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Agbaosi, Mark
On GDC's 2025 payroll
Profile written November 8, 2026
This profile reflects positional accountability — this individual held the leadership roles shown during the dates shown, during which the listed deaths or lawsuits occurred. Inclusion does not constitute a legal finding of personal culpability for any specific incident.
Tenure Summary
Mark Agbaosi entered the Georgia Department of Corrections as a correctional officer at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (GDCP) in 2010, returning there as a corrections officer in 2015 and rising through sergeant (2016), lieutenant (2017), captain (2018–2020, and at GDCP in 2021), unit manager (2022), and deputy warden (2023–2024). On February 16, 2025 he was appointed warden of Dooly State Prison, where he remains the facility's lead administrator; coverage of the appointment noted that GDC named a warden without a bachelor's degree to run the prison.
GPS attributes 36 deaths to his leadership-tier postings — 24 at GDCP during his deputy wardenship and 12 at Dooly while he has been warden. Both of his leadership tenures coincided with documented disorder: at GDCP, contraband cellphones and weapons inside a reception facility; at Dooly, repeated stabbing and gang-related fight reports, a statewide lockdown triggered by a fight there, and internal accounts of 50% staffing vacancy and a population near 319% of design capacity. Court records list him as a defendant in two federal suits, both pending.
What happened on their watch
Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison — Deputy Warden, 2023–2024 (24 deaths attributed). The registry shows deaths running from December 2023 through December 2024 at the facility where he was second in command. Among them: Johnny Earl Mcstotts died May 31, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 48. Gerald Kennard Stewart died June 11, 2024 there; cause Unknown/Pending, age 67. James Douglas Arrendale died June 25, 2024; Suicide, age 40. Gregory Lindsey died June 28, 2024; Unknown/Pending, age 64. Edgar Jaramillo died July 8, 2024; Unknown/Pending, age 53. Christopher Shawn Burnett died July 14, 2024; Suicide, age 37. Rodriquez Demorris Garrett died September 6, 2024; Suicide, age 30. Albert Stinson died September 24, 2024; Unknown/Pending, age 76. Joshua Mark Holliday died October 21, 2024; Suicide, age 43. Stephen Allen Hester died November 6, 2024; Unknown/Pending, age 41. Thomas Jr Williams died November 7, 2024; Unknown/Pending, age 62. Willie Henry Ponder died November 8, 2024; Unknown/Pending, age 47. John Irvin Jr Tidd died December 15, 2024; Suicide, age 36. Five of those named deaths are recorded as suicides. A registry event records that Brandon Trace Burrell, 31, died January 28, 2024 from methamphetamine intoxication complicated by a physical altercation, having reportedly suffered numerous stab wounds.
Reporting from that period describes security conditions: the AJC reported in June 2024 that newly convicted inmate Shane Tassi was found with a homemade shank and contraband cellphone within days of arrival, and in September 2024 that 35 cellphones had been seized from inmate David "Toro" Zavala at the time of his guilty plea. A GPS event records inmate Ronald Allen's account that during a prison riot response in April 2024 he was ordered to separate frozen beef patties with inadequate gloves, suffering severe cold injury to his hands — an allegation attributed to him, not an adjudicated finding.
Dooly State Prison — Warden, from February 16, 2025 (12 deaths attributed). Registry deaths under his wardenship: Timothy Glenn Williams died April 17, 2025, at Dooly State Prison; Overdose, age 56. Orlando Perez Glass died August 17, 2025; Unknown/Pending, age 49. Marshall Davis Crews died September 19, 2025; Unknown/Pending, age 69. Willie Mote died October 14, 2025; Unknown/Pending, age 70. Paul Counts died October 30, 2025; Unknown/Pending, age 60. Darrow Brown died November 7, 2025; Homicide, age 58 — a GPS event records he was stabbed to death. Dexter Andres Levy died November 16, 2025; Overdose, age 32. Samuel Jacob Blackmon died January 19, 2026; Overdose, age 40. Martez Desmond Terry died April 29, 2026; Natural/Medical, age 42. Jerry Mccaster died August 11, 2026; Unknown/Pending, age 60. Jerry Jerome Smith died August 21, 2026; Unknown/Pending, age 61. Gary L. Harshaw died October 25, 2026; Unknown/Pending.
Inside accounts reaching GPS during his tenure describe a facility under strain: multiple stabbing reports across 2026, including an account of a nurse used as a human shield during a stabbing at pill call (May 2026); gang-related fights reported March 23, 2026 (five injured), April 1, 2026 (six injured, three airlifted) and May 22, 2026 (nine injured), the last followed by a lockdown of all GDC facilities and cancellation of visitation at four prisons. A January 31, 2026 report described Dooly holding 1,593 people in a facility designed for 500 with roughly 50% officer vacancy; a November 25, 2025 account described housing units left without officer supervision for hours or entire shifts. An October 10, 2026 inside report alleged a roughly 17-hour gap between the evening meal and breakfast, contrary to GDC food-service policy SOP 409.04.02. Contraband cases surfaced from the facility: former GDC cadet Julius Deshawn Williams Jr. was sentenced August 20, 2026 to 10 years plus five years supervised release for smuggling 640 grams of pure methamphetamine, and inmate Abraham Rivas was charged in April 2026 with impersonating a Florida deputy to defraud a victim of $1,000 routed to his commissary account; per WALB and Wesh.com, Rivas claimed staff were aware of inmate fraud schemes.
Litigation
- Miller v. Holt, No. 5:25-cv-00356 (GAMD), filed August 25, 2025 — pending; court records list Agbaosi as a defendant. No disposition recorded.
- Thrift v. Caldwell, No. 5:24-cv-00002 (GAMD), filed January 2, 2024 — pending; court records list Agbaosi as a defendant. No disposition recorded.
Sources
- GPS death registry — cause and date records for 36 deaths at GDCP and Dooly State Prison during Agbaosi's leadership postings
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — contraband cellphone and shank reporting from GDCP, 2024
- WGXA and 13WMAZ — gang-related fight reporting and the Williams methamphetamine-smuggling case at Dooly
- WALB and Wesh.com — Abraham Rivas fraud-scheme charges and statements about staff awareness
- Inside reports submitted to GPS, 2025–2026 — Dooly stabbings, staffing, meals policy, commissary, and lockdown accounts
- Court records, GAMD dockets 5:25-cv-00356 and 5:24-cv-00002
- U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia, via WGXA — Williams plea and sentencing
- GDC public statements — fight investigations and gang attribution
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| Warden 1 | DOOLY STATE PRISON | 2026-08-27 → present |
| Warden | DOOLY STATE PRISON | 2025-02-16 → present |
| WARDEN 1 | DOOLY STATE PRISON | 2025-01-01 → present |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION STATE PRISON | 2023-01-01 → 2024-12-31 |
| Deputy Warden | GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION STATE PRISON | 2023-11-22 → 2023-11-22 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER | GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION STATE PRISON | 2022-01-01 → 2022-12-31 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL CAPTAIN | GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION STATE PRISON | 2021-01-01 → 2021-12-31 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL CAPTAIN | 2018-01-01 → 2020-12-31 | |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL LIEUTENANT | 2017-01-01 → 2017-12-31 | |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL SERGEANT | GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION STATE PRISON | 2016-01-01 → 2016-12-31 |
| CORRECTIONS OFFICER (SP) | GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION STATE PRISON | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
| Correctional Officer | GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION STATE PRISON | 2010-01-01 → 2010-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5:25-cv-00356 | GAMD | 2025-08-25 | pending |
| 5:24-cv-00002 | GAMD | 2024-01-02 | pending |
Deaths attributed during tenure
36 people died at facilities under Agbaosi, Mark's leadership.
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