Banks, Mary L

Tenure Summary

Mary L. Banks's career with the Georgia Department of Corrections is documented in state position records from 2015, when she served as a corrections officer, followed by correctional lieutenant (2016–2017), correctional captain (2018), and correctional unit manager (2019–2023). On 2023-11-22 she is listed as a Correctional Unit Manager at Autry State Prison. From 2024-01-01 she held the Deputy Warden role at Autry State Prison, a posting the records carry through 2025; she is listed as Deputy Warden of Security at the same facility from 2026-07-16, with a further Deputy Warden entry dated 2026-08-27.

Six deaths are attributed to her facility-leadership tenure, all of them at Autry State Prison. The records contain no lawsuits naming her as a defendant and no news reports naming her directly.

What happened on their watch

Autry State Prison — Deputy Warden (listed 2024-01-01 through 2025-12-31; later Deputy Warden of Security from 2026-07-16)

Six deaths are attributed to Banks's time in this role at Autry State Prison, per the facility totals in the GPS death registry. Every one of the six decedents was between 56 and 86 years old, and GPS's registry records the cause for each as Unknown/Pending: the registry does not yet know what caused these deaths, and no cause should be inferred. Two of the deaths, Alton Anson Kelly and James Melvin Tudor, are recorded on the same date, August 23, 2025.

• Alerick Campbell died December 22, 2024, at Autry State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 56.
• Harvey Jack Woodard died May 8, 2025, at Autry State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 69.
• Alton Anson Kelly died August 23, 2025, at Autry State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 61.
• James Melvin Tudor died August 23, 2025, at Autry State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 86.
• Richard Merritt died October 20, 2025, at Autry State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 75.
• Chaudhry Abudl Rashid died November 11, 2025, at Autry State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 74.

Also dated inside this tenure, at a point when Banks is listed as Deputy Warden, are four facility incident entries concerning Legionella bacteria contamination at Autry State Prison. Those entries state that an inmate tested positive for Legionnaires' disease in 2021 and that the facility closed in June 2023 — first for infrastructure repairs, and in one entry for plumbing and HVAC upgrades. The 2021 diagnosis and the June 2023 closure predate Banks's listed arrival at Autry as a unit manager and her Deputy Warden posting; the entries themselves carry a 2025-01-01 event date, within her Deputy Warden tenure.

No intel reports and no events naming Banks personally appear in the records for this facility.

Sources

• GPS Death Registry — six deaths recorded at Autry State Prison during Banks's Deputy Warden tenure, causes listed as Unknown/Pending
• Georgia Department of Corrections position and salary records — Banks's roles from corrections officer (2015) through Correctional Unit Manager, Deputy Warden, and Deputy Warden of Security at Autry State Prison
• GPS facility incident records (Autry State Prison) — Legionella bacteria contamination entries, including the 2021 inmate Legionnaires' disease diagnosis and the June 2023 facility closure for infrastructure repairs

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 11, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.