Georgia State Prison
Encyclopedia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. Located on Georgia Highway 147 in unincorporated
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
Tattnall County
Tattnall County, Georgia
Tattnall County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 22,305. The 2007 Census Estimate showed a population of 23,179...
, outside of Reidsville
Reidsville, Georgia
Reidsville is a city in Tattnall County, Georgia, United States. The population was 2,235 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Tattnall County...
, "GSP" houses approximately 1550 inmates. The current warden is Bruce Chatman.
"Georgia State Prison was the first prison in the United States to receive accreditation by the American Medical Association
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of medical doctors and medical students in the United States.-Scope and operations:...
for its health care delivery services. The model of GSP’s Mental Health Program has been implemented in several federal facilities across the country. Georgia State Prison was also the first prison to receive accreditation by the American Correctional Association
American Correctional Association
The American Correctional Association , formerly known as the American Prison Association, is the oldest and largest international correctional association in the world. Approximately 80 percent of all state departments of corrections and youth services are active participants...
for meeting the requirements set forth by the American Correctional Association for Adult Correctional Facilities."http://www.dcor.state.ga.us/NewsRoom/PressReleases/070402.html
At one time, the Georgia State Prison served as a death row prison. The skeletal remains of an electric chair can still be found in the museum on the upper floors of the main building, as well as prison documents containing names, authorizations, and last statements of the prisoners. In the 1940s and 1950s, volunteers were offered $25 dollars to flip the switches which would start the flow of electricity, and eventually lead to the death of the prisoner. Inmates would often be doused with saltwater to speed up their deaths, though it often took up to 10 minutes for them to reach their demise. Male death row inmates are now housed at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (GD&CP) near Jackson, GA in Butts County.
Many renovations were made. The expanding crime rate has added a multitude of buildings that span from the original structure. It has all security levels (Trusty to Maximum including Hi-Maximum) inmates. This prison houses some of the most dangerous inmates in the State of Georgia. The prison has counseling programs aimed at reducing the recidivism rate that rival many in the country.
Trivia
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
was transferred from the Dekalb County Jail in Decatur, Georgia, to Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, Georgia. He was released on October 27, 1960 on a $2,000 bond.http://www.thekingcenter.org/mlk/chronology.html
Until recently, GSP housed radical activist H. Rap Brown
H. Rap Brown
Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin , also known as H. Rap Brown, was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, and during a short lived alliance between SNCC , later the Justice Minister of the Black Panther Party...
, now known as Jamil Al-Amin. Al-Amin was the chairman of SNCC
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
in the late 1960s. In 2007, he was transferred to a federal facility where he now resides.
The facility also housed Wayne Williams, a man who was convicted, and many believe wrongly framed, for the multiple child molestation/homicide cases that were prevalent in the late 1970s in the Atlanta area. (Williams was convicted of murdering two adult males, and much corroborating evidence connected him with several of the child murders, which, incidentally, ceased after his internment.) He is now at Valdosta State Prison in Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
This prison has also housed Iceman. At one time noted to be one of the most influential inmates in the penal system in the state of Georgia, successfully training many correctional officers in martial arts - Especially the CERT teams and Tactical Squads - Iceman was well respected for his ways while serving time at the GSP.
GSP was at one time the sole prison for carrying out executions in the state of Georgia until it was moved to Jackson (GD&CP) in 1976.
Until recently GSP was the premiere housing location for violent Georgia inmates. The Hi-Max Unit (L & M Buildings) has since been closed and is currently being demolished. This is pending completion of the conversion of the old Tift College in Forsyth, Monroe County, Georgia. (April 19, 2009 et seq).
Paul S. George, wrote a journal article, "The College Program in the Georgia State Prison," in the ERIC database, which described the "development and operation of the associate degree program conducted by South Georgia College at the Georgia State Prison, a large maximum security prison, and compares it with a similar program conducted by Tallahassee Community College at the Federal Correction Institution in Florida, a small minimum security prison."http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ225938&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ225938
The 1974 prison football movie, The Longest Yard, starring Burt Reynolds, was filmed on location at Georgia State Prison near Reidsville. During filming, the words Citrus State Prison replaced Georgia State Prison on the main building. A few actual prisoners were members of the movie football teams and a half dozen Georgia State Patrol officers were assigned to guard them during rehearsals of football scenes held on a practice field constructed by the movie production company just outside the prison walls.
The prison sits on a reservation that covers over 9000 acres of mostly farmland and lakes.
The original building was built in 1937 by the federal government to serve as a federal penitentary. It has a carved sculpture above the main entrance installed by the WPA. Before it could be occupied by the feds it was determined the location was too remote and it was sold to the State of Georgia. A new federal penitentary was later built in the Atlanta metro area as the replacement.