Georgia State Prison

Front view of the Georgia State Prison. July 2007

Georgia State Prison is the main maximum security facility in the state of Georgia. Located on Georgia Highway 147 in unincorporated Tattnall County, outside of Reidsville, "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 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 for meeting the requirements set forth by the American Correctional Association for Adult Correctional Facilities."[1]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Trivia

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 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.[2]

Until recently, GSP housed radical activist H. Rap Brown, now known as Jamil Al-Amin. Al-Amin was the chairman of SNCC 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."[3]

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.

References

Interview with E. B. Caldwell, Warden at GSP, 1971-1974

External links

• Georgia Department Of Corrections
• Georgia State Prison
• State of Georgia