Metro State Prison, previously the Metro Correctional Institution,Metro Correctional Institution Temporarily State's Only Co-ed Prison
" ''

Waycross Journal-Herald Waycross may refer to: *Waycross, Georgia Waycross is the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Ware County in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population was 14,725 at the 2010 Census and dropped to 13,942 in the 2020 census. Waycross ...

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Google News Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web. Google re ...

on November 18, 2012. is a former

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, ...

prison for women The Prison For Women ("P4W"; french: Prison des femmes), located in Kingston, Ontario, was a Correctional Service of Canada prison for women that functioned at a maximum security level from 1934 to 2000. Background The first female inmates ar ...

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

southern

DeKalb County DeKalb County may refer to one of several counties in the United States, all of which were named for Baron Johan DeKalb: * DeKalb County, Alabama * DeKalb County, Georgia * DeKalb County, Illinois * DeKalb County, Indiana * DeKalb County, Mis ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, near

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

. Female death row inmates (UDS, "under death sentence") were held in the Metro State Prison. The prison had room for 779 prisoners. It was closed in 2011.Cook, Rhonda.
State closed DeKalb County prison
" ''

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

''. Friday April 1, 2011. Retrieved on November 18, 2012.

History

Metro State opened in 1980 as a men's prison. In 1993 the male prisoners were moved out of Metro and were replaced with prisoners from the Georgia Women's Correctional Institution. The prison planned to move the 700 male prisoners at Metro to other prisons. The swap was scheduled for completion on July 1, 1993. As the transfer occurred the prison was the only co-ed prison in the State of Georgia. Georgia DOC officials said that the gender swap occurred because many female prisoners were from Greater Atlanta and the proximity would provide more opportunities for family members to visit them. In addition, the location allowed female prisoners to have more access to psychological and medical services available in Greater Atlanta. Lynn Cook of the ''

'' said " e swap also made to get the female inmates out of a culture at Georgia Women’s Correctional Institution that had allowed officers and other workers at the prison to engage in sexual relationships with inmates." In 2011 the State of Georgia closed the prison. The women were moved to

Lee Arrendale State Prison Lee Arrendale State Prison of the Georgia Department of Corrections is a women's prison located in Raoul, unincorporated Habersham County, Georgia, near Alto, and in proximity to Gainesville. It houses the state death row for women. It became ...

and

Pulaski State Prison Pulaski State Prison (PSP) is a Georgia Department of Corrections prison for women located in Hawkinsville, Georgia. It has thirteen buildings with forty eight double bunk rooms. The facility opened in 1994. History Around the period 2005-20 ...

. Georgia DOC officials declined to state when the agency began moving the prisoners or when the move had been completed, citing security concerns. The inmates and employees had been cleared out of the prison by April 30, 2011. Brian Owens, the Commissioner, stated in 2011 to members of the

Georgia Legislature The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are directly ...

that the number of women coming into the Georgia DOC system had declined even though the overall prison population had increased. In January 2011 Owens said that a

private prison A private prison, or for-profit prison, is a place where people are imprisoned by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with governments that commit ...

company may have expressed an interest in buying the prison. In April 2011 a spokesperson for the Georgia DOC said that the state had no plans for the facility. At the time of the closure the prison had 319 employees. The state offered them transfers to other prisons. After renovation, the facility reopened in 2018 as the Metro Reentry Facility.

Notable prisoners

Non-death row * Lynn Turner (died in prison)CNN Wire Staff.
Antifreeze killer dies in prison
" CNN. August 31, 2010. Retrieved on November 15, 2010. Death row *

Kelly Gissendaner Kelly Renée Gissendaner (née Brookshire; March 8, 1968 – September 30, 2015) was an American woman who was executed by the U.S. state of Georgia. Gissendaner had been convicted of orchestrating the murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner (D ...

References

External links

*
Metro State Prison
-

(Archive) *Quinn, Christopher.
State to close Metro State Prison; penal reform on state agenda
" ''

''. Wednesday January 19, 2011. {{coord, 33.686886, -84.335339, scale:10000, display=title Buildings and structures in DeKalb County, Georgia Defunct prisons in Georgia (U.S. state) Capital punishment in Georgia (U.S. state) Women's prisons in Georgia (U.S. state) 1980 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) 2011 disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state)