News from Hays State Prison over the past two years has been dominated by inmate homicides, a scathing federal civil rights report on Georgia’s prison system, and lawsuits tied to long-standing security failures at the facility. Hays is a close-security prison in Trion, Chattooga County, operated by the Georgia Department of Corrections, and it holds roughly 1,076 adult men the GDC itself describes as “some of the state’s most challenging offenders.”1Georgia Department of Corrections. Hays State Prison
Recent Inmate Deaths
At least four men were killed at Hays during 2024. Rodarick Lee Hayes, 29, was stabbed to death on May 25, 2024; two fellow prisoners and a correctional officer were charged with murder. A fourth death, on October 24, 2024, led to murder charges against two former inmates in early 2025.
The violence carried into the following fall. On October 25, 2025, 48-year-old James Cannon was found unresponsive in his cell. Staff performed CPR and moved him to Atrium Floyd Chattooga ER, where he was pronounced dead. Chattooga County Coroner Jeremy McElhaney said publicly that foul play was suspected, possibly involving Cannon’s cellmate. GDC Special Agents responded to both the hospital and the prison, and the coroner requested a full autopsy by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Medical Examiner’s office.2WRGA News. Death at Hays State Prison Under Investigation
Tracking these deaths from outside the prison has become harder. In March 2024, the GDC stopped disclosing how prisoners die. Details about individual deaths now come mostly from coroner reports and incident-report data pulled through other channels, not from the agency itself.
The Broken Cell Door Locks and the 2012–2013 Killings
The reputation Hays carries today was set more than a decade ago, when its cell door locks failed catastrophically. Of 442 locks inspected, 184 could be defeated. Inmates could leave their cells at any hour. State auditors had flagged defective locks at Hays every year beginning in 2008, and the problem went unaddressed.
Four Hays prisoners were killed in a five-week span in late 2012 and early 2013. Damion MacClain, 27, was beaten and strangled on December 26, 2012, by inmates who left their cells through broken locks in the middle of the night. Derrick Stubbs was found dead in his segregation cell on December 19, 2012. Nathaniel Reynolds was murdered with a homemade weapon in January 2013. Nineteen-year-old Pippa Hall-Jackson was stabbed to death shortly after being transferred from Hays in February 2013.
Only after that cluster of killings did the GDC spend more than $1 million to replace the automated lock system at the facility. Contraband, including homemade weapons and cell phones, continues to be a security problem.
Federal Lawsuits and Settlements
Families of the men killed during the 2012–2013 violence filed federal civil rights lawsuits alleging that prison officials showed deliberate indifference to dangerous conditions in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The core allegation was that officials knew the locks were broken, knew inmates could roam at night, and did nothing.
The estate of Damion MacClain sued in the Northern District of Georgia (MacClain v. Owens, Case No. 4:13-cv-00210-HLM). The GDC agreed to pay $350,000 on November 11, 2014, to settle the case without admitting liability. Shortly before that settlement, the mothers of Hall-Jackson and Reynolds filed a similar federal action (Jackson v. Owens, Case No. 4:14-cv-00254-HLM), which settled in February 2015 for $110,000.
Failure-to-protect litigation has followed Hays for a long time. In Carter v. Galloway, a federal appeals court evaluated whether prison officials showed deliberate indifference to an inmate’s risk of serious harm at the facility.3Justia. John Carter v James Galloway
DOJ Investigation Into Georgia Prisons
The recent news at Hays sits inside a system-wide crisis. In September 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice released a 93-page report concluding that conditions across Georgia’s medium- and close-security prisons violate the Eighth Amendment. The DOJ found that the state fails to protect incarcerated people from widespread physical violence and subjects them to unreasonable risk of sexual abuse.4U.S. Department of Justice. Justice Department Finds Unconstitutional Conditions in Georgia Prisons The investigation covered all 34 state-operated prisons and 4 private facilities holding nearly 50,000 people.5U.S. Department of Justice. Investigation of Georgia Prisons
Staffing was a central finding. The DOJ reported vacancy rates above 50 percent in many facilities. Supervising inmate movement, responding to incidents, and controlling contraband all depend on officers being on post, and Georgia has been operating with roughly half of them missing.
Georgia rejected the findings. The GDC called the report “a fundamental misunderstanding of the current challenges of operating any prison system,” arguing that staffing shortages and inmate-on-inmate violence are national problems, including in the federal Bureau of Prisons. The agency warned that DOJ oversight often leads to “years of expensive and unproductive court monitoring.” As of mid-2026, no consent decree had been reached between the DOJ and Georgia over state prison conditions, though discussions between the parties were reportedly ongoing. The DOJ did secure a consent decree with Fulton County over conditions at its jail in January 2025.
Leadership and Staffing at Hays
Joshua Jones was promoted to Warden at Hays effective July 1, 2023, replacing Shawn Emmons, who moved to Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison the same day.6Georgia Department of Corrections. New Warden at Hays State Prison Jones oversees the staff and the roughly 1,076 men held at the facility.
Staffing remains the most persistent operational problem. A close-security prison with a history of broken locks and smuggled weapons is dangerous under the best conditions. The DOJ tied Georgia’s staffing vacuum directly to the violence and disorder inside its prisons, and low correctional-officer pay has been a national driver of the recruiting shortfall.
Staff Misconduct
The problems at Hays are not confined to inmate-on-inmate violence. Former correctional officer Mark Edward Jeffery, 34, of Fairmount, Georgia, pleaded guilty on February 11, 2019, to possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance after smuggling narcotics into Hays. Senior U.S. District Judge Harold L. Murphy sentenced him to five years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.7U.S. Department of Justice. Former Correctional Officer Sentenced After Smuggling Narcotics Into Hays State Prison
Staff involvement in the 2024 violence went further. A correctional officer was charged with murder alongside two inmates in the May 2024 stabbing death of Rodarick Lee Hayes.
Getting Official Information About Hays
The GDC website is the starting point. Its News and Events section carries press releases and fact sheets covering facility operations and agency-wide developments.8Georgia Department of Corrections. News and Events The agency also runs a “Find an Offender” search that lets the public locate incarcerated individuals by name, physical description, ID number, or case number.9Georgia Department of Corrections. Georgia Department of Corrections
For records the agency does not publish, Georgia’s Open Records Act (O.C.G.A. §50-18-70) makes most government documents available on request.10Georgia Department of Corrections. Open Records Request Requests go through the GDC’s online portal and can cover incident reports, administrative records, and similar material. The state Attorney General’s office advises submitting requests in writing to document scope and timing, and notes that enforcement actions under the Open Records Act can only be based on written requests.11Office of the Attorney General. How to Make an Open Records Request
In practice, getting records out of the GDC can be slow. Advocacy groups and journalists have reported that the agency sometimes charges fees that effectively discourage requesters, particularly on records tied to security failures and inmate deaths. Georgia law limits what agencies can charge for duplication, but fee disputes are a recurring friction point. Since the GDC’s March 2024 decision to stop disclosing how prisoners die, open records requests have become the main tool for anyone trying to independently track safety conditions at Hays.