West Georgia Correctional Facility

"We have to go in there. Hand to hand...this prison is our's."

- Rick Grimes regarding the prison

The West Georgia Correctional Facility is the central location of Season 3 and the first half of Season 4 of AMC's The Walking Dead.

Pre-Apocalypse
The West Georgia Correctional Facility is in close proximity of Newnan, Georgia, north of Highway 34.

At the onset of the plague, it is explained by the prisoners that the facility was dealing with a large rebellion and subsequent riot, killing several prisoners and officers, all reanimating into walkers. An officer locked a group of five prisoners inside the facility cafeteria but failed to return, thus leaving them all by themselves, locked up with all the stocked food, which allowed their survival for nearly ten months.

First Appearance
After fleeing the Greene family farm, the survivors set up a camp near the facility, but are unaware of its existence. Sometime later, they leave the area and only return after eight months.

Discovery and Clearing
"This place can be a goldmine!"

- Rick Grimes

After spending the winter traveling around the area, the survivors still did not manage to find the prison and had no idea of its existence. Rick makes a hard decision; it's time to leave the area and try to find shelter elsewhere. While Carl Grimes and Beth Greene keep watch on the road and the others were looking at the map, Rick and Daryl Dixon decide to give a last hunt in the area, and luckily stumble upon the facility. At first, Daryl remarks that it is a shame that the place is overrun, but Rick reformulates his plan. The group enters the first fence of the building by cutting an opening and closing it after entering. They take out the walkers that roamed through the field from the towers and Rick successfully closes the gate from the prison yard. The group spends the night in the field, celebrating their victory, and, after taking a good look at the yard, Rick informs the group that the place must've fell early on during the apocalypse and its supplies (food, medicine, weapons, etc.) were most likely intact, since most of the walkers were either prisoners or guards. He announces that they will clear out the whole facility.

By the morning, Rick, Daryl, T-Dog, Glenn Rhee, and Maggie Greene enter the prison courtyard and systematically kill all walkers. They find yet another breach with many more walkers, but Rick and Daryl manage to close the gate and trap walkers in the inner courtyard. They enter Cell Block C and guarantee that the place is safe enough for everybody to come in. After securing the yard and the cell block, the whole group spend the night sleeping in the cell block, one of the few safe nights they had spent since departing the farm. Once again, by the morning, Rick and his small group, now with the inclusion of Hershel, decide to search around the dark corridors off the cell block in search of a cafeteria, armory and an infirmary. While doing so, they end up being overrun by walkers and the group gets cut off from Glenn and Maggie. Worried about his daughter, Hershel decides to go back searching. After listening to Maggie's voice echoing through the corridor, he is bit in the ankle by a lurking walker.

They reunite with Glenn and Maggie, grab Hershel, then while escaping the walkers and trying to find a safe place, they end up discovering the cafeteria, which was strangely locked with handcuffs from the outside. They break in, and Rick makes the hard decision to amputate Hershel's leg. After chopping off his leg with an axe, Daryl discovers 5 prisoners who are also hiding in the kitchen. After amputating Hershel's leg, they decide to take him back to Cell Block C to receive medical treatment from Carol. After the prisoners claim that The Prison was theirs, Rick and his group decide to clear Cell Block D so that the prisoners can live there, a sufficient distance from Rick's group. In the process of clearing the corridors of Cell Block D, two of the prison inmates die, and a third is presumed dead: one being scratched by a walker and then murdered by another prisoner, one directly killed by Rick, and the last one being locked in a closed yard with a group of walkers.

The remaining surviving inmates, Axel and Oscar, make it into Cell Block D. Rick informs them that the area was now theirs and that it is sealed from the rest of the building, so they can do whatever they want with it, as long as they don't move any closer to Cell Block C.

Massacre
"How the hell can this be happening?!"

- Rick Grimes

A week later, Maggie and Glenn attempt to have sex in one of the guard towers while the others are moving the bodies outside the prison in order to burn them. Axel and Oscar approach the group. Rick, T-Dog and Daryl confront them, and Axel pleads with them to include him and Oscar into his group, and Rick declines. Daryl later explains that they are degenerates but not psychopaths, but maintains that they should not be allowed into the group. Meanwhile, Hershel, has almost fully recovered and is ready to walk with crutches. He decides to take a stroll with Carl, Lori, and Beth, while T-Dog, Carol Peletier and Maggie move the vehicles into the prison near an exit. While Rick, Glenn and Daryl go outside the prison to collect firewood. When Rick sees Hershel and the others, the three have a moment of gratitude. Soon Carl spots a group of walkers that have entered the courtyard by breaching through a now-opened gate (the same gate that Rick and Daryl closed earlier). Carl and Lori begin shooting down walkers, while Beth and Hershel escape into a steel cage near the entrance to the cell block. The rest of the survivors rush to their aid, killing as many walkers as they can, just as a prison-wide alarm sounds, making huge amounts of noise. Rick starts to shoot out the speakers. T-Dog is bit on the shoulder as he closes the gate, and then escapes with Carol into a set of corridors. They find that the walkers are loose inside the prison as well. T-Dog, already bitten, sacrifices himself for Carol by charging at the group, clearing the path for Carol.

Elsewhere, Maggie, Carl and Lori escape into another set of corridors and into the machine room of the prison. Rick starts a search party for Maggie, Lori and Carl, and they split up into different areas of the cell block, one group finding more walkers inside the area where they sleep. Lori begins to feel contractions and tells Maggie that she must deliver the baby. She does, and then Lori begins to push, but also to bleed, so Maggie stops her. With no other way to deliver but with C-Section, she tells Maggie to use Carl's knife to cut the baby out. Lori says that she will die, and begins her final words to Carl, calling him smart, strong, brave, and asking him to take care of Rick and the baby when she dies. Maggie cuts into Lori, who then passes out from the pain and blood loss. With the assistance of Carl, Maggie pulls out the baby and uses Carl's coat to wrap it in. Maggie wants to leave but Carl declines reminds her that his mother will turn after she dies. Maggie gets up and walks away, rocking the crying baby. Carl hugs his mother, and reluctantly shoots her in the head with his 9mm Browning BDA pistol. At the same time, Rick and Daryl go to Axel and Oscar to ask if they did this. Oscar explains that the diesel generators switched off a couple of days after the riots, and someone must have turned them back on. They make their way to the generator room, where they are cornered by walkers. Daryl holds the door while Oscar and Rick search for a switch. Out of nowhere, Andrew, apparently alive, attacks Rick with an axe. They battle, and soon enough Rick is knocked to the floor, where he drops his Colt Python revolver. Andrew charges toward him with his axe, and Oscar throws an empty barrel at Andrew, pushing him back. Oscar picks up Rick's revolver, pointing it directly at Rick. After a moment of hesitation, he aims to the left, shoots Andrew in the head, then hands Rick his revolver back.

They deactivate the generators, and head back outside through the corridors, where they find the corpse of T-Dog and Carol's scarf. Rick asks Glenn and the others about Lori. A baby crying nearby is heard, and Rick walks over to Maggie and Carl, asking where Lori is. Maggie shakes her head in response, crying, and Rick starts to sob and, in denial, repeats "No, no no", eventually breaking down into tears on the ground.

Woodbury Invasion
The Governor decides to retaliate due to the attack on Woodbury by Rick's group. The Governor, Caesar Martinez, Shumpert, and an unnamed soldier partake in a shootout at the prison, which results in two casualties: Axel is sniped in the head by the Governor and the unnamed soldier is gunned down by Maggie. Martinez immobilizes Rick on the bridge outside of the prison, while on the inside, the rest of the group defend themselves. Carl protects Beth and later Carol when she runs over after previously using Axel's corpse as a shield. Michonne uses the overturned prison bus as a cover while firing at The Governor. Maggie shoots back at the Governor's men, eventually taking out the unnamed man in a guard tower as Hershel lies in the grass by the chain-link fence, trapped. After the gunfire comes to a halt, a delivery van crashes through the gates of the prison, and unleashes a herd of walkers, which the armored driver escaping back onto the road and is picked up by the Governor's men as they drive away. Rick runs out of ammo and is almost killed by three walkers after being pinned against a chain-link fence, but the Dixon brothers save Rick's life. Glenn returns in time in his pick-up truck and is able to rescue Hershel with help from Michonne. Despite the return of the brothers, there is still a slew of Walkers roaming the prison yard.

Post-Attack
"That truck through the fence thing... That was just him ringing the doorbell."

- Merle Dixon

In the aftermath of the attack, Rick and the group have retreated away from the courtyard due to it being flooded with walkers. They have also boarded up the catwalk as well as the fence with wood and are preparing for an attack of the Woodbury army.

Since Tyreese Williams and his group are now in Woodbury and they know how to enter the prison, they inform Philip of this and thus put Rick and his group in even more danger.

Rick, Carl, and Michonne went on a scavenging run to King County, Georgia, and there they ran into Morgan Jones. After some discussion, Morgan didn't want to join the prison group. However, he allowed Rick's party to take some of his weapons that he collected. Rick's party took several bags of guns, ammo, a crossbow, grenades as well as a variety of other items. On the way back to the prison, they collected a backpack from the side of the road. The backpack was owned by a hitchhiker that had died and its unknown content may be valuable.

Rick had a meeting with Philip and the latter offered the prison group the deal that if Michonne was given, then Woodbury would back down. Merle Dixon took Michonne to fulfill the deal. However, he let Michonne go. He went to the feed shop and took out at least 7 Woodbury members before falling prey to Philip, and being shot and killed. His zombified corpse was later put down by Daryl.

Second Woodbury Attack
"Remember! They killed eight men back there. Five here last time. They're no different from the biters. They're not gonna stop, until they kill us all, taking everything we've worked so hard for! We're gonna end this, once and for all!"

- The Governor, to the Woodbury army

Governor assembles his troops. Tyreese informs the Governor that he and his sister Sasha will not join the fight but offers to stay behind to guard the elderly and children. After a tense moment, The Governor consents. The Governor and his soldiers arrive at the prison, where they shoot up the guard towers, mow down the walkers in the prison yard and storm the cell block. But they find no sign of Rick's group. The Governor splits up his troops to investigate the dark prison corridors (known as the "tombs"). Smoke grenades go off and the prison alarm sounds. Walkers attack The Governor's men, forcing them to retreat outside where Glenn and Maggie ambush them with gunfire. The Governor's army quickly flees the prison.

The Governor becomes enraged when his men ignore his orders to turn the convoy around and finish the fight. In his rage, The Governor guns down all of his own troops except for Karen, who survives the massacre by hiding under the body of a fellow soldier.

Rick and his group decides to go after them and after Rick and his group catches up with the convoy, they discover Karen and take her back to Woodbury where they find Andrea. Once Andrea commits suicide, the Group round up the remaining Woodbury citizens, mostly elderly and children, including Ms. McLeod, and are brought to live at the prison as well as Tyreese and Sasha, who rejoin the prison, and Karen, who escaped The Governor's massacre.

After "Welcome to the Tombs", the prison's population increased to 37.

Community
"Everything we've been working so hard to keep out... it found its way in."

- Hershel Greene, about the threat over the prison

In the six/seven-month period between The Governor's failed attack and the beginning of Season 4, the prison underwent many improvements. For instance, a new gate was created to replace the one that was destroyed. In addition, spikes were added around the perimeter of the entrance in order to spear walkers, making them immobile. However, the walkers have been a bigger threat because now enormous hordes have been weakening the fences.

Additional improvements were made, such as multiple gardens, an outdoor kitchen, a wooden pen for pigs and one horse, and an electric shed featuring an engine generator and numerous power cords, bringing electricity to the prison.

Rick is no longer the leader of the prison group, choosing to focus more on raising his children, Carl and Judith. Instead, a council has been formed to make important decisions for the group, consisting of Daryl, Sasha, Carol, Hershel and Glenn. Anyone who desires entry to the prison must answer the following three questions:


 * How many walkers have you killed?
 * How many people have you killed?
 * Why?

The community, up to when Season 4 starts, has grown to at least 50 people (including refugees from Woodbury and more than half consisting of strangers who have been recruited during the time-gap).

Epidemic
A flu terrorizes the prison survivors and pushes many people to their limits, and killing many. Some debated whether it was safer inside the prison or out. Karen and David catch the flu and are killed by Carol in a attempt to prevent the flu spreading. It doesn't work and Carol is banished for the murders. Eventually the flu is eliminated but The Governor is seen watching the prison.

Destruction
In "Too Far Gone", the prison is attacked by the Governor and his men. Using a tank, much of the prison is destroyed. The fences are knocked down and walkers flood the prison. Rick's group abandons the prison, as it is overrun with walkers and damaged beyond repair.

In "After", Michonne lures the two walkers into the spikes around the yard, and she makes them into her pets. Michonne then comes across Hershel's zombified head; Michonne then stabs the head and leaves the prison.

In "Inmates", Glenn is shown at the prison after he left the bus to find Maggie, but to no avail. He goes inside, gathering whatever weapons and other supplies left in C-Block and dons the riot gear stored in his and Maggie's cell to escape the prison. While escaping through the herd of walkers that have overrun the prison, he comes across Tara Chambler, who participated in the prison attack with the Governor, and asks for her help. Together, they escape the prison. Everyone has now left the prison; it is officially abandoned.

In "A", the prison appears in multiple flashbacks throughout the episode.

Season 5
In a flashback in "Consumed", Carol sees the smoke coming from the facility and drives back, only to find the building deserted and in flames. In another flashback, Carol is seen burning the bodies of Karen and David.

In "What Happened and What's Going On", a brief glimpse of the prison is shown in a flashback. In a flashback to "Infected", Rick is brutally beating Tyreese after the incident with Karen and David.

Appearances
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Season 2

 * "Beside the Dying Fire"

Season 3

 * "Seed"
 * "Sick"
 * "Killer Within"
 * "Say the Word"
 * "Hounded"
 * "When the Dead Come Knocking"
 * "Made to Suffer"
 * "The Suicide King"
 * "Home"
 * "I Ain't a Judas"
 * "Arrow on the Doorpost"
 * "Prey"
 * "This Sorrowful Life"
 * "Welcome to the Tombs"

Season 4

 * "30 Days Without An Accident"
 * "Infected"
 * "Isolation"
 * "Indifference"
 * "Internment"
 * "Dead Weight"
 * "Too Far Gone"
 * "After"
 * "Inmates"
 * "A" (Flashback)

Season 5
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 * "Consumed" (Flashback)
 * "What Happened and What's Going On" (Flashback)

Trivia

 * The TV series' prison was hand-built from the ground up by the production crew at the Raleigh Studios Atlanta, located at 600 Chestlehurst Rd in Senoia. It included the set, decorations, plumbing, and every detail, such as aging and blood splatters. It was mentioned by executive producer Greg Nicotero that the network spent roughly $1.5 million to build the set.
 * In the comic series, the facility was secure and essentially untouched, leaving the survivors free to reside in any part of the complex; whereas in the TV series, the front is damaged by fire and partially destroyed, leaving gaping holes filled with walkers, referred to as "The Tombs".
 * The food seen growing on the grounds in Season 4 was real, which the cast and crew frequently ate from.
 * By far, the prison has been the longest setting in the show, being a major set entirely in Season 3 and just over half, about two thirds, of Season 4. It was also seen in flashbacks in two episodes of Season 5.