Family Earns Settlement in Hays State Prison Wrongful Death Claim

May 5, 2015

The first claim filed against Georgia’s prison system for brutality at Hays State Prison that resulted in four prisoner deaths had been resolved for several hundred thousand dollars. In her lawsuit filed in September 2013, Damion MacClain’s mother, RaHonda, had wished the stated to be held responsible for disregarding the brutal gang violence and hazardous circumstances where cell door locks remained broken or could be overcome with just a napkin. It was those circumstances that resulted in her son being struck and choked and left dying in his prison bed.

If RaHonda had lived long enough to be a witness against the Department of Correction from State Commissioner Brian Owens to the Hays dormitory guards MacClains family stated they would not have decided to settle. However, RaHonda’s brother, Lysander Turner, stated that his sister was the case’s key witness. Subsequent to her surprising demise in early 2014, the Southern Center for Human Rights, which managed the case for the family, persuaded him to settle. Turner stated he did not wish to offer the precise settlement amount.

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