View Hays State Prison Records

Hays State Prison Overview

Hays State Prison is operated by the Georgia Department of Corrections. It is physically located in Trion in Chattooga County, but it is not a county jail, sheriff annex, or booking center for new local arrests. GDC lists Hays as a close-security state prison for adult male felons. That facility type controls the lookup path. A person booked at Chattooga County Jail after a local arrest may later transfer into GDC custody, but a person housed at Hays may have been sentenced from any Georgia county.

Hays is a prison for sentenced state custody. It houses general population offenders and specialized populations, including Tier I, Tier II, Step Down, and mental-health housing. The facility also has open dormitory housing, single cells, Faith and Character dorm space, an infirmary, and an outside fire-station detail. The GDC page describes the mission as managing close-security offenders with structured programs aimed at reducing reoffense and starting reentry work.

Hays State Prison Population

GDC lists Hays State Prison with a capacity of 1,101. The same official facility page says it was constructed in 1989 and opened in 1990. Its scale is much larger than the county jail in Summerville, which is why Chattooga County inmate population searches can be confusing. The county jail's role is local custody after arrest and before transfer. Hays is part of the statewide prison system for adult male felons already in GDC custody.

The housing detail on the GDC page is unusually specific. Hays has seven general-population dorms of 64 beds each, one Fast Track building, six Tier II dorms, three Tier I dorms, outside fire-station beds, and infirmary beds. GDC also reports approximately 750 level II mental-health offenders throughout the institution. Those details should not be applied to the county jail. They are state-prison facts tied to GDC operations and classification.

Hays State Prison Lookup

Use the GDC Offender Query for Hays State Prison inmates. Do not use the Chattooga County Jail phone or a county roster to find a person who is in prison custody, unless the question is about an earlier county booking before transfer. GDC records can include active and inactive offenders, name filters, demographic filters, conviction county, most recent institution, and direct identifier search by GDC ID or case number.

GDC warns users that it does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of offender search results and says critical information should be verified through personal written correspondence with GDC Inmate Records and Information. Photos may display automatically when available, but those photos are GDC offender photos, not a Chattooga County jail mugshot gallery. The "Most Recent Institution" field can be helpful, but it can include both prisons and county jails and may reflect past custody points.

1. Open the GDC Offender Query and accept the search disclaimer.
2. Search by last name and first name, or use a GDC ID or case number if known.
3. Use filters such as active records, conviction county, age range, or most recent institution when names are common.
4. Confirm whether Hays State Prison is the listed institution before planning mail, visits, or deposits.
5. Verify important details with GDC Inmate Records and Information when release, transfer, or legal status matters.

Hays State Prison Contact

Hays State Prison's physical address is 777 Underwood Drive, Trion, GA 30753. GDC lists the phone number as 706-857-0400 and the fax as 706-857-0624. The GDC-listed mail address is P.O. Box 668, 777 Underwood Road, Trion, GA 30753. The Underwood Drive and Underwood Road wording should be kept as listed by the relevant source: the facility location uses Drive, while the mail entry in the research uses Road.

Call the facility for local questions about approved visitation times, appointment requirements for Tier I, Tier II, and Step Down visits, and current operational limits. Use statewide GDC pages for broader friends and family procedures such as visiting approval, sending money, offender contact, and packages. Hays is a GDC facility, so county jail commissary, cell-block visit times, and Chattooga sheriff bond rules do not apply to people held there.

The official GDC facility page for Hays State Prison shows the state-prison location, capacity, housing, program, and visitation information used for this page.

That source is the correct facility page for Hays because it comes from GDC, the operator of the prison.

Hays State Prison Visits

Hays State Prison visitation follows GDC prison rules, not Chattooga County Jail cell-block scheduling. General population visits are listed for Saturdays, Sundays, and state holidays from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Tier I, Tier II, and Step Down visits are listed on Wednesday and Friday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM by appointment only. The appointment requirement is important because the higher-management housing schedule is not an ordinary walk-in family visit window.

Visitors should use the GDC visit an inmate resource for statewide visitor approval and prison visit expectations. The local facility phone is the right place to confirm a housing-based appointment, current restrictions, and whether the person is eligible for visits. Because GDC prisons use statewide rules and local security decisions, a schedule line by itself is not enough to guarantee entry.

Hays State Prison Mail

Mail, money, and package rules for Hays State Prison should come from GDC friends and family resources. The researched Hays mail address is P.O. Box 668, 777 Underwood Road, Trion, GA 30753. Use the GDC contact an offender page for offender contact guidance, the GDC send money page for deposits, and the GDC packages page for package limits and approved channels.

Do not use Chattooga County Jail's JailATM reference for Hays. JailATM was found in sheriff app material for the county jail, not for GDC prison deposits. Likewise, county jail video-call language does not control Hays offender contact. State prison contact is routed by GDC policy, facility status, and the prisoner's classification. If a mail item is urgent, legal, or tied to a pending deadline, verify the current format directly with GDC before sending.

Hays State Prison Intake

Hays State Prison does not perform the same function as a street-arrest booking desk. A person reaches Hays after state sentencing and GDC classification or transfer, not merely because a local arrest occurred in Chattooga County. GDC placement depends on sentence status, institutional needs, security level, medical or mental-health needs, and bed availability. That is why a former Chattooga County Jail inmate may need the county jail route at first and the GDC route later.

Several GDC terms matter for Hays State Prison lookup. Close security refers to a high-control prison security level. Tier I, Tier II, and Step Down are management or transition housing categories. Fast Track is listed by GDC as a specific Hays building. Level II mental-health offenders are a specialized population GDC says Hays houses throughout the institution. These are prison classification terms, not signs that the person has a new Chattooga County booking record.

GDC

Georgia Department of Corrections, the statewide agency that operates Hays State Prison.

Close security

A prison security level for offenders requiring more control and supervision.

Step Down

A transition status or housing category tied to movement from more restrictive management.

Most Recent Institution

A GDC locator field that may show a prison or county jail connected to the offender record.

Hays State Prison Programs

GDC lists detailed programming at Hays State Prison. Academic programs include GED, Adult Basic Education, and Literacy. Counseling programs include Family Violence, Moral Reconation Therapy, Motivation for Change, Thinking for a Change, Career Center, Behavior Stabilization, Re-Entry, Matrix, and Anger Management. Recreation includes general recreation and intramural sports. Religious activities include worship services, Kairos, and Faith and Character dorm programming.

Vocational and on-the-job training listed by GDC includes general office, laundry, warehouse, barbershop, groundskeeping, optics, food service, building maintenance, custodial maintenance, and In 2 Work. GDC also lists GCIC Optics and Aramark Food Service as work areas supported by offender labor. Hays does not list outside details in the research material, so program references should stay tied to the official GDC facility description rather than broad claims about public work crews.

Hays State Prison Contrast

The most common search error is treating Hays State Prison like the county jail. A recent arrest in Chattooga County belongs first to the local jail route, which means calling the jail or using sheriff records. A sentenced state prisoner belongs to GDC, which means the GDC Offender Query, GDC visitation rules, GDC money rules, and GDC mail rules. Physical location in Chattooga County does not make a Hays prisoner a Chattooga County Jail inmate.

This distinction also affects families tracking a person after court. The Georgia Sheriffs' Association jail report counted state-sentenced inmates still housed at the Chattooga County Jail in May 2026. That means a person can be sentenced but still waiting in county custody before transfer. Once the transfer happens, Hays State Prison or another GDC facility may become the correct record path. The Chattooga County Jail page covers the local jail route before that transfer.

Hays State Prison Records

For facility records held by GDC, use GDC contact and open-records channels rather than the sheriff's open-records form. The GDC open-records request page is the right starting point for records maintained by the state prison system. For offender status, GDC's own disclaimer points users to verify through written correspondence with Inmate Records and Information, PO Box 1529, Forsyth, GA 31029.

If the underlying case began in Chattooga County, there may also be separate court records with the clerk or court access systems. Those court records are not the same as the prison location record. Prison custody shows where the person is housed under sentence. Court records show the filed case, charge status, plea, sentence, dismissal, or other court action. Keeping those record types separate prevents false assumptions about release, transfer, and current custody.