Hays State Prison is a

Georgia Department of Corrections The Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) is an agency of the U.S. state of Georgia operating state prisons. The agency is headquartered in Forsyth, on the former campus of Tift College. Headquarters The GDC has its offices in Gibson Hall, lo ...

state prison for men located at 777 Underwood Drive in Trion,

Chattooga County, Georgia Chattooga County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,965. According to the World Population Review, as of 2021, it is estimated at 24,803. The county seat is ...

. The facility opened in 1990 and currently has a capacity of 1683 prisoners.

Conditions

Hays State Prison was one of the seven prisons in total that inmates participated in the

2010 Georgia prison strike The 2010 Georgia prison strike was a prison strike involving prisoners at 7 prisons in the U.S. state of Georgia. The strike, organized by the prisoners using contraband cell phones, began on December 9 and ended on December 15. It was reported ...

. By the Department of Correction's description, Hays manages "some of the state's most challenging offenders". In an eight-week period beginning in December 2012, four inmates were killed in the facility: Derrick Stubbs on December 19, 2012 (although he had been placed in protective custody within the prison); Damion MacClaim on December 26, 2012; Nathaniel Reynolds on January 18, 2013; and Pippa Hall-Jackson on February 5, 2013. Two Hays guards were also injured by stabbings in late January even as the facility was on full security lockdown. In February another guard was stabbed 22 times. In May 2012, a CERT Officer was stabbed twice in the face, and the father of an inmate claimed that he was forced to pay $19,000 ransom to other current Hays prisoners, or else his son would be hurt or killed. Also, the

Southern Center for Human Rights The Southern Center for Human Rights is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to enforcing the civil and human rights of people in the criminal justice system in the South. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it has won cases in several states ...

lodged a complaint that "prisoners routinely slept in cells to which they were not assigned and they (were) able to move undetected across the prison campus." Most recently on January 17, 2019, inmate Marion Antwan Luke was assaulted and murdered by another inmate. Luke's case is still being investigated by the Georgia Department of Corrections. His maximum release date was set to be released by June 12, 2019. Unfortunately, he was scheduled to be released four days before he was assaulted and murdered. Hays is one of several high-security Georgia state prisons found to have a large percentage of inoperative locks. A September 2012 article reports that auditors found 42% of the locks in Hays either didn't work or could be easily defeated. In 2015, a prisoner (formerly at Hays) stated that he was raped at the prison and sued three officials of the prison authority. He stated that the prison authority failed to protect him.Georgia inmate says he was raped, sues Hays State Prison warden, other officials
." ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

'' at the '' Daily Journal''. July 31, 2015. Retrieved on August 1, 2015.

Notable Inmates

References

External links

In-depth coverage of Hays State Prison
from the

Chattanooga Times Free Press The ''Chattanooga Times Free Press'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is distributed in the metropolitan Chattanooga region of southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It is one of Tennessee's majo ...

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/crime/three-inmates-have-died-in-georgia-prisons-in-2019-reports-show/85-dcb1cce9-6a9f-4d50-a46c-20287d0031de] {{coord, 34.50817, -85.31226, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark Prisons in Georgia (U.S. state) Buildings and structures in Chattooga County, Georgia 1990 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)