Burks, Letetia Shanta

Tenure Summary

Letetia Shanta Burks spent the bulk of her documented GDC career at Rutledge State Prison, where she held the Deputy Warden post from 2018 through 2023 and saw her salary rise from $55,023.84 in 2018 to $64,338.25 in 2023. A 2024 Deputy Warden entry in the state position records does not name a facility. In 2025 she moved into facility leadership as Warden 1 at Lee State Prison, at a listed salary of $81,131.75.

GPS records attribute 12 deaths to her leadership tenures: 10 at Rutledge State Prison while she was Deputy Warden, and 2 at Lee State Prison while she was Warden. No lawsuit naming Burks as a defendant appears in the records provided. One state liability settlement — $395,000, tied to Rutledge and to an April 2020 death — is documented in the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger.

What happened on their watch

Rutledge State Prison — Deputy Warden, 2018 through 2023 (records run to a Nov. 22, 2023 entry)
Ten deaths are attributed to this posting. They are: Andrew Phillip Campbell, 28 (April 2, 2020); James Eric Mitchell, 58 (May 4, 2020); Terry Wayne Williams, 61 (June 22, 2020); Richard Hatcher, 66 (July 9, 2020); Harold Edward Brown, 53 (March 5, 2021); Curtis Mincey, 74 (July 22, 2021); Boyzie Barnes, 65 (April 30, 2022); Daniel Tyler Nichols, 26 (April 23, 2023); John Irvin Tidd Sr., 59 (July 18, 2023); and Leonard Leroy Dillard, 57 (Oct. 11, 2023). Four of the ten fell inside a roughly three-month span in 2020, and three more fell within six months of 2023.

Two carry documented causes in the incident record. Nichols, 26, died from asphyxia due to neck compression on April 23, 2023 — the event is logged as a killing at the facility. Mincey, 74, died from blunt force trauma to the head, neck, torso and extremities on July 22, 2021; per the incident record, his sister filed a lawsuit alleging he suffered from mental illness and did not receive appropriate medical or psychological assistance. The remaining eight deaths carry a coded cause category but no public narrative in the published records; the codes are not decoded in the material available.

Also during this posting: state open-records settlement data shows a $395,000 GDC liability payout tied to Rutledge and to Campbell's 2020 death. Separately, a 2021 incident entry records that officer Promise Tucker resigned in lieu of termination after admitting to smuggling tobacco and other contraband into the prison, in a scheme that a seized inmate cellphone showed had been running since her time as a cadet 14 months earlier.

Lee State Prison — Warden 1, 2025 into 2026
Two deaths are attributed to this posting: Quinton Pearson, 45, on Sept. 8, 2025, and Yancey Sullivan, 56, on July 10, 2026. Both are recorded under the same coded cause category, with no public narrative attached. No intel reports or logged facility events at Lee are tied to her tenure in the records provided, and no lawsuits naming her from this period appear.

Sources

• Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger (open records) — $395,000 payout tied to Rutledge State Prison, 2020 incident
• GPS incident log, Rutledge State Prison — Nichols (2023) asphyxia death; Mincey (2021) blunt-force-trauma death and the family's medical-neglect allegations; Tucker (2021) contraband investigation and resignation
• Georgia Prisoners' Speak personnel and position records — Burks's GDC titles, facility assignments, and salary years 2018–2025
• Georgia Department of Corrections death records for Rutledge and Lee State Prisons, as compiled by GPS (12 deaths across her leadership postings)

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 23, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.