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34 maconmagazine.com | August/September 2024 E vey Wilson Wetherbee had just touched down in Miami returning to Macon from Colombia, South America when she heard the news: an inmate at Georgia's Smith State Prison in Tattnall County had that day shot and killed a kitchen worker before killing himself. It was June 16, 2024, and the news naturally set off alarms for Wetherbee, who in 2023 created the popular, Peabody-nominated "Prison Town" podcast with South Georgia reporting partner Jessica Szilagyi. Wetherbee is an award-winning multimedia journalist, documentary fi lmmaker, and assistant professor at Mercer University. In "Prison Town," Smith State Prison served as a focal point and lens to examine problems in the Georgia Department of Corrections system. The podcast series, available on multiple streaming platforms and at prisontownpodcast. com, follows a true crime trail of murder, mystery, intrigue, and corruption linked to Smith State Prison. Storylines include murder for hire seemingly ordered from within the prison but gone horribly wrong outside prison walls, and the path of all manner of contraband smuggled to prisoners – even including a corrections offi cer that brought in $29,000 in cash allegedly intended to pay off employees. "I was heartbroken but not entirely surprised," Wetherbee said of the recent murder-suicide. "'Prison Town' grew from my targeting such issues while reporting for the Reg Murphy Center for Collaborative Journalism. The Department of Justice had begun investigating prison conditions in the state, and Smith State Prison seemed to be the perfect case study. The podcast resulted." At the root of Wetherbee's work is a simple journalistic desire to inform the public of important issues. More personally, it's from a concern that a lack of awareness of the issues and dilemmas facing inmates, families, and communities leads to a public that doesn't adequately care about them. "How do we make people care?" she asked herself. "Early on, it was a desire to get people to care about inmates with shorter sentences who end up being killed inside because of the violence or who become severely traumatized or even addicted to drugs before being released back to their families and neighborhoods. But when Smith State Prison violence crossed over into regular society, it became a much larger story. It really became this small-town crime story involving systemic issues." "Prison Town" isn't the fi rst time Wetherbee and those collaborating with her have been recognized BY MICHAEL W. PANNELL Local investigative journalist and professor earns a Peabody nomination for the podcast "Prison Town" and Emmy nomination for "Saving Juliette" E v e y W i l s o n W e t h e r b e e "Prison Town" follows a true crime trail of murder and corruption, using a Tattnall County prison as a lens to examine problems in the Georgia Department of Corrections. BELOW "Prison Town" promotional image.