Meriwether County Correctional Facility

"The Prison", otherwise known as the West Georgia Correctional Facility, is located at West Central Prison, Georgia,  and is the location where the majority of the main cast of characters settle themselves in. It is also where most of the character and continuity's story-arcs were formed. It was also the longest lasting location the survivors remained in; being present there for seven months, beginning with their arrival in Issue 13, right up to the climactic and tragic destruction by The Governor and The Woodbury Army in Issue 48.

The Prison is the central location in Season 3 of The Walking Dead. It officially became known as the 'West Georgia Correctional Facility'.

Discovery and Clearing
Simply referred to by the survivors as "The Prison," it was found by Andrea and Dale after the group departed the Greene Family Farm. The Prison boasted three fences that surrounded the entire penitentiary, as well as having its back to a hill and only one main dirt road leading to the entrance. Starving and desperate, the group quickly surmised that it being in a relatively isolated area, and without any other potential safe havens to move to, it was the most viable option to stay safe, for the night. The decision was quickly made to search and secure the penitentiary.

After the initial clearings of the zombies inside, Rick Grimes and Tyreese found four inmates who were trapped inside the cafeteria that had been living inside since the outbreak's beginning; Axel, Thomas Richards, Andrew, and Dexter. Even with this risk, Rick deemed it worthy for the entire group to settle in, and make it their new home. Tensions soon arised between the inmates and the survivors, while Rick primarily was busy dealing with the proper settling of their new haven, the witnessing of the end result of a suicide pact between Chris and Julie, and his subsequent discovery that anyone who dies of any cause (short of damage to the brain), reanimates.

Serial Killings and Mutiny
It soon becomes apparent the survivors and the convicts cannot co-exist, as Rachel and Susie Greene's bodies are soon found, decapitated. Dexter is wrongly accused, but after an attempt on Andrea's life, Thomas is found to be the culprit. He is brutally beaten by an overwhelmed Rick, before a distraught Maggie Greene later shoots him to death.

Dexter does not take kindly to the false accusations, and concludes that cooperating with Rick's group was wrong. He organizes Andrew to sneak into A-Block, the building containing the guard's riot gear and weapons, to help take back The Prison. After confronting Rick with shotguns and a defecting Patricia, a standoff ensues that is only prevented die to zombies escaping from A-Block. While temporarily working together to hold the wave back, Rick makes the difficult decision to kill Dexter "in the crossfire," as he knew the convict would have killed or kicked them out afterwards. Andrew surrenders his weapons, but flees in distress, never to be seen again by the group. Michonne joins the group soon after.

Relationships
In between the bloodshed and drama, several sub-plots develop. Carol and Tyreese's relationship is challenged after the mysterious Michonne joins the group. Maggie and Glenn struggle through the loss of more of her family and her father's strictness of their intimacy. Maggie and Glenn eventually marry in a ceremony performed by Hershel. Patricia is isolated and attacked by Otis after her temporary defection with Andrew and Dexter. Allen slowly begins to come out of his shell following Donna's death in the Wiltshire Estates, but he is bit and dies of an infection while investigating the interior of The Prison. Dale and Andrea discuss the possibility of splitting off and finding somewhere safer and quieter. Lori's pregnancy advances rapidly, and she is strained by Rick constantly leaving, particularly when Rick, Glenn, and Michonne go missing when searching for a helicopter that crashes. However, when Rick returns from Woodbury with Alice, Alice is able to help with Lori's pregnancy and delivers the baby, named Judith. Carl and Sophia also establish a relationship.

Eventually, significant conflict within the group arises when Tyreese finds himself giving in to Michonne's sexual advances. Carol witnesses their actions and is evidently hysterical and upset, causing her to slit her own wrists. Rick finds out and confronts Tyreese. The pair's strong friendship is temporarily broken when their argument ends up in a brutal beating, leading to a schism between the group and their opinion on Rick's leadership. Carol later fed herself to a walker when rebuffed from a proposed relationship between her, Lori, and Rick.

A matter of days before the final Woodbury attack, Patricia and Axel were seen together, establishing a loving relationship.

First Woodbury Invasion
Following the allowed escape of Rick and Glenn from Woodbury with the assistance of Dr. Stevens, Alice, and Martinez, The Governor awaited the return of Martinez on the location of the prison. Dr. Stevens did not survive the escape, having been bit on the outskirts of Woodbury. Rick, Glenn, Alice, and Martinez rediscover the prison overrun with walkers. Dale informs the group that they had accidentally allowed the walkers in when Tyreese was returning from searching for them. Otis was killed by the walkers in the ordeal. With Rick's return and the assistance of Martinez, the rest of the group was able to seal the fences and deal with the walkers, retaking control of the prison.

When Martinez did not return (having been discovered as a mole after fleeing the prison to inform Woodbury and ran down in the RV by Rick), The Governor set out a search party to find Martinez. The search party found Martinez as a walker and stumbled upon the prison. The Governor, further enraged by Michonne's mutilation and torture of him, convinced his town that the prison survivors were deranged monsters who deserved to die, and arranged an army of Woodbury citizens to assault and take the prison by force. The Governor drove his force en masse to just outside of the prison's outer gates and delivered with a megaphone an ultimatum to Rick's group inside the prison: surrender the prison or die. When they did not respond, The Woodbury Army began its assault, peppering he prison yard with gunshots while shooting and running down walkers with a tank around the outer fences.

This first assault was successfully repelled by Rick's defenders. The Woodbury army was preoccupied with keeping the walkers near the fences off of them, which allowed Andrea and Glenn (after some resistance and a grazed bullet to Andrea's head) to snipe enough of the attackers, to which The Governor called for a retreat. Axel also suffered a gunshot wound to the arm and Rick suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach, but they survived and recovered and the group was intact after the attack.

However, fearing for their safety, Dale, Andrea, Glenn, Maggie, Sophia, Billy, and Ben left the prison following this attack. Tyreese and Michonne also departed, but to assault the surviving army in a surprise attack. Rick was shocked, angry, and dismayed at the turn of events that occurred while he recovered, bedridden from his gunshot wound. He believed that they could no longer repel an assault from Woodbury with so many defenders absent. While Tyreese and Michonne were able to kill a small number of the Woodbury force, their guerrilla attack was a failure and Tyreese was captured and executed (beheaded) in front of the prison after Rick and the others once again rejected The Governor's ultimatum, believing that they would be murdered the second they stepped out of the prison.

Second Woodbury Invasion
When the Woodbury forces returned for a second time, very little strategy had been altered from the first attack, at the beginning. Woodbury's invaders were still preoccupied with the walkers at the fences, while The Prison defenders fired upon the army from under cars that they had parked before the assault as a line of cover from the incoming gunfire. Billy had taken up sharpshooting in the watchtower in the absence of Andrea and Glenn, and even threw a grenade to great effect, taking several attackers out of the fight, as well as destroying an enemy vehicle. Andrea had also returned, surprisingly, and sniped several of the invaders from the RV's roof. However, Rick's prediction that they were hopelessly outnumbered with the absence of half their number was deemed true. Axel was shot in the head and killed by the attackers, while Andrea was knocked out of the fight when a Woodbury soldier drove his truck into the RV. When The Governor believed he was losing the fight once again, he drove the tank through The Prison fences, destroying the only true safety that the defenders had.

Overrun and Massacre
Without the fences, Rick's defenders were at the mercy of the Woodbury army and the walkers pouring through the exposed opening. Patricia was shot through the head and killed as she attempted to escape from the cover of the guard tower where she had hid under fire with Hershel and Billy. Billy, too, was shot in the head and killed as he and Hershel made their rush from the doomed area.

Rick had retreated into The Prison to collect Lori and Carl and discovered Alice pointing a gun at Lori, feigning allegiance to The Governor in an attempt to secure safe passage for them back to Woodbury. Rick, Lori (holding Judith), Carl, and Alice attempted to escape The Prison by way of a truck left in the yard. Rick alerted the attackers to their position by screaming for Hershel to join them. Hershel had given up after the death of his son, requesting and granted death by ways of a gunshot to the head from The Governor. Alice sacrificed herself, waiting at the entrance of The Prison to provide gunfire cover for the Grimes family. Alice was shot through the leg by one of the invaders and executed by The Governor.

Rick, Carl, and Lori continued to try and make their way to the truck under heavy gunfire. Lori, trailing the other two, took a massive gunshot blast to her back, killing her and Judith. Rick, witnessing the murder, grabbed Carl and moved them through the walkers and out of the prison yard through the destroyed fences, realizing that they wouldn't make it to the truck under the mass of gunfire. Once they made it safely past the walkers and into the hills on the outskirts of The Prison, Rick broke the news of Lori and Judith's deaths to Carl, hugging him amidst the chaos that reigned around them.

Woodbury Mutiny
Lilly, the woman from Woodbury who had murdered Lori and Judith, quickly realized that she had murdered a mother and her newborn, and finally realized The Governor for the true monster that he was. She then shot The Governor through the head, pushing him into the crowd of walkers that were bearing down on the remaining attackers' position inside the prison yard. The Woodbury Army then attempted to make their way inside of The Prison, but then ran out of ammo as they made their way to the doors, followed by the walkers. Their fate is unknown, but it is most probable that a brutal massacre of the remaining members of the Woodbury Army ensured.

Woodbury Survivors' Fate
Creator Robert Kirkman wrote:
 * "I'm not going to say the Woodbury survivors were all killed (when their bullets ran out), but it's very unlikely that we'll ever see them again. The prison is dead to me. I've moved on and so have the characters."

Survivors

 * Dexter - An African-American victim imprisoned for murder. Partner to Andrew.
 * Andrew - An African-American victim imprisoned for dealing drugs. Partner to Dexter.
 * Axel - A Caucasian victim imprisoned for armed robbery.
 * Thomas Richards - A nerdy victim imprisoned for "tax fraud," but, as a matter of fact, is a serial killer.

Known Deaths

 * Lori Grimes - Shot by Lilly in the stomach while escaping The Prison.
 * Judith Grimes - After Lori was shot, Judith was crushed to death by her collapsing body.
 * Brian Blake - Shot by Lilly after Lori and Judith were murdered.
 * Carol Peletier - Committed suicide by allowing a zombie to eat her. Shot by Andrea after reanimation.
 * Allen - Bitten while exploring interior of The Prison. Although his leg is amputated, he died of blood loss and was shot by Rick before reanimation.
 * Tyreese - Decapitated by The Governor, killed by Michonne after reanimation.
 * Julie - Shot by Chris while alive and after reanimation due to suicide pact.
 * Chris - Strangled to death by Tyreese after he killed Julie, killed again after reanimation.
 * Hershel Greene - Shot by The Governor after his son's death.
 * Billy Greene - Shot by Woodbury soldier in the head.
 * Rachel Greene - Decapitated by Thomas Richards and shot by Glenn after reanimation.
 * Susie Greene - Decapitated by Thomas Richards and shot by Glenn after reanimation.
 * Patricia - Shot by The Governor in the head.
 * Otis - Devoured by zombies while Rick, Michonne, and Glenn were in Woodbury.
 * Alice - Shot by The Governor in the head.
 * Axel - Shot by Woodbury soldier in the head.
 * Dexter - Shot by Rick in the head while defending against zombies.
 * Thomas Richards - Shot by Maggie Greene.
 * Gabe - Shot in the head by Andrea.
 * Andrew - Infected (presumably) outside of The Prison.
 * Numerous counts of Woodbury Soldiers - Nearly all killed by The Prison survivors.

The Prison Backstory
The Prison is revealed to be in close proximity of Nunez, Georgia by Merle Dixon after Maggie divulged her group's location. One of the prisoners, Tomas, explains what happened to The Prison at the beginning of the outbreak. A large rebellion and riot erupted and chaos reigned. He and the other prisoners from the cafeteria were locked inside by one guard, and this guard promised his return, but this never occurred, thus leaving them locked inside the cafeteria with all The Prison's stock of food. This kept them alive for almost 10 months. It can be presumed that since a lot of people died during the rebellion, most of them began to reanimate, managing to kill the rest of the surviving prisoners and guards during the chaos.

First Appearance
The Prison is first seen in the Season 2 finale episode, "Beside the Dying Fire," indicating that the survivors had abandoned the Greene Family Farm, making their way to this location next. It becomes the major setting of Season 3. The building itself is given the name, The 'West Georgia Correctional Facility'.

Discovery and Clearing
In Season 3, after spending the winter traveling around the area, the survivors still did not manage to find The Prison and have no idea of it's existence. Rick makes a hard decision; it's time to leave the area and try to find shelter elsewhere. While T-Dog and the women went out to wash the clothes, Rick and Daryl decide to give a last hunt in the area, and luckily stumbled upon The Prison. 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 Prison by cutting an opening and closing it after getting in. They take out the walkers that roamed through the field from the towers and Rick successfully closed the gate from the prison yard. The group spent the night in the field, celebrating their victory, and, after taking a good look at the yard, Rick informs the group that the place fell early on during the apocalypse and nobody would've scavenged it yet. Since most of the walkers are prisoners and guards, he warns the group that they are only beginning to clean up this place.

By the morning, Rick and his "elite" group enter the prison yard and start to eliminate every walker present. They find yet another yard with much more walkers than they faced in the previous yard, and Rick and Daryl decide to close and lock that yard for now. They enter Cell Block C and guarantee that the place is safe enough for everybody to come in, and they spend the night sleeping in the cell block, one of the few safe nights they had spent since departing the Greene Family Farm. Once again, by the morning, Rick and his special group, now with the inclusion of Hershel, decided to search around the dark corridors of the Cell Block C in search of a cafeteria and an infirmary. While doing so, they end up being overrun by walkers on the both sides of the corridors 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 ends up getting bit on the leg by a lurking walker.

They reunite with Glenn and Maggie, grab Hershel and 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 discover that there were actually living prisoners within. After amputating Hershel's leg, they decide to take him back to Cell Block C to receive medical treatment from Carol. After the prisoners, demanding their rightful place and claiming that The Prison was theirs, Rick and his group decide to clean up Cell Block B so that the prisoners can live there, a sufficient distance from Rick's group. In the process of clearing the corridors of Cell Block B, 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 B. Rick informs them that the area was now theirs and that it's sealed from the rest of The Prison, so they can do whatever they want with it, as long as they don't move any closer to Cell Block C.

Massacre
Later, Maggie and Glenn are having sex in one of the guard towers, while the others are moving the bodies outside the prison in order to burn them, the group sees Axel and Oscar nearby. Rick, T-Dog and Daryl confront them, and Axel pleads with them to include him and Oscar into his group, and Rick declines. T-Dog later explains that they are degenerates but not psychopaths, Daryl agrees but maintains that they should not be allowed into the group. Meanwhile, Hershel, almost fully recovered and ready to walk with crutches, decides to take a stroll with Carl, Lori and Beth, while T-Dog, Carol 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 laugh. Soon Carl spots a group of walkers that have left entered the courtyard that the group are in by walking through a now-opened gate and attack (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 arm as he closes the gate, 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. Meanwhile, Maggie, Carl and Lori escape into another set of corridors and into the machine room of the prison. Rick starts a search party for 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. 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, now filled to the brim with tears, gets up and walks away, rocking the crying baby. Carl hugs his mother, and reluctantly shoots her in the head with his gun. 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 gun. Andrew charges toward him with his axe, and Oscar throws an empty barrel at Andrew, pushing him back. Oscar picks up Rick's gun, pointing it directly at Rick. After a moment of hesitation, he aims to the left, shoots Andrew in the head, then hands Rick his gun 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 Govenor decides to retaliate due to the attack on Woodbury by Rick's group. The Govenor, Martinez, and Shupert have a shootout at the Prison, resulting in one casuality (the loss of the last Prison survivor, Axel). Martinez immobilizes Rick on the bridge outside of the Prison, while on the inside, the rest of the group is on the defensive. Carl protects Beth and later Carol when she runs over after previously using Axel's corpse as a shield. Michonne uses the bus as a cover to fire at The Governor, Maggie shoots at the sniper, and Hershel lies in the grass by the chain-link fence. The Govenor has another surprise for the group, as a delivery van crashes through the gates of the Prison, and unleashes a herd of Walkers. 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. Despite the return of the brothers, there is still a slew of Walkers roaming the prison yard.

Survivors

 * Oscar - An African-American man imprisoned for breaking and entering.
 * Axel - A Caucasian man imprisoned for armed robbery, the TV Series counterpart of the Comic Series character.
 * Andrew - An African-American imprisoned for an unknown crime, the TV Series counterpart of the Comic Series character.
 * Tomas - A Latino-American man imprisoned for an unknown crime, leader of the prisoners; the TV Series counterpart of Thomas Richards.
 * Big Tiny - An imposing, tall African-American imprisoned for an unknown crime.

Deaths

 * Big Tiny - Killed by Tomas to prevent reanimation.
 * Tomas - Killed by Rick with a machete.
 * T-Dog - Bitten in shoulder and later devoured by walkers after sacrificing himself so Carol could escape.
 * Andrew - Killed by Oscar after attempting to kill Rick.
 * Lori Grimes - Died giving birth to her baby and was later shot by Carl to prevent reanimation. Later discovered by Rick that her remains had been devoured by a walker.
 * Donna - Killed by Tyreese to prevent reanimation.
 * Axel - Killed by The Governor's forces.
 * Woodbury Soldier - Killed by Maggie Greene at a guard tower.

Video Game
The West Central Prison is not shown in the Video Game. However, it is the prison in which Lee Everett was being taken to right before the outbreak began. He never reaches The Prison due to the police car he was being driven in crashing.

Trivia

 * Rick, Carl, Michonne, Glenn, Maggie, Andrea, Dale, Sophia, Ben, and Billy are the only people of Rick's group to have made it out of The Prison alive after the second Woodbury attack.
 * In a Q&A with Jake Rodkin and Harrison G. Pink, designers on The Walking Dead Video Game, it was stated that the prison that Lee Everett is being transported to in the beginning of the game is the same prison in the Comic Series of The Walking Dead.
 * The prison is seen in the opening credits of Season 3 due to it being a major location for the season.
 * The TV Series' prison was hand-built from the ground up by the production crew, rather than using a real prison. This includes the set, decorations, plumbing, and every detail, such as aging and blood splatters.
 * Entertainment Weekly's Darren Franich continually jokingly refers to The Prison as the Lori Grimes Memorial Prison.