Who Runs Georgia's Prisons — and Who Answers for the Dead
Three bodies hold power over Georgia's prison system: the Department of Corrections
administration that runs it day to day, the Board of Corrections that is
its sole oversight, and the State Board of Pardons and Paroles that decides who
stays inside. Every person below was entrusted by the State of Georgia with authority over that
system. Since 2020, 1,820 people have died
in GDC custody.
This page reflects positional accountability: each official held the role shown during
the dates shown, during which the deaths shown occurred. It is not a legal finding of personal
culpability for any specific death.
GDC Administration
The Commissioner and assistant commissioners run the Georgia Department of Corrections —
classification, housing, medical care, and the separation of rival groups are all theirs to
direct. So is what people are fed. GDC's chronic failures of
food quality, nutrition, and basic quantity leave people hungry and
malnourished — conditions that breed desperation, illness, and violence. Adequate
food is not a courtesy; it is a baseline these officials control and have
failed to deliver. The death toll beside each name is the number of people who died in GDC
custody during that official's tenure — a newer official's number is smaller only because their
tenure is shorter, not because the dying slowed.
The five-member Parole Board decides who leaves prison and who stays. By holding people far
past the point of any public-safety rationale — denying parole and keeping them inside for
years — the Board drives the overcrowding that GDC then cannot safely manage. It also
manufactures hopelessness: when people conclude that nothing they do will ever earn release,
survival instinct replaces the incentive to follow the rules, and violence follows. Unlike the
volunteer Board of Corrections, parole members are full-time and salaried at roughly
$143,000 a year. These members do not run the prisons — but their decisions
shape who is in them, and how many.
1,819people have died in GDC custody during the tenure of the
current Board of Corrections
The Board of Corrections is the only oversight body for how the GDC operates.
Its members cannot release a single person — but they can direct the Department to
separate rival gangs, classify people properly, and provide
adequate, nutritious food. These are the failures that turn prisons deadly.
This is not a salaried job: members are appointed by the Governor to five-year terms and draw
only a $105 expense allowance for each meeting day they attend. That is exactly what makes their
duty a moral and ethical one rather than a paycheck — in accepting the appointment, they took on
the public trust of ensuring that the people Georgia confines are kept safe and treated lawfully.
Across 1,819 deaths during their tenure, the Board has not
used its authority to compel the changes that could stop the dying. That is a failure of the duty
they accepted, and the Board bears moral responsibility for the conditions it allows to continue.
Stacy Jarrard
BOARD MEMBER · since 2015
1,819 deaths during tenure
$735 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: Stacy Jarrard, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
William D Strickland
BOARD MEMBER · since 2016
1,819 deaths during tenure
$1,260 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: William D Strickland, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
Ester Fleming
BOARD MEMBER · since 2020
1,819 deaths during tenure
$945 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: Ester Fleming, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
Alton Russell
BOARD MEMBER · since 2015
1,819 deaths during tenure
$1,260 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: Alton Russell, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
Luis Manuel Solis
BOARD MEMBER · since 2020
1,819 deaths during tenure
$630 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: Luis Manuel Solis, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
Christopher Clark
BOARD MEMBER · since 2017
1,819 deaths during tenure
$735 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: Christopher Clark, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
Donnie Pope
BOARD MEMBER · since 2020
1,819 deaths during tenure
$1,155 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: Donnie Pope, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
Duke Blackburn
BOARD MEMBER · since 2015
1,819 deaths during tenure
$1,155 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: Duke Blackburn, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
Barry H Babb
BOARD MEMBER · since 2021
1,526 deaths during tenure
$840 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: Barry H Babb, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
Thomas Neils Culpepper
BOARD MEMBER · since 2023
1,015 deaths during tenure
$945 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: Thomas Neils Culpepper, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
John B Edwards
BOARD MEMBER · since 2024
753 deaths during tenure
$630 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: John B Edwards, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
Rodney Bryant
BOARD MEMBER · since 2025
420 deaths during tenure
$630 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: Rodney Bryant, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
JC Spud Bowen
BOARD MEMBER · since 2025
420 deaths during tenure
$1,260 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: JC Spud Bowen, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
Rossie CJ Ross
BOARD MEMBER · since 2025
420 deaths during tenure
$840 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: Rossie CJ Ross, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
Kellie Brownlow
BOARD MEMBER · since 2025
420 deaths during tenure
$525 (2025)
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: Kellie Brownlow, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
Sandra D Hudson
BOARD MEMBER · since 2026
83 deaths during tenure
salary pending
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: Sandra D Hudson, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
WW
William Whaley
BOARD MEMBER
recently appointed — toll being confirmed
salary pending
✉ Write the BoardAddress to: William Whaley, Board of Corrections, 300 Patrol Road, Forsyth, GA 31029
