Top 10 Worst Prisons In The US State of Georgia

Ranking 4th in the number of incarcerated individuals, “The Peach State,” houses some of the most dangerous individuals in America and is recognised as one of the worst places to serve time in the United States, today we look at its top 10 worst prisons and some of the dangerous prisoners held inside.

10 – Pulaski State Prison

Pulaski State Prison was constructed and opened in 1994 as part of Georgia’s correctional expansion in the late 20th century and sprawled across a campus on Upper River Road.

Designed as a medium-security facility managed by the Georgia Department of Corrections, the prison currently has a capacity of 1,223 adult female felons and comprises 13 distinct buildings.

Over the years, its infrastructure shifted to meet complex demographic needs and includes a six-month Residential Substance Abuse Treatment program that is houses in the RSAT Unit.

Pulaski’s most volatile era erupted at the end of 2021 following a large-scale transfer of high-security gang members from Lee Arrendale State Prison and it became a hotbed for coordinated gang violence.

Many individuals who have been connected to high-profile and violent crimes have been held here and include Charquita Cooper, a known gang associate who spearheaded multiple brutal gang-related assaults within the facility.

Cooper was subsequently transferred out of Pulaski to a high-security isolation unit after attacking multiple inmates at the prison including an assault with a padlock on one inmate.

9 – Augusta State Medical Prison

Tucked away along the county lines of Columbia and Richmond County in Grovetown, Georgia, sits Augusta State Medical Prison, a 95-bed acute care hospital wrapped in razor wire.

Augusta serves as the primary medical and psychiatric hub for the state’s male felony population and was constructed in 1982 and officially opened in 1983.

Built to safely house and treat chronically ill, severely mentally disabled, or surgically vulnerable inmates, the prison has a capacity for 1,326 adult male and occasionally, female felons.

Specialized medical units within the prison are equipped to handle complex fields, including Neurosurgery, Plastic surgery and a dedicated 192-bed assisted living and Dementia unit.

The facility frequently becomes the permanent or temporary home for high-profile inmates whose physical or mental health demands close monitoring.

In January 2023, Gregory McMichael, one of the three men convicted in the high-profile 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, was quietly transferred here due to ongoing, significant health issues.

Hemy Neuman is another notable resident who was convicted for the November 2010 murder of Rusty Sneiderman who he gunned down in a Dunwoody parking lot, but was fount to be mentally ill.

The former sheriff of DeKalb County, Sidney Dorsey, was housed here after plotting the infamous 2000 assassination of his election rival, Derwin Brown, until his death in March 2026.

8 – Lee Arrendale State Prison

Currently housing the State of Georgia’s Death Row for women, Arrendale State Prison became exclusively a women’s prison in early 2005 after the last of its younger male inmates were moved.

The prison has four dormitories and a medical building and was once known as one of the most violent prisons in Georgia with it later taking over 350 women prisoners from other overflowing jails.

Originally housing 1200 adult male inmates, the prison had come under scrutiny for failing to ensure the safety of its youth inmates after one was attacked and killed in 2004.

The prison is home to both the United States’ first all-female fire department and the state’s first inmate fire department with many others following suit around the state.

Part of this prison acted as a tuberculosis sanitarium when it was built in 1911 and operated till the mid-1950s when it was acquired by the Georgia Prison system.

The prison was named after Lee Arrendale, former chairman of the Georgia Board of Corrections, after he and his wife were killed in a plane crash.

Notable inmates held here include Jennifer Rosenbaum, who was convicted for the abuse of foster children in her care and the murder of two year old Laila Daniel, she is serving life +40-years.

Another inmate, Andrea Sneiderman, is serving life +30-years for the murder, in collaboration with her husband Joseph, of their eight-year-old son Josef.

Tiffany Moss is currently Georgia’s only female death row inmate who was convicted in the death of her stepdaughter, Emani Moss, a case that shocked the state.

The first woman to be executed in Georgia since 1945, was Kelly Gissendaner, after she was found guilty of planning the execution of her husband on February 7th, 1997.

7 – Federal Correctional Institution Jesup

A medium security establishment that operates as a critical hub within the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Jesup houses a diverse tier of federal offenders nd high-profile figures.

One of two federal prisons in the state, Jesup houses roughly 1,150 adult male inmates within a secure perimeter of double-fenced razor wire and electronic detection systems, plus 750 in lower security.

Jesup has served as the temporary or permanent home for some of the world’s most notorious drug barons, political schemers, and modern white-collar criminals over the decades.

Fabio Ochoa Vásquez is by far the most famous resident here and was a leading member of the infamous Medellín Cartel alongside his brothers and Pablo Escobar.

During the 1980s, his role in smuggling massive quantities of cocaine made him a billionaire, but in 2001, he was extradited to the U.S. and convicted in distribution conspiracy that saw him serve 24-years.

The Hollywood Hacker, Christopher Chaney, was another high-profile resident at Jesup and was incarcerated here following a massive federal wiretapping and computer intrusion investigation.

Chaney gained international infamy for hacking into the personal email accounts of over 50 high-profile celebrities, including Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, and Christina Aguilera with him serving 10 years.

Larry Lawton, once considered one of the most prolific jewel thieves in U.S. history, served time here before becoming a prominent advocate for prison reform and popular YouTube personality.

6 – Federal Correctional Institution Atlanta

The story of FCI Atlanta begins with the Three Prisons Act of 1891, in which Congress authorized the creation of the first three federal penitentiaries in the United States to handle a growing population of federal convicts.

In 1899, President William McKinley authorized construction in Atlanta, heavily championed by Georgia Congressman Leonidas F. Livingston.

When it officially opened its gates, it was a marvel of turn-of-the-century design and boasted a massive neoclassical main building and was designed to hold 3,000 inmates.

This imposing fortress of granite and steel has stood along McDonough Boulevard in southeast Georgia for well over a century and has housed some terrifying criminals.

The ultimate fraudster and namesake of the “Ponzi Scheme,” Charles Ponzi served time here in the 1920s after his massive mail fraud operation collapsed.

Flamboyant West Coast mob kingpin Mickey Cohen was transferred to Atlanta in 1963 and his time inside was marked by a violent attack from a fellow inmate who scaled a secure wall and hit him with an iron rod.

Another famous inmate, Whitey Bulger entered the prison in 1956 and was the former Boss of the Boston Irish Mob crew known as the Winter Hill Gang but he was later transferred to Alcatraz.

5 – Hays State Prison

One of Georgia’s most notorious close-security facilities, Hays is one of those prisons that is designed to house some of the state’s most violent and high-risk male offenders.

While the prison is frequently associated with state-level operations centered in Atlanta, it is actually located roughly 90 miles northwest of the capital in Trion, Chattooga County.

Hays State Prison opened its tightly managed doors in 1990 and was designed with a capacity to hold over 1,000 inmates who had proven unmanageable at lower-security institutions.

Four inmates were killed at the prison in an eight-week period beginning in December 2012 and two guards were injured in stabbings in January 2012.

One of the facility’s most dangerous inmates, Guy William Heinze Jr. was convicted of murdering his father and 7 of his dad’s extended family in what became known as the 2009 Glynn County mass murders.

Rashad Jamal White is another notorious inmate who became the cult leader for the University of Cosmic Intelligence, and was based on social media before his conviction saw him sentenced to life.

4 – Telfair State Prison

Deep in the rural landscape of McRae-Helena lies one of the state’s most volatile maximum-security institutions that is home to many high-profile criminals transferred from the capital city.

Since its gates welcomed inmates in 1992, Telfair has earned a reputation as a powder keg of violence, systemic failures, and notorious inhabitants.

Built to house adult male felons under a “close security” classification, similar to our previous prison, this facility was designed with a capacity for roughly 1,420 prisoners.

The prison’s architecture reflects the harsh reality of modern maximum-security containment with X-shaped cellblocks, high concrete walls, and multiple layers of razor-wire fencing.

The prison includes a segregation unit for solitary confinement and an industrial “Tag Plant” where inmates manufacture vehicle license plates for the state of Georgia.

In 2012, one of the bloodiest stretches in the prison’s history took place with Corrections Officer Larry Stell, a 12-year veteran, fatally stabbed by an inmate and two other inmates also killed.

A shocking case of guard brutality occured in July 2023, when inmate Juan Carlos Ramirez Bibiano died of extreme heat exposure after being left in an outdoor, fenced-in “holding box” without shade or water for hours.

Notable inmates here include Wayne Williams, famous for the murders of two adults and believed by some to be responsible for at least 23 further murders.

Aeman Presley, was a convicted serial killer who terrorized the streets of Atlanta in late 2014 and executed two homeless men as they slept before going on to kill two others.

3 – Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison

Arguably one of, if not the most imposing and high-security facility in the Georgia Department of Corrections system, this prison opened in 1969 and is the intake “processing plant” for the entire state.

Nearly every male felon sentenced to prison in Georgia is sent here first, and upon arrival, inmates undergo a rigid, weeks-long scrutiny of diagnostic testing, psychological reviews and substance abuse screening.

In June 1980, Georgia officially moved its execution chamber and its male death row to this prison and it was the site of the first execution using a new sedative, pentobarbital.

The current inmate list is as extensive as the former with Stacey Humphreys sentenced to death for shooting and killing two real estate agents in 2003.

Another death row inmate, Virgil Delano Presnell Jr, is the state’s longest-serving death row inmate after convictions for the kidnapping and murder of Lori Smith in 1976.

Gary Hilton, known as “The National Forest Serial Killer,” was held here during his trial and was later convicted of kidnapping and the first degree murder of four people.

William J. Pierce was another inmate held here after his conviction for 9-murders which he admitted to under interrogation after robbing a gas station.

2 – Smith State Prison

Over the decades, Smith State Prison has evolved from a standard high-security institution into one of the most volatile and notorious facilities in Georgia with many sprawling gang networks.

Smith State Prison officially opened its doors in August 1993 and features heavy concrete reinforcement, high-security fencing, and an intricate layout of specialized housing units.

The facility was meant to represent the cutting edge of state control, however like many rural, high-security prisons built far from major metropolitan hubs, it quickly began to suffer from severe understaffing.

In December 2010, Smith State Prison became one of the primary battlegrounds for the historic Georgia prison strike and just weeks after the strike began, on December 31st, 2010, a major riot erupted in one of Smith State’s dormitories.

The ensuing chaos involved cell searches, clashes between guards and inmates, and severe allegations of excessive force, where inmates accused guards of severe retaliatory beatings.

Smith State Prison has held individuals who managed to execute staggering criminal operations worldwide and many of them did this without ever stepping foot outside the prison gates.

Nathan Weekes is perhaps the most notorious figure who founded and ran the “YSL Squad,” a highly sophisticated prison enterprise that smuggled prison cell phones.

Weekes orchestrated a massive drug and weapon smuggling ring to order three murders from inside his cell, including a correctional officer who was trying to stop his contraband flow.

Arthur Lee Cofield Jr, nicknamed “Little Co,” represented a new breed of cyber criminal kingpin who managed to impersonate billionaire movie producer Sidney Kimmel using only a cell phone inside.

He successfully stole $11 million from Kimmel’s Charles Schwab entertainment account, used the funds to purchase thousands of physical gold coins, flew them across the country on a private plane.

He used the proceeds to buy a $4.4 million mansion in Atlanta’s wealthy Buckhead neighborhood, all while physically locked in a cell.

1 – Maykun State Prison

Deep within the agricultural heart of Maykun County just outside the small town of Oglethorpe, it was specifically engineered as a “Close Security” facility for inmates who represent the highest potential security risks.

The prison is comprised of seven main housing buildings that keep volatile populations segmented, and each building is divided into isolated units with highly restricted isolation wings holding 1,440 to 1,762 inmates.

Maykun State Prison was one of seven key facilities involved in the historic 2010 Georgia prison strike where thousands of inmates across the state peacefully refused to leave their cells or perform their work details.

In February 2016, Maykun State Prison was named as a primary battleground in a massive federal public corruption crackdown that saw 47 correctional officers across nine Georgia facilities indicted.

One of the most infamous and twisted criminals in modern American history, Franklin Delano Floyd spent years in this prison before being transferred to federal death row in Florida.

His decades-long web of crimes included the kidnapping of a young girl whom he raised as his daughter and later forced to marry him while also murdering Cheryl Ann Commesso.

He has also confessed to killing two other people and was suspected of killing a further three but passed away from natural causes while on death row on January 23rd, 2023, at the age of 79.