Associated Press
DAVISBORO, Ga. — Fighting that broke out at a Georgia state prison over the weekend left three inmates dead and injured a corrections officer and 13 more inmates, the Georgia Department of Corrections said Monday.
The agency said the violence erupted in an outdoor area of the medium-security Washington State Prison, and that corrections officers used non-lethal weapons to subdue the fighting. It said the situation was under control within about 90 minutes. Visitors were safely evacuated after some injured inmates entered the prison’s visitation area, the statement said.
The agency said it believes the episode was “gang-affiliated” but gave few details about what happened, including how the three prisoners died. A Department of Corrections spokesperson did not immediately return phone, email and text messages seeking further information Monday.
The medium security prison in Davisboro, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta, has a capacity of about 1,550 inmates, according to the Department of Corrections website.
The Department of Corrections is leading the investigation, Davisboro Police Chief Leondus Dixon said. In addition to Davisboro police, he said the Washington County and Johnson County sheriff’s offices and Georgia State Patrol responded to the scene.
The Georgia State Patrol referred questions to the Department of Corrections.
The Department of Justice in 2024 issued a report saying Georgia prison officials are “deliberately indifferent” to unchecked deadly violence, widespread drug use, extortion and sexual abuse at state lockups. The report, following a civil rights investigation, found sophisticated gangs run prison black markets trafficking in drugs, weapons and electronic devices such as drones and smart phones. Investigators also cited a rising number of homicides in Georgia prisons, from seven in 2018 to 35 in 2023. Homicides later rose to 66 in 2024, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and were on pace to top in 2025 through June.
State officials have denied that they were violating inmates constitutional rights at the time of the 2024 report, but Corrections Commissioner Tyrone Oliver and others have acknowledged that the pandemic led to a staffing crisis in state prisons as many corrections officers resigned. The state has pumped more than $600 million in new spending into the Department of Corrections in recent years. That has helped the state hire more officers, but Oliver told lawmakers in December that the state is still 1,000 guards short of recommended staffing levels.
State Rep. Billy Hitchens, a Republican from Rincon, said at the December hearing that he’s concerned the prison system isn’t making meaningful progress toward preventing inmates from jamming or disabling cell-door locks. Broken locks allow inmates to roam freely and commit attacks. Oliver said then that fully replacing cell-door locks could take years.
