Locate Dooly State Prison Inmates

Dooly State Prison Custody

Dooly State Prison is operated by the Georgia Department of Corrections. GDC identifies it as a state prison for adult male felons, with medium security on the facility page. The prison is in Unadilla, while the local Dooly County jail is in Pinehurst. That distinction is central to any inmate search. A person arrested in Dooly County may begin in county jail, but a person housed at Dooly State Prison is in the state corrections system.

GDC says the prison was constructed in 1993 and opened in 1994. Its mission is to house medium-security general population inmates who are not suitable for a county prison because of offense or physical limitations. The facility is also listed as a Sex Offender Release Site and as a host facility for McEver Probation Detention Center. It has medical, counseling, education, recreation, library, chapel, fire services, farm services, and general work programs.

Dooly State Prison should not be described as the Dooly County jail. The sheriff's office does not operate it, the county jail phone line is not the prison locator, and county-jail visitation rules do not apply. State custody records, approved visitor rules, phone service, money deposits, and open-records requests are handled through GDC channels.

Dooly State Prison Population

The GDC facility page lists Dooly State Prison capacity at 1,702. The 2024 PREA audit lists design capacity at 1,706, current population at 1,703 during the March 4-6, 2024 onsite audit, and an average daily population of 1,204 for the prior 12 months. The audit also says the prison was not over capacity in the previous 12 months. A later GDC Profile All Inmates report for May 2026, run June 1, 2026, counted 1,592 active inmates at Dooly State Prison, all male.

The prison population is much larger than the local jail population, but it should not be counted as Dooly County's local jail population. State prisoners at Dooly State Prison come from across Georgia. The prison's physical location in Dooly County does not mean those people were arrested in Dooly County or are awaiting trial in Dooly courts.

Search Dooly State Prison Records

The correct search path for Dooly State Prison is GDC Offender Query. The county jail roster is not the right tool for state prisoners. GDC search fields include last name, first name, gender, race, age range, most recent institution, crime, conviction county, active or inactive scope, records per page, and ID or case-number search. GDC says photos display automatically if available, and it warns that information should be verified by written correspondence with Inmate Records and Information, PO Box 1529, Forsyth, GA 31029.

1. Open GDC Offender Query and accept the disclaimer if prompted.
2. Search by last name and first name, or use GDC ID number or case number if known.
3. Use the Most Recent Institution field to narrow results to Dooly State Prison when needed.
4. Review the profile for GDC ID, name, photo if available, current or most recent institution, conviction county, and sentence information.
5. If no match appears, try only the first four letters of the last name and choose all offenders, as GDC FAQ guidance suggests.

Dooly State Prison Contact

GDC separates the physical prison address from the mailing address. Use the physical address for directions and facility identification. Use the PO Box for offender mail and written correspondence unless GDC gives a different instruction for a specific mail type. The 2024 PREA audit lists Gregory Sampson as warden, and the GDC release history says his reassignment to warden was effective July 1, 2023.

GDC's published directions say to take I-75 South, exit 122 at Highway 230, turn left through Unadilla, travel about one mile past Unadilla, and turn left onto Plunkett Road. The prison is on the right. Confirm visit approval and schedule status before making the trip, because state prison visits require more than arriving during posted hours.

Dooly State Prison Visits

The Dooly State Prison facility schedule allows visits on Saturdays, Sundays, and state holidays from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Statewide GDC visitation rules add the key limits. Visitors must be approved, and schedule requests for the same week's visitation may be submitted Monday at 5:00 AM through Wednesday at 5:00 PM. GDC allows up to four approved visitors together, and visits are no more than two hours.

Visitors should expect screening and facility control steps. GDC visitation material describes designated parking, visitor numbers, badge steps, illness attestation, possible temperature checks, and cancellation procedures. Offenders on quarantine or medical isolation status are not allowed visits. Photos during visitation are not allowed under the statewide rules captured in the research.

Note: A posted visit day is not enough; approval and scheduling must be complete before travel.

Dooly State Prison Money

GDC phone and money rules are statewide prison rules. The GDC contact-offender page identifies Securus Technologies for prison phone service. Calls are limited to numbers on the offender's call allow list, can be monitored and recorded, and may not use three-way calling or call forwarding. The GDC send-money page lists JPay, MoneyGram, phone payments, and money orders. The sender must be on the recipient's approved visitor list to use the payment methods.

Use PO Box 750, Unadilla, GA 31091 for Dooly State Prison mail unless GDC gives a more specific instruction. Do not send prison money to the Dooly County Sheriff's Office. County jail deposit rules and GDC prison deposit rules are separate systems, even though both facilities are in Dooly County.

Dooly State Prison Sources

The official GDC Dooly State Prison page provides the facility's address, capacity, mission, housing, programs, visitation hours, and directions.

That source is the proper facility page for state prison details, while county sheriff pages apply to the local jail in Pinehurst.

The GDC Find an Offender page points users to the statewide search path for prison inmate records.

Use that locator for sentenced state prisoners, then verify important custody details through GDC records channels when needed.

Dooly State Prison Intake

Dooly State Prison intake is not street-arrest booking. It is state correctional placement after conviction, sentencing, transfer, or GDC classification. GDC records may show a current or most recent institution, state offender identifier, conviction county, crime, sentence information, and parole or pardon links. GDC also says it does not provide offender transfer dates due to security concerns.

The housing details published by GDC are specific. Dooly State Prison has nine living units, one isolation or segregation unit, a Fast Track Unit, and several dorm or cell configurations. The 2024 PREA audit listed close, medium, and minimum custody levels, no youthful inmates, and an age range of 20 to 80. Classification is the process that assigns a person to custody level, housing, and programming based on security and individual factors.

Dooly State Prison Programs

Dooly State Prison has a broader program list than the local jail sources publish. GDC lists medical, counseling, education, recreation, library, chapel, fire services, farm services, and general work programs. Academic programs include GED, Adult Basic Education, and literacy remedial work. Counseling options include individual and group counseling, Sex Offender Psycho-Educational Program, Moral Recognition Therapy, Family Violence, Thinking for a Change, Lifers, Matrix Relapse Prevention, Matrix Recovery Skills, Ray of Hope, Re-entry Skills Building, and TOPPSTEP.

Work and vocational roles include food service, laundry, painter, warehouse, sanitation, horticulture, maintenance repair, mechanic helper, electrical helper, plumber helper, recycling, and library or education clerk aide. GDC also notes that the prison operates a farm that produces fresh vegetables for state facilities. Work details may serve the Georgia National Fairgrounds, City of Warner Robins, Crisp County, and Georgia State Patrol posts for Cordele and Perry.

The 2024 PREA audit found 44 standards met, 1 exceeded, and 0 not met. It also listed 58 inmates with physical disability, 4 with cognitive or functional disability, 8 blind or low-vision inmates, 7 deaf or hard-of-hearing inmates, 4 limited English proficient inmates, and 2 transgender or intersex inmates at the audit. Those figures describe the audit snapshot, not a daily live count.

About Dooly State Prison

Dooly State Prison is one of the two custody-related facilities in Dooly County, but it serves a state function. A person arrested locally will usually start at the Dooly County Justice Center if not released. Once a person is sentenced to state prison, the custody record moves to GDC, and the county jail may no longer have current facility information.

Recent facility context should be handled with dates. GDC's April 29, 2025 contraband report described incidents at multiple state prisons, including Dooly State Prison, and noted that arrestees from Dooly incidents were taken to Dooly County Jail. CBS Atlanta reported on May 22, 2026 that GDC confirmed an altercation at Dooly State Prison, nine inmates were hospitalized, no staff were injured, and a statewide lockdown was announced. Those reports do not change the prison's ordinary lookup path: use GDC for prison custody and the sheriff for county jail custody.