Prison Farms
-
Male Building of the Georgia State Prison Farm in Milledgeville.
Courtesy of Russell Library. Special Collections, Postcard Collection.
-
Prisoners butchering a hog at an unidentified prison farm in 1935.
Courtesy of Atlanta History Center, Atlanta History Photograph Collection.
-
Black-and-white photograph of hens in the Georgia Penitentiary in Milledgeville in 1950.
Courtesy of Hargrett Library, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES) Photograph Collection.
The Georgia State Prison Farm in Milledgeville was built in 1899 for female, juvenile, and infirm prisoners. It closed in 1937, and the Georgia State Prison in Reidsville opened in 1938. Within Reidsville’s agricultural program, inmates farmed beef, dairy, and poultry products while also producing vegetables to sustain the prison population. Today, male and female inmates across the state still produce agricultural products at the Dooly State Prison, the Joe Kennedy Farm, the Middle Georgia Regional Farm, Montgomery State Prison, and the Rogers State Prison Farm. These farms produce and process millions of pounds of meat, eggs, grains, and dairy each year.