Brief written October 26, 2026 from GPS Intelligence System data.(DS)

Deaths in Custody in Georgia's Prisons

Georgia's prison system has become, by its own numbers, a place where people die at a rate the state has never before recorded. The Georgia Department of Corrections counted 150 releases by death in calendar year 2015; by 2024 the figure had reached 332 — a record, and roughly one death every day of the year. GPS has independently tracked 1,927 deaths in GDC custody since January 1, 2020, and that count is a floor rather than a ceiling, because the Department reports deaths roughly two months late.

The story of those deaths is not only a story about how many people die. It is a story about what the state says killed them, who is permitted to decide, and how long a body can lie in a cell before anyone notices. Federal investigators concluded in October 2024 that GDC "inaccurately reports these deaths both internally and externally, and in a manner that underreports the extent of violence and homicide in GDC prisons." The Department stopped publishing cause of death altogether in March 2024. And in county after county, the official empowered to certify why a prisoner died is an elected coroner with no medical training and no obligation to order an autopsy.

What follows traces that arc: the rising toll, the classification machinery that obscures it, the specific deaths that broke through into public view, the structural weaknesses in death investigation, and the accountability record — settlements paid, officers charged, and a discipline system that in some cases left no trace at all.

The Rising Toll, and the Counting Problem Beneath It

The most reliable trend line in Georgia prison mortality comes from a single, consistent source: GDC's own calendar-year count of releases recorded as deaths, produced by the same office, in the same report series, from the same field, every year. On that series, the annual average rose 63.6 percent — from 172.6 deaths a year in 2015–2019 to 282.3 a year in 2020–2025. The highest year before 2020 (196, in 2018) was still below the lowest year from 2020 on (252, in 2022). Because the counting method did not change, the rise cannot be dismissed as an artifact of better record-keeping.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, charting GDC data, reported the year-by-year figures as 143 in 2015, 138 in 2016, 175 in 2017, 175 in 2018, 160 in 2019, 281 in 2020, 257 in 2021, 255 in 2022, 262 in 2023, and 332 in 2024. The 2024 total represented a 27 percent increase over 2023 and exceeded even the pandemic year of 2020, which included 72 prisoners who died of COVID-19. The Bureau of Justice Statistics, using an earlier methodology, recorded 131 Georgia state prisoner deaths in 2015, 133 in 2016, 173 in 2017, 163 in 2018, and 157 in 2019 — a separate series that should not be spliced to the later counts.

The composition of that mortality has shifted sharply. From 2011 through 2018, homicides systemwide never exceeded nine in a single year. According to GDC mortality reports cited in the Department of Justice's findings, the count went to 7 in 2018, 13 in 2019, 28 in 2020, 28 in 2021, 31 in 2022, and 35 in 2023 — 142 homicides over six years, with a 95.8 percent increase from the first three years (48) to the last three (94). In the first five months of 2024 alone, DOJ documented 18 confirmed or suspected homicides. GDC told the AJC it investigated 66 prisoner deaths deemed homicides in 2024; the AJC independently identified 62 people who died from suspected or confirmed homicides that year, and GPS's own tracking has put the figure higher still.

Suicide has risen in parallel. BJS recorded 145 Georgia prisoner suicides from 2001 to 2019, including 74 in 2015–2019 alone — a period rate of 31 per 100,000 prisoners, above the national total of 21, the all-states figure of 22, and the Southern rate of 24. The number of recorded suicides tripled between 2010–2014 and 2015–2019. Georgia Public Broadcasting, reporting on DOJ statements, noted that the average number of recorded suicides in Georgia prisons quintupled after 2017. GDC recorded 40 suicides in 2022, an all-time record.

What the State Says Killed Them — and What It Stopped Saying

The central evidentiary problem in Georgia prison mortality is classification. DOJ found that GDC's mortality data "categorizes many deaths that obviously were homicides as having an unknown reason or unknown verified cause of death." The starkest illustration: GDC's June 2024 mortality data reported 6 homicides for the first five months of that year, while at least 18 deaths were categorized as homicides in GDC incident reports. The same June 2024 data still classified at least two homicides from 2021 as having an "unknown" cause. DOJ separately identified seven deaths from 2022 that GDC categorized as undetermined or natural until eventually reclassifying them as homicides in 2024 — although other official records had made clear much earlier that the deaths were homicides.

GPS's own original research has documented the same pattern in drug deaths. In 31 cases, GDC labeled a death "undetermined" while medical examiners later ruled it an accidental drug overdose; in at least 13 more, GDC reported "natural causes" where medical examiners determined accidental overdose. Combined, at least 44 deaths were misclassified. Georgia saw at least 49 drug overdose deaths between 2019 and 2022, up from just 2 in 2018.

Then, in March 2024, the Department narrowed the window further. As first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, GDC said it would no longer provide cause-of-death information in its monthly mortality reports, releasing manner of death only after local medical examiners make determinations — a process that can take a year or more. Commissioner Tyrone Oliver told the AJC that listing manner of death had been "just speculation" on the agency's part. The AJC reported that GDC's January and February mortality reports had listed the manner of death of 35 prisoners as unknown, five as natural, seven as suicides, and seven as homicides; the March report listed 18 deaths with nothing beyond names and GDC numbers.

The disclosure gap extends to identity, not just cause. In 2025, GDC reported 301 deaths but identified only 295, leaving six people with no name, facility, or cause ever disclosed. GPS's own registry and the Department's aggregate count agree closely — within five in every overlapping year from 2020 through 2025, and exactly in 2024 and 2025 — which means the gap is a naming gap, not a counting gap. GDC knows how many people died in its custody. It has declined to say who six of them were.

The Dead of the Last Ninety Days

GPS's death registry has recorded 33 deaths in the last 90 days and 1,918 since January 1, 2020. The full, continuously updated list is published at gps.press/georgia-prison-deaths. Among the most recent:

John Doe died October 23, 2026, at Macon State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as unknown or pending. Veasna Johnathan Bun died October 22, 2026, at Macon State Prison, cause unknown or pending. Juld Gerald Carter died October 21, 2026, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as homicide. Jane Doe died October 19, 2026, at Pulaski State Prison; the registry lists the cause as natural or medical. Wendell Thomas Cochran died September 22, 2026, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, cause unknown or pending. Donnie Gene Poland died September 15, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the registry lists the cause as natural or medical. David Williams died September 13, 2026, at Ware State Prison; the registry lists the cause as suicide. Demilo Ponchorello Johnson died September 10, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison; the registry lists the cause as natural or medical. Maurice Antonio Brown died September 3, 2026, at Wilcox State Prison; the registry lists the cause as homicide.

Sheldon Leroy Burns died August 30, 2026, at Coastal State Prison; the registry lists the cause as natural or medical. Joseph Earl Adams, 58, died August 30, 2026, at Washington State Prison, cause unknown or pending. David Rackley Pritchett, 66, died August 29, 2026, at Metro Reinvestment Center, cause unknown or pending. Dwight Bernard Freeman, 69, died August 28, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison, cause unknown or pending. Thomas Harold Broach, 81, died August 22, 2026, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, cause unknown or pending. Randy Walton, 67, died August 21, 2026, at Calhoun State Prison, cause unknown or pending. Jerry Jerome Smith, 61, died August 21, 2026, at Dooly State Prison, cause unknown or pending. Tony Horne, 48, died August 20, 2026, at Macon State Prison, cause unknown or pending. Akeem Ajima Lanier, 38, died August 20, 2026, at Riverbend Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility, cause unknown or pending. Jimmie Lee Dennis, 64, died August 17, 2026, at Augusta State Medical Prison, cause unknown or pending. Robert Franklin Barbee, 57, died August 14, 2026, at Baldwin State Prison, cause unknown or pending. James Edward Loren, 54, died August 13, 2026, at Valdosta State Prison, cause unknown or pending. Jerry McCaster, 60, died August 11, 2026, at Dooly State Prison, cause unknown or pending. Marquavious Devante Knox, 34, died August 10, 2026, at Riverbend Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility, cause unknown or pending. David Allan Dowling, 69, died August 9, 2026, at Ware State Prison, cause unknown or pending. Michael Wayne Forker, 74, died August 8, 2026, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, cause unknown or pending.

The predominance of "unknown or pending" in that list is itself the finding. It is the same pattern the federal government documented: a system that counts its dead and then declines, or is unable, to say what killed them.

Bodies Found Late: The Discovery Failure

A recurring feature of Georgia prison deaths is that the deceased are found long after they died — a failure that speaks to staffing, to welfare-check protocols, and to what happens when no one is watching.

At Valdosta State Prison, Je'Vion Benham, 21, was found dead in his cell on December 24, 2025, two days after he died; his body had begun to decompose. Lowndes County Coroner Austin Fiveash, who conducted the autopsy, estimated Benham died on the Monday and called it "unfathomable that a prison can miss someone for two days" and "a major security concern." He told a local news outlet: "no one deserves to lie dead in prison for two days and begin to decompose. At some point, someone has to listen and do something. Enough lip service from Atlanta. Valdosta State Prison needs help." The Southern Center for Human Rights reported that 25 people died at Valdosta between January 1, 2025, and August 13, 2026, and that GDC's incident reports on most of those deaths are heavily redacted; based on what was released, GDC classified approximately 12 as alleged homicides and 6 as alleged suicides. One of the men who reportedly died by suicide appears, according to GDC's own records, to have harmed himself five days earlier in an incident classified as "attempted suicide, self-injurious behavior."

At Smith State Prison, Anthony Zino was found dead in his cell in April 2024 after being dead for five days; his cause of death was asphyxia due to neck compression. Guards in the unit were supposed to conduct counts multiple times each day while providing meals and medications through the cell door flaps. GDC maintained that understaffing did not play a role and refused to release investigative documents, labeling them confidential state secrets.

At Dooly State Prison, Dooly County Coroner James Hudson confirmed that Carlito Omar Soldiew-Acosta was found in his isolation cell and had been deceased for at least 24 hours, if not longer; the coroner told a television station he may have been dead more than 24 hours before his body was found. At Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, the autopsy for Brandon Burrell, 31, suggested hours passed before guards found his body — medics found rigor mortis had begun and he was cold to the touch, with roughly 60 lacerations and stab wounds all over his body. His fiancée, Kaylyn Shilling, had emailed staff days earlier detailing "numerous violent threats" and asking that he be moved to protective custody; the request was not granted.

DOJ's findings report described four deaths in 2021 in which GDC records show bodies discovered by staff after the onset of rigor mortis, indicating hours had passed. The report also quoted an EMS director's estimate that emergency teams are delayed an average of 30 minutes at GDC prison gates waiting for staff to open the three gates necessary to reach the medical department. At Calhoun State Prison in February 2023, responders arrived at 1:04 p.m. and were not inside until 1:11 p.m.

When the Killing Is Documented: Named Cases

The public record contains hundreds of individual homicides, and their circumstances repeatedly show the same failures — classification decisions, cellmate placements, unstaffed dorms, and warnings that went unheeded.

At Calhoun State Prison, DOJ documented the May 2022 killing of 21-year-old DaQuavious Cachone Lackey, who died of a stab wound to the neck and multiple blunt force injuries after staff moved his assailant out of segregation to general population and then back to segregation without following procedures. In a separate Calhoun killing, an officer had reported that two men should not be housed together because of their STG status and because the assailant was seven feet tall and 340 pounds; a supervisor failed to verify the room status, an officer failed to respond to an orderly's report that the men wanted to be separated, and a day later another orderly saw the assailant beating the victim with a fan motor in a net bag. The victim died of multiple blunt traumas and a stab wound to the neck. DOJ also documented a Calhoun death in which no one had entered the man's cell for two days, the door flap had been locked shut, staff had shut off the water supply and not delivered meals, and the cause of death was dehydration with renal failure.

At Macon State Prison — which the AJC found was the deadliest prison in Georgia in one year, with at least nine homicides, and which recorded eight homicides in 2020, more than any other Georgia prison — Joseph Walter Brown, 36, was stabbed to death by his cellmate in July 2022. His parents sued, alleging that cellmate Demarquis Glenn had smoked insecticide-soaked paper that made him psychotic, and naming Lieutenant Latrice Hatcher for failing to protect their son; the complaint states it was the third time Hatcher had been sued for ignoring an inmate's pleas not to be housed with a violent cellmate. Carrington Juwon Frye, 23, died at Macon in March 2020 of stab wounds to the neck and chest; his mother told Georgia lawmakers he was stabbed and bled for more than half an hour before help arrived. Coty Silvers, 39, was murdered there in May 2020; officers had been warned for days of altercations between Silvers and his cellmate before he was found tortured and killed.

At Hancock State Prison, Charles "Tristen" McKee, 24, was beaten and stabbed to death by multiple gang members inside a dorm on May 22, 2022; he tried to escape by jumping through the stair railings and the attackers continued to stab him below. His mother, Lisa Spradlin, filed a lawsuit alleging he had a history of mental illness, suicidal thoughts, and gender dysphoria and was placed in a dorm with known gang members hostile to LGBTQ inmates despite having reported threats. DOJ found that McKee had asked to be moved the day before because his life was in danger.

At Phillips State Prison, 18-year-old Jacob Daniels was killed in an attack in which, according to arrest warrants, two inmates stuffed mattress filling in his mouth, stabbed him in the throat with an ink pen, and cut his wrists with glass from a broken light bulb. Quafabian McBride, 19, was killed September 30, 2022, in the lockdown unit; he was housed elsewhere in the prison and had been brought to lockdown that day through the arrangements of officers. Five men were slain at Phillips that year, the most of any GDC facility.

At Augusta State Medical Prison, Roderick Hayes, 29, was killed in May 2024. A correctional officer, Lloyd Hopkins, was fired the same day and charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, and violation of oath by a public officer; inmates Brendon Moore and Andy Ulysse were charged with felony murder and aggravated assault. The Augusta Press reported that a guard allowed Hayes and two other inmates into a cell with the intention of attacking the man inside, but the targeted victim fought back and killed Hayes. The Augusta Press's review of the data showed 11 inmate homicides at ASMP since 2020.

At Smith State Prison in June 2024, an incarcerated person used a contraband gun to kill an Aramark food-service worker and then take his own life; GDC identified the inmate as Jaydrekus Hart, who shot the employee while working in the prison kitchen at 4:30 a.m. and then shot himself.

At Washington State Prison, three inmates — Jimmy Trammell, 42, Ahmond Hatcher, 23, and Teddy Dwayne Jackson, 27 — were killed in a disturbance; a fourth, Silas Westbrook, died after being hospitalized for minor injuries and suffering a medical emergency while being transferred. Trammell was scheduled to be released the Wednesday after his killing. Washington County Coroner E.K. May said it is rare to see that many deaths at the prison in an entire year.

At Lee Arrendale State Prison, Sherry Joyce, 61, was strangled in the A-Unit on April 27, 2024, and Hallie Reed, 23, was strangled eight days later in the same mental health unit. Reed had asked in writing for protective custody after Joyce's death, citing fear; her request was denied.

Who Decides How They Died

Georgia's death-investigation architecture is unusually decentralized, and that decentralization is the structural root of the state's undisclosed-cause problem. In 155 of Georgia's 159 counties — 97.5 percent — the official who takes charge of a body and can certify a death is an elected coroner. Only Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, and Gwinnett have abolished the office in favor of appointed, physician-led medical examiner systems; Clayton County contracts with the GBI.

The statutory qualifications for coroner are age 25, a high school diploma or equivalent, registered voter status, two years of county residency, no felony conviction, and completion of a basic training course within 180 days of election. No medical training of any kind is required. The basic course, at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, covers Title 45, death investigation, reports, ethics, photography, child death investigations, and reporting procedures — not pathology. By contrast, American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators registry certification requires an associate's degree or higher, 4,000 hours of experience, and a 240-question examination.

An in-custody death triggers a mandatory medical examiner's inquiry under O.C.G.A. § 45-16-24(a)(7), but an "inquiry" is defined to include a scene investigation, an external examination, a limited dissection, an autopsy, or any combination — and under § 45-16-22, "it shall be in the sole discretion of the medical examiner to determine whether or not an autopsy or limited dissection is required." A coroner may certify a death without an autopsy, and cause may be entered as "pending" and never amended. Under § 45-16-22(f), when a death in one county results from acts in another, jurisdiction returns to the county where the acts took place — so a stabbing at a rural prison that results in death at an Atlanta hospital may still be certified by the rural county's elected coroner.

The GBI has superseding authority for deaths on state property under § 45-16-25(d), but the statute says "authorized," not required. Whether the elected coroner defers to the GBI or handles the death locally varies by county with no centralized tracking. GDC's own SOP 208.03 goes further: the GDC Criminal Investigations Division Inspector decides whether or not to notify the GBI about a death — meaning the Department gatekeeps federal involvement in its own deaths.

Capacity compounds discretion. The GBI averages roughly 4,500 autopsies a year, about 300 per pathologist — above the National Association of Medical Examiners recommended maximum of 250 and approaching the hard accreditation cap of 325. During the 2022–2023 shortage, some examiners performed more than 400. GBI Assistant Director Scott Dutton has said the pace is not sustainable.

The result is a chain of six documented weaknesses that produces undisclosed causes: lay coroner certification in 155 counties; GDC control of notification and scene; discretionary, capacity-limited autopsy; cause left "pending" with files closed; GDC's March 2024 halt on publishing cause; and a broken federal backstop. Under the Georgia Open Records Act, records of pending investigations may be withheld, and materials subpoenaed by a coroner or medical examiner are confidential under § 45-16-27(c). Certified death certificates showing cause are restricted for 75 years to those with a direct and tangible interest.

The federal backstop has indeed failed. The Death in Custody Reporting Act, passed in 2000 and updated in 2013, requires states receiving Byrne JAG funding to report deaths in custody. A 2022 GAO report (GAO-22-106033) identified nearly 1,000 deaths that potentially should have been reported to DOJ but were not, and found 70 percent of state-provided records missing at least one required element. A review of roughly 1,000 DCRA entries found more than three-quarters did not meet the federal government's own criteria for how a death should be recorded. BJS published detailed prison mortality reports through reference year 2019; the Bureau of Justice Assistance assumed collection and does not publish the data even in aggregate.

The Internal Review That Leaves No Trace

GDC operates its own mortality review apparatus, and the public record on how it functions is not reassuring. GDC SOP 507.04.67 establishes a Mortality Review Committee composed of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, a mental health provider, and a security representative, which reviews Clinical Mortality Peer Review packets and identifies any need for a forensic autopsy. For natural deaths, the Medical Director notifies the Warden, facility duty officer, and Health Services Administrator; the Warden notifies the County Coroner and, through the State Communication Center, the Commissioner, Regional Director, and Health Services Director. An Offender Death Notification Form must be faxed to the Statewide Medical Director the next working day, including the date the Clinical Mortality Peer Review has been scheduled. For suicides, homicides, and accidental or suspicious deaths, the Commissioner and Statewide Medical Director must be notified immediately and the GBI notified by the Warden.

Whether those reviews happen, and what they find, is largely invisible. A 2007 Special Examination by the Department of Audits and Accounts found that GDC's Office of Health Services did not perform executive mortality reviews of inmate deaths and was unable to locate medical files for many deceased inmates. OHS's review of files for calendar years 2005 and 2006 revealed that only 30 of 233 deaths, excluding executions, had evidence a mortality review was performed. The audit also found that 86 of 203 files on deceased inmates could not be located at the time of the audit; GDC responded that 41 of the 86 had since been located and that it had approval to contract with an external reviewer.

DOJ's 2024 findings recommended that GDC implement a quality assurance program including complete, interdisciplinary morbidity and mortality reviews of all deaths and attempted suicides, examining for patterns and trends and correcting systemic deficiencies — a recommendation that presupposes the current reviews are neither complete nor interdisciplinary in practice.

Accountability: Settlements, Charges, and the Discipline Gap

The financial record of Georgia prison deaths is substantial. In November 2023, GDC agreed to pay $5 million to the estate of Thomas Henry Giles, a mentally ill prisoner who died after guards left him for hours locked inside a cell on fire at Augusta State Medical Prison. The GBI medical examiner found Giles had a carbon monoxide level of 76 percent — well above the 40 to 60 percent levels considered lethal — and ruled the death a homicide. The settlement was reportedly the largest single payout in GDC history. A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Georgia returned a two-count indictment on August 5, 2025, charging former ASMP correctional officers Robert Roberson and Marcus Phillips with violating the inmate's constitutional rights by showing deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of harm resulting in his death; Roberson was also charged with falsifying a logbook. Both were later found not guilty.

Other settlements include $2.2 million to the family of Jenna Mitchell, a transgender woman held at Valdosta State Prison whose suicide threats were ignored and who was left hanging in her cell for several minutes before getting medical help; $925,000 for Bonnie Rocheleau, who died of pneumonia at Pulaski State Prison in March 2015 after failing to get adequate care for COPD; $750,000 for Brandon Peters, who died in his cell at Georgia State Prison in November 2020 after days of severe belly pain, fever, and bowel problems; $1.5 million for Agnes Bohannon, who complained for days of cardiac and respiratory distress at Lee Arrendale before dying of cardiovascular disease in September 2019; $700,000 for Demitri Carter, who had multiple previous suicide attempts and took his own life at Phillips State Prison in October 2017; $700,000 for James Yarbrough, who died of ketoacidosis at Dooly State Prison in August 2020 following months of uncontrolled diabetes; and $550,000 for Jimmy Lucero, 19, who lay in a catatonic state at Augusta State Medical Prison as he starved to death in 2015.

Criminal accountability has been uneven. In the Calhoun killing of Joshua Brooks, a jury found Undrea Burley and Wesley Adams guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault, and gang activity and sentenced both to life without parole; Demetrius Smith was found not guilty. Correctional officer Shakera Burns was charged in the same case, and her case was severed for separate trial. In the Hancock killing of Bobby Ricks, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the malice murder convictions and life sentences of Demarco Draughn, Xavier Levatte, and Benny Hayward. Javaris Compton was convicted of malice murder in the stabbing death of his cellmate Rashad Bolton. Joshua Andrew Brock was convicted of malice murder and sentenced to life without parole for the 2025 stabbing death of Prince Porter. Timothy Paul Dunigan pleaded guilty to malice murder in the killing of David Micheal Watson at Baldwin State Prison.

But the administrative record is thinner than the criminal one. DOJ found that in the 2022 Calhoun homicide in which staff moved an assailant in and out of segregation without following procedures, the Office of Professional Standards investigation identified multiple policy violations and staff errors — yet employee documentation for the three security staff identified in the investigation did not mention the homicide or any resulting discipline or counseling, and subsequent performance evaluations were largely positive. In the Phillips killing of Quafabian McBride, correctional officer Geramy Antonio Brown was fired days afterward for violating employee standards of conduct and failure to comply with an investigation, and officer Javaris Jones was suspended; as of the Prison Legal News report, no charges had been filed against any of the Phillips guards despite Commissioner Oliver's statement that he has "zero tolerance for compromised staff or staff cutting corners to allow inmates to attack one another or kill one another."

Federal Judge Marc Treadwell's April 2024 contempt order found that GDC officials "repeatedly falsified documents and made false statements," with the judge writing that "the Court has long passed the point where it can assume that even sworn statements from the defendants are truthful." Officials falsified prisoner review forms, backdated documents, and showed deceased prisoners attending activities after death. In a separate matter, a federal judge sanctioned GDC for evidence spoliation and deletion of video evidence related to a prisoner death, as reported by Law.com.

What the Record Shows

Taken together, the record describes a system in which deaths have risen sharply on the Department's own consistent count; in which the leading unnatural causes — homicide and suicide — have multiplied; in which the state's classification of those deaths has been found by the federal government to underreport violence; in which cause-of-death disclosure was curtailed in March 2024; in which the officials empowered to certify cause are, in nearly every county, elected laypeople with discretion to forgo autopsy; and in which bodies are found hours, days, and in one case five days after death.

GPS records show 169 reports of deaths in custody across 18 facilities in the past twelve months, alongside 64 family reports of fear for a loved one's life across 13 facilities and 24 reports of unattended mental health crisis across six. These are the shapes the individual cases take when aggregated: not isolated tragedies but a pattern with a structure.

The state's own numbers establish the scale. What remains contested is the cause of each death, the identity of six people counted in 2025 but never named, and whether the reviews, investigations, and disciplinary processes that are supposed to follow a death in Georgia's custody actually occur.

Sources

This analysis draws on the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division's October 2024 findings report on Georgia's prisons; Georgia Department of Corrections mortality reports, standard operating procedures (including SOP 507.04.67 and SOP 208.03), and release-by-death statistics; Bureau of Justice Statistics mortality tables and the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project; reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Public Broadcasting, the Augusta Press, WRDW/WAGT, WGXA, WALB, 13WMAZ, 41NBC, the Union-Recorder, the Valdosta Daily Times, the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the Summerville News, the Associated Press, CNN, Law.com, and Prison Legal News; filings and opinions in federal and state litigation, including Selassie v. GDC and the wrongful death actions brought by the families of Joseph Walter Brown, Charles "Tristen" McKee, and Jenna Mitchell; the Southern Center for Human Rights' October 2026 letter to GDC on Valdosta State Prison; Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts examinations; Georgia statutes governing coroners and medical examiners; and GPS's own mortality registry, investigative reporting, and the firsthand accounts published in Georgia Prisoners' Speak — Tell My Story.