. GDC staff presented notes to the family as suicide letters from Hunt to his children. GPS holds copies of those notes. They contain misspellings of Hunt's own children's names — an indicator, in GPS's assessment, of fabrication, since a parent would not misspell his children's names — and handwriting comparison against Hunt's confirmed writing samples puts their authenticity in serious question. GPS's file records three corroborating points on that conclusion.

Other documentation in the family's possession raises further questions about the state's handling. Hunt's body was held for five days before transfer from the facility to authorities, per paperwork comparing the death certificate to transfer records. The family has been denied the autopsy report by GBI on two separate requests, with GBI citing that the investigation remains open. And following Hunt's death, GDC staff took custody of his personal property — standard GDC procedure when an incarcerated person dies.

Hunt's family, with GPS support drafting formal letters, has requested a GBI homicide investigation, a coroner's inquest in Tattnall County, and other forms of independent review. Those requests have been denied or remain unanswered.

GPS has received accounts alleging that a killing at Rogers was carried out by gang members. That allegation is unverified and is not offered here as an explanation of Hunt's death; it is noted because it is part of the record GPS holds on violence at this facility.

A Kitchen That Scores Well and a System That Doesn't

Rogers State Prison's food operation is inspected routinely by the Georgia Department of Public Health, and the scores are, on their face, unremarkable. The most recent inspection, on July 8, 2026, produced a score of 85 — a B — with five violations including improper cold-holding temperatures and uncleanable food-contact surfaces. Before that: 92 in November 2025, 91 in April 2025, 82 in October 2024 (five violations, including improper hot-holding temperatures), 92 in March 2024, and 94 in August 2023. The same inspector, Lance Dasher, conducted all six.

Those scores sit against a systemic finding GPS has documented: DPH inspection scores across GDC kitchens systematically fail to capture food-service sanitation failure. GPS has documented tray-sanitizing dishwashers broken for sustained periods, sustained roach and rodent infestation in kitchen and serving areas, and meals served on visibly contaminated trays — a pattern corroborated by a Coastal State Prison resident's account and by The Marshall Project's May 16, 2026 investigation of Georgia prison food. The pattern is hidden from DPH scores, in GPS's analysis, 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 scores coexist with sustained witness reports of equipment failure and contamination; that contradiction is the analytical center of GPS's investigation "Dunked, Stacked, and Served."

The economics underneath are stark. 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 man's nutritionally adequate diet. The state spends approximately 14 times more on medical care for incarcerated people ($432 million) than on their food. The Marshall Project independently reported rats in kitchens, insects in food, moldy trays, and visible malnutrition across Georgia facilities, and quoted GPS connecting chronic underfeeding to the violence pattern the DOJ documented in October 2024.

At Rogers specifically, GPS has received recurring family accounts alleging inadequate food and severely inflated commissary prices, and accounts describing pests entering the building — including reports of snakes falling from the ceiling that incarcerated people are made to trap and kill. Those accounts are consistent with the systemwide pattern GPS has documented, though GPS has not independently verified the Rogers-specific incidents.

Staffing, Contraband, and the Farm's Own Economy

The staffing picture at Rogers mirrors the system. GPS records show five staffing-shortage signals at this facility over the past twelve months, spanning three months and rated high and moderate severity. Systemwide, officer vacancies in Georgia's prisons have run between 49.3 percent and 60 percent for multiple years, against a national standard of no more than 10 percent; at Valdosta State Prison the rate reached 80 percent by April 2024. The hiring pipeline cannot close the gap — acceptance rate under 15 percent, 82.7 percent of new hires leaving in their first year — and Georgia ranks last of 50 states for correctional-officer pay. 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."

Contraband arrests at Rogers, drawn from GDC's own published reports, show the facility's exposure on both sides of the fence. In March 2026, contract staff Mental Health Counselor Kalvin Roberts was arrested by the Tattnall County Sheriff's Department after security staff recovered a Styrofoam tray from a closet containing two cellphones and two activation cards; GDC determined Roberts had entered the facility with the contraband, and he was charged with crossing the guard lines with prohibited items. In May 2026, a visitor, Civilian Nathalie Mollenthiel, was arrested after a search at the conclusion of visitation turned up a bundle of Newport cigarettes and a bundle of marijuana on an offender's person; she was taken to Tattnall County Jail with charges pending. In May 2025, Civilian Tyiesha Wilson was observed near the facility and arrested after a search by the Office of Professional Standards and the Tattnall County Sheriff's Office recovered 1,260 grams of tobacco, 51.8 grams of marijuana, and eggs packed with rolling papers and wraps. In January 2025, the GDC Canine Unit apprehended Civilian Paul Kerwin Williams near the facility with a cellphone, 882.5 grams of tobacco, two lighters, and a pocket knife. GDC publishes arrests, not dispositions; an arrest is not a conviction.

The farm itself appears in the record as a site of its own informal economy. GPS has received recurring accounts describing contraband moving through work details — vapes provided to men on the dairy detail, thefts at the dairy attributed to the morning milking crew, and a drone bust that one account characterizes as a front, followed shortly after by a housing unit awash in phones, marijuana, methamphetamine, and suboxone strips. GPS has also received accounts of a counselor arrested for bringing liquid synthetic cannabinoid and phones into the prison. These are unverified accounts, aggregated here because they recur.

Fire, Blame, and the Limits of the Record

GPS has received accounts of a fan motor fire at Rogers that forced the evacuation of a housing unit. According to those accounts, a maintenance worker attributed the fire to a motor, and the warden and fire chief discussed needing to blame someone for it; an incarcerated person was subsequently removed from the housing unit and charged in connection with the fire. Other accounts describe that person as wrongfully accused. GPS has not independently verified the sequence, and the accounts do not establish who, if anyone, was responsible.

The same accounts describe a facility where yard call is rare, where men on a trackside work detail receive callouts they rarely attend because of lockdowns the accounts say are not actually occurring, and where guards respond to requests for help with comments suggesting people should not have come to prison. GPS records show five due-process-violation signals at Rogers over the past twelve months, concentrated in September 2026, and four staff-misconduct signals — both named and unnamed — in the same month.

Two officers were stabbed at Rogers State Prison in 2026, according to accounts GPS has received; one was stabbed in the back, and one account describes a stabbing to the head. At least one officer was transported for medical care. GPS records show four assault-by-inmate signals at this facility over the past twelve months, rated critical, high, and moderate. These are serious allegations and GPS registers them as such; they have not been independently confirmed.

Settlements and the Paper Trail

Two state liability payouts tied to Rogers appear in the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger, obtained through open records. In 2019, the state paid $17,500 to settle a claim by Angelo Lamar Roberson arising from a 2019 incident at Rogers. In 2017, the state paid $75 to settle a claim by Carl Garrett arising from a 2017 incident. The figures are recorded as court-found; the ledger does not describe the underlying incidents.

What the Record Shows

Rogers State Prison is a medium-security farm prison holding roughly 1,300 men in a plant rated for 1,391, with a mortality record of 14 deaths since 2020 — five suicides, three overdoses, four medical, two unresolved — and a disputed death at its center. The state's account of Taylor Hunt's death rests on two autopsies and a set of letters. GPS's review of the autopsy photographs and the letters points the other way, and the family's requests for independent review have gone unanswered. Around that case sits a broader pattern GPS has documented across the system: infrastructure in decline, kitchens that pass inspection while witnesses describe contamination, staffing at half strength or worse, and a contraband economy that runs through the visitor gate, the staff entrance, and the dairy barn alike.

Sources

This analysis draws on GPS's mortality registry and contraband database; Georgia Department of Public Health food-service inspection records for Rogers State Prison; the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger, obtained through open records; GDC's published contraband arrest reports; autopsy photographs, correspondence, and transfer documentation provided to GPS by Taylor Hunt's family; GPS's own systemic findings on infrastructure, food service, staffing, and sexual violence in Georgia prisons; and inmate, family, and anonymous accounts collected by GPS staff. Systemwide death figures are drawn from GPS's canonical count of deaths in GDC custody since 2020.