WARE STATE PRISON

Last updated November 7, 2026.(DS)

Ware State Prison sits on the outskirts of Waycross in Ware County, a close-security men's facility that opened around 1990 with an original design capacity of 500 and a current rated capacity of 1,546. GPS's facility record puts the current population at 1,436 — roughly 93 percent of rated capacity — and describes a plant that mixes dormitory housing with high-security cellblocks, including Tier II special-management units, and maintains a CERT team and other tactical resources. James Clarence Spann has served as warden since October 2024; Martella L. Walker is deputy warden of security, Lutria Jamil Jones deputy warden of care and treatment, and Aiyesha Johnson deputy warden of administration.

What follows is an account of the facility assembled from GDC's own mortality and incident records, Ware County Coroner and GBI Division of Forensic Sciences documents produced under open-records request, state fire inspection reports, federal findings, and news coverage — read against the accounts families and incarcerated people have given GPS.

Ninety Deaths Since 2020, Twenty-One of Them Homicides

GPS's mortality registry records 90 deaths at Ware State Prison since January 1, 2020 — a floor, not a ceiling, since GDC reports deaths roughly two months late. Of those, 37 are coded Natural/Medical, 21 Homicide, 13 Suicide, eight Overdose, eight Unknown/Pending, two Accident, and one Other. The full list is published at GPS's facility death registry.

The most recent deaths on that registry:

• David Wayne Williams died September 13, 2026, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 57.
• David Allan Dowling died August 9, 2026, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 69.
• Percy Lee Burdine died August 6, 2026, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 44.
• David Miller Newman died July 15, 2026, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 60.
• Reberto Baez died July 9, 2026, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 69.
• David Randolph Newcomer died June 30, 2026, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 85.
• Kojack Junior Thomas died May 31, 2026, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 27.
• Justin Dean Pulley died May 20, 2026, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 48.
• Johnathan Cleo Hardman-Simmons died May 20, 2026, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 36.
• Anthony Terrell Grover died May 11, 2026, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 25.
• Cody Humphrey died February 21, 2026, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 72.
• Christopher Henry died February 12, 2026, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 48.
• Carlton Atkins Jones died January 24, 2026, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 55.
• Vernon Edward Kennedy died December 12, 2025, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Accident, age 70.
• Christopher Allen Barrett died December 1, 2025, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 46.
• Marty Shawn Wright died November 13, 2025, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 49.
• Michael Cohen died October 13, 2025, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 68.
• Jose Hervert Vazquez died September 9, 2025, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 53.
• Matias Elijaone Evans died August 15, 2025, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 28.
• Dakota Lee Duffin died July 19, 2025, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 29.
• David Michael Dixon died July 14, 2025, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 76.
• Barry Lynn Rutherford died May 25, 2025, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Overdose, age 36.
• Henry A Hamilton died May 9, 2025, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 79.
• Charles Johnny Rice died April 27, 2025, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 62.
• Lon Taylor Willbanks died April 19, 2025, at Ware State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Overdose, age 31.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that ten inmates were killed at Ware between July 2020 and August 2024, with multiple inmates involved in several of the homicides according to GDC incident reports. The AJC's running homicide coverage names many of them: Robert Lee Wilson III, 31, died July 17, 2020, from multiple stab wounds, with an incident report showing 16 other inmates involved and seven injured; Christopher Arnett Rawls, 32, died September 5, 2020, by strangulation; Christopher Eli Gresham, 39, died September 30, 2021, from stab wounds to the back and lower extremities, with three other inmates involved; Kyle Anthony Strother, 31, died June 5, 2022, from a stab wound to the chest; Va'Darian LaVianta Carr, 26, died September 18, 2022, from stab wounds to the chest and back; Alfonso Marquez Moore, 30, died June 19, 2023, from blunt impact injuries to the head; Thomas Jerome McCoy, 38, died October 7, 2023, from a stab wound to the chest, with three other prisoners involved; Leonardo Lamonte Anderson, 49, died April 20, 2024, from multiple stab wounds; Christopher Michael Drake Taylor, 33, died May 28, 2024, from a stab wound to the torso; and Samuel Keith Ellis, 31, died August 1, 2024, from multiple sharp force injuries, with incident data showing three inmates involved.

The coroner records corroborate the mechanism in case after case. The Ware County Coroner classified Squaier Lamar Jiles's death a homicide by exsanguination from multiple sharp force wounds; David Renfro's a homicide by multiple blunt and sharp force injuries with ligature strangulation a contributing factor; Scott Lee Hullander's a homicide by multiple sharp force injuries; Samuel Kieth Ellis's a homicide by multiple sharp-force injuries; Christopher Michael Taylor's a homicide by a stab wound of the torso; Leonardo Lamont Anderson's a homicide by multiple stab wounds; Thomas Jerome McCoy's a homicide by a stab wound to the chest; Robert Lee Wilson's a homicide by multiple stab wounds, with the medical examiner's report 20-07-0474 describing him stabbed numerous times in the back and right posterior leg. The coroner recorded Anthony Terrell Grover, 25, a homicide by multiple sharp-force injuries, and Christopher Henry a homicide from blunt force injuries including strangulation, case ME-26-60124.

What the Autopsies Could Not Rule Out

A cluster of deaths at Ware produced autopsy findings that neither confirmed nor excluded homicide — and in at least two cases the medical examiner said so in writing.

Charles Johnny Rice, 62, died April 27, 2025. A complete autopsy was performed the next day. GBI certified the cause as Asphyxia and the manner UNDETERMINED. The medical examiner's report states that it remains undetermined whether the death represents a suicidal hanging or a homicidal smothering or strangulation with postmortem positioning of the body, and that the decedent was an inmate in a prison cell with another inmate.

A second death four months earlier followed a similar pattern. The autopsy found hypoxic/ischemic encephalopathy, hemorrhages of the base of the tongue, strap muscles, perilaryngeal soft tissue, and posterior neck musculature, and petechiae and hemorrhages of the skin of the face, eyes, and mouth. GBI certified the cause as "Neck compression of uncertain cause" and the manner Undetermined, stating that homicidal strangulation cannot be excluded, that the neck compression could have been caused by hanging, and that the circumstances surrounding the injury are unclear.

GPS's own analysis treats the two undetermined-manner deaths within roughly four months — each with an asphyxial mechanism, each with the decedent housed with another person, each with homicide not excluded — as pointing toward homicide rather than coincidence. That is a GPS assessment, not a medical examiner finding.

Other Ware deaths were ruled suicide on records that leave questions. Kojack Junior Thomas, 27, carried ligature asphyxia and blunt head trauma as causes of death on the Ware County Coroner's record, case ME-26-60443. Justin Dean Pulley's coroner file lists ligature strangulation and blunt force injuries, with a draft finding classifying the death a homicide — and a date-of-death discrepancy between the MDI log (05/20) and the coroner (05/21); the autopsy is complete but has not been uploaded to CODIMS. Johnathan Cleo Hardman-Simmons, 36, was recorded by the coroner as an apparent ligature hanging with autopsy pending, case ME-26-60405, and the decedent was found approximately 35 hours after death according to the coroner draft. The name on that record was corrected from a user-reported "Zimmons, Jonathan" to "Jonathan Hardman-Simmons" based on the Ware County Coroner record; GDC's roster contained no match for "Hardman-Simmons" at the time.

The GBI Declined, and the Record Says Little More

A recurring feature of Ware's death records is the GBI Division of Forensic Sciences declination — a form stating that "this case has been reviewed by the medical examiner. Based on the information provided at this time, an examination by this office is not necessary." GPS has reviewed declinations in the deaths of Cody Humphrey (ME-26-60146), Demarcus McClarin, Michael Lee Parker (ME-24-60440), George Bernard Wright, Verlin Edward Spivey, Gregory Moore, and others. The declination states no cause and no manner of death and does not reproduce the information on which the decision rested, which means the decision cannot be audited from the document itself.

In Gregory Moore's case, the entire finding of GBI DOFS report 2021-6006551 is that the case was reviewed and an examination was not necessary; no autopsy or external examination was performed, and no cause or manner of death is certified in the 2026-10-19 production.

Where the state declined, the county coroner often supplied the finding. Antonio Jones's cause of death was determined by the Ware County Coroner to be natural — hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease — after an initial pending entry and a completed autopsy. Carlton Atkins Jones died of hypoxic respiratory failure due to pulmonary edema and volume overload due to congestive heart failure, manner natural, case ME-26-60071. Vernon Edward Kennedy died of acute respiratory hypoxia from complications of a right hip fracture suffered in a shower fall, manner accidental. Michael Cohen died of congestive heart failure due to hypertensive cardiovascular disease, manner natural. David Michael Dixon died of cardiac arrest due to hypoglycemia, with Type 2 diabetes and hypothyroidism in the chain and dementia and kidney disease among other conditions. Ricky Hewitt's death was attributed to cardio-pulmonary arrest from malignant prostate cancer, with severe protein-calorie malnutrition and cirrhosis listed as other conditions. James Burl Hindman's manner was recorded Natural with the cause-of-death field left blank.

Several Ware deaths involved drugs. Barry Lynn Rutherford died of acute methamphetamine intoxication. Lon Taylor Willbanks died of global anoxic brain injury from the toxic effects of MDMB-4en-PINACA, a synthetic cannabinoid, manner accidental. Timothy Steven Beam's death was ruled accidental by methamphetamine toxicity after foul play was initially suspected. Deandre Reshade Harris died of cardio-pulmonary arrest from a cerebral vascular accident attributed to a sickle cell crisis, manner accidental, with methamphetamine use listed as an other contributing condition. Matias Elijaone Evans, 28, experienced seizures followed by anoxic brain injury and tested meth-positive on hospital admission; the coroner's report is a draft and the autopsy was not completed.

A Stabbing Victim Waited Half an Hour

The U.S. Department of Justice's October 1, 2024 findings report on Georgia's prisons documented conditions at Ware directly: a stabbing victim who waited half an hour while other prisoners banged on a window for help. The same findings described prisoners dressing their own wounds and relatives calling facilities to report emergencies inside.

That finding sits alongside a documented staffing picture. GPS has documented officer vacancy rates in Georgia's prisons running between 49.3 and 60 percent systemwide for multiple years against a national standard of no more than 10 percent, a hiring pipeline that loses 82.7 percent of new hires in their first year, and a state ranking last of 50 for correctional-officer pay. The 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." Stacy Bowen, a former GDC lieutenant with about 21 years of service, has given on-record video testimony on understaffing, broken locks, staff-smuggled drugs, extortion of families, and how deaths were handled.

At Ware, the state's own fire inspectors found the staffing problem written into the physical plant. In a September 24, 2026 follow-up inspection conducted by GASFMO Building Code Inspector James Holbrook, who met with Warden James C. Spann and Fire Chief Reynold Spradley, inspectors recorded that staff interviews revealed there are times when prison guards are not continuously posted in the control room of each dorm building. Some accompanying support staff did not have the proper keys to unlock the gates leading from the areas of refuge on one dorm building, or a main entrance/exit door on another.

Barrel Bolts on Every Fire Exit

The fire-exit record at Ware is the most thoroughly documented condition at the facility, and it runs across three inspections in 2026.

The June 23, 2026 inspection was triggered by an anonymous complaint concerning steel rods barring exit doors closed. Inspectors found Ware non-compliant on means of egress. Barrel bolts were installed on all fire exit doors of housing buildings — except Building I, which did not have them as of that date. GDC Fire Chief Reynold Spradley stated he had previously written up the bolts and that locks were repaired but re-popped by inmates.

The August 24, 2026 inspection was prompted in part by another anonymous complaint about steel rods barring exit doors. Inspectors again found Ware non-compliant on means of egress. Barrel bolts were still on all fire exit doors, and additional sliding barrel bolts had been installed on the main entrance/exit doors of dorm buildings. Inspectors observed the fire exit and main entrance/exit doors to be readily accessible to inmates, contrary to GDC's June statement. Some GDC support staff again lacked keys to area-of-refuge gates and a main entrance/exit door. GDC staff stated the barrel bolt violations exist at all dorm buildings, though inspectors were only shown two. The barrel bolts violated 2024 NFPA 101 §23.2.11.1.7, and the report cites a violation of 2024 NFPA 101 Chapter 23 Section 23.2.11.1.7 concerning locking of doors from areas of refuge to the exterior.

The September 24 follow-up, File No. 26-009306, Permit No. INS26-003833, under the 2024 NFPA 101 LSC Existing standard, recorded one current violation: means of egress of approved type, Non-Compliant. According to the report, Warden Spann and Fire Chief Spradley stated to Inspector Holbrook that nothing has been changed on the doors, nor have the barrel bolts been removed. The report also records damaged occupant notification devices for the fire alarm inside dorm buildings (NFPA 101 23.3.4.3.1), and Fire Chief Spradley's explanation that he has written up the barrel bolts and that the key-operated locks have been repaired, but that inmates tamper with the locks and pop them soon after repairs. Photographs from the inspections show a damaged faceplate for a key cylinder, a damaged key cylinder from inmate tampering on interior fire exit doors, a slide bolt with a plastic tag on an exterior door, and a large slide bolt operated from inside the control room on main entrance/exit doors.

GPS records show six external complaints filed to oversight bodies — among them the State Fire Marshal, GASFMO, the GBI, and the GDC Ombudsman — across three months in 2026, and five equipment-failure-or-install signals across four months.

The 2020 Disturbance and What GDC Called It

On August 1, 2020, malfunctioning doors at Ware allowed inmates to walk out of their rooms; those prisoners took two guards hostage, beating and stabbing one, and ultimately hundreds of inmates ransacked the prison, the AJC reported. GDC records show 33 homemade weapons were used, 55 security staff were directly involved, and a mass employee exodus followed. GDC publicly described the incident as merely a "disturbance," while internal records describe hostage-taking, escape attempts, assaults, and use of force.

The AJC's reporting on the aftermath is the most direct public accounting of what the facility's violence has meant for families. DonTavis Mintz died at Ware and his body was not discovered for days; when his remains were returned to his mother, Narissa Wright, she could only identify him by a single tooth. Wright alleges that no counts or welfare checks were conducted at Ware, allowing her son's body to go undiscovered for days, Georgia Public Broadcasting reported.

What Families and People Inside Describe

GPS has received recurring reports from Ware describing violence that never reaches an incident report. Inmate accounts collected by GPS describe a pattern of stabbings in which injured people are hospitalized and, in some accounts, left with lasting impairment. GPS has received accounts of assaults at the facility being recorded as "horseplay" rather than as incidents. GPS has received accounts of gang-affiliated residents controlling housing assignments and single cells while non-affiliated people sleep on dayroom floors. GPS has received accounts of double-celling during lockdowns as the setting for assaults. GPS has received accounts of staff-on-inmate misconduct, including unwanted advances by a supervisory staff member, and of retaliation following grievances. GPS has received accounts of an in-custody death following a short interval in segregation.

GPS records show 32 sources reporting alleged assault by another inmate across six months of 2026, 14 family-safety-concern signals across four months, seven staff-misconduct allegations, six death-in-custody reports, five staffing-shortage reports, four due-process allegations, four sanitation-failure allegations, and three grievance-obstruction signals.

Two public Facebook posts in the Ga. Prisons Exposed group describe conditions during a lockdown. Justin Martin wrote on October 16, 2026 that residents were "forced to endure on lockdown with temperatures rising to 108°F and they refuse you showers at this facility." On October 9 he wrote that Ware had denied him his shower "for over a month." Melissa Pass wrote on October 21, 2026: "Ware state prison lockdown cells. No power, infested with roaches." These are the posters' own accounts, not GPS findings.

On food service, the Georgia Department of Public Health's routine inspections of Ware's kitchen scored 95, 95, 94, 94, 98, 97, 98, 90, and 86 between April 2023 and July 2026 — the last two, on July 1 and July 6, 2026, the lowest in the series. GPS has documented a systemic pattern in which DPH scores fail to capture equipment failure and contamination in GDC kitchens, because inspections are scheduled walkthroughs that do not assess equipment under load. GPS has documented that GDC spends approximately $1.69 per person per day on food (2024) and proposed $1.60 per day in FY27 — under 60 cents per meal — against an FDA Thrifty Food Plan estimate of roughly $10 per day for an adult man's nutritionally adequate diet.

A Facility That Keeps Producing the Same Record

Ware's profile is not a story of a single failure. It is a facility where the state's own inspectors found the same barrel bolts on the same fire exits across three visits in three months and were told nothing had changed; where the federal government found a stabbing victim waiting half an hour for help; where GPS's mortality registry codes 21 deaths since 2020 as homicides and the state's forensic lab declined to examine a series of others; and where the warden and fire chief told an inspector in September 2026 that the doors had not been touched.

GPS's reporting on Georgia's prisons has documented that infrastructure collapse acts as a force multiplier for the violence, classification, gang-control, and mortality crises at the facility level — broken locks, inoperative surveillance and fire-alarm systems, and deferred maintenance across a system whose facilities are 30 to 40-plus years old. At Ware, that finding is not abstract. It is a barrel bolt on a fire exit, a control room without a guard, and a man on the floor of a dorm.

Sources

This analysis draws on GDC's official mortality reports and incident records; Ware County Coroner and GBI Division of Forensic Sciences records produced under open-records request, including autopsy reports and declinations; Georgia state fire inspection reports conducted by GASFMO under NFPA 101; the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division's October 1, 2024 findings report on Georgia's prisons; Georgia Department of Public Health routine food-service inspections; reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Georgia Public Broadcasting; GPS's own mortality registry and intelligence records; on-record testimony from former GDC lieutenant Stacy Bowen; public Facebook posts by Justin Martin and Melissa Pass; and first-person narratives published in Georgia Prisoners' Speak — Tell My Story.