Andre, Dorothy

Tenure Summary

Dorothy Andre's documented career with the Georgia Department of Corrections is entirely at Phillips State Prison, where she entered as a corrections officer in 2015 and was promoted steadily: correctional officer 2 in 2016, correctional sergeant from 2017 through 2020, correctional lieutenant in 2021–2022, Correctional Unit Manager in 2023–2025, and Deputy Warden of Security from January 16, 2026, with a further Deputy Warden record dated August 27, 2026.

Five deaths are attributed to her leadership tenure — all five at Phillips State Prison, per GPS's death registry, and all recorded while she held the Deputy Warden of Security role. No lawsuit in the records names Andre as a defendant, and no news report in the records names her directly. Three of the five deaths are listed with cause Unknown/Pending; two are listed as Natural/Medical.

What happened on their watch

Phillips State Prison — Correctional Unit Manager (2023–2025). Andre held the unit-manager role across 2023, 2024 and 2025; the records also carry a unit-manager entry dated November 22, 2023, and a 2026 entry dated August 27 in which she is listed as Deputy Warden. The five deaths attributed to her leadership tenure are all recorded during the later Deputy Warden of Security period, not during the unit-manager years.

Phillips State Prison — Deputy Warden of Security (from January 16, 2026). The five deaths attributed to Andre's leadership tenure fall in this period, per GPS's registry:

• Rodger Scales died February 9, 2026, at Phillips State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. He was 40.
• Cornelius Burge died February 11, 2026, at Phillips State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical. He was 42.
• Rickie Lynn Rutherford died April 18, 2026, at Phillips State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 41.
• Richard L Thatcher died May 3, 2026, at Phillips State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 58.
• Jacob Ray Nicholson died July 13, 2026, at Phillips State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 29.

Two intelligence events at Phillips are dated inside this same Deputy Warden of Security tenure, both involving Janice Buttrum and the state's parole process for juvenile offenders. On March 17, 2026, a federal judge denied dismissal of a parole-process lawsuit, finding that Georgia's juvenile-lifer parole system may be an unconstitutional sham; on March 25, 2026, the parole board denied release for a fifth time, with no documentation provided of the differentiation between juvenile and adult offenders that the state Supreme Court required. Both items are recorded at Phillips while Andre held the Deputy Warden of Security role; neither names her, and neither is a claim against her.

Sources

• GPS Death Registry — dates, facilities, ages and listed causes for Rodger Scales, Cornelius Burge, Rickie Lynn Rutherford, Richard L Thatcher and Jacob Ray Nicholson
• GPS intelligence records for Phillips State Prison — parole-process events dated March 17, 2026 and March 25, 2026, recorded while Andre was Deputy Warden of Security
• Federal court proceeding referenced in the GPS intelligence record of March 17, 2026 (parole-process lawsuit denial of dismissal)

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 25, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.