Carter, Curtis

Tenure Summary

Curtis Carter's documented GDC career runs from a 2008 Special Management Unit CERT team posting to a Warden-3 assignment at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (GDCP) that GPS records date to Aug. 27, 2026. In between he held Lieutenant (GDCP, 2010), Correction Operations staff (2015), Correctional Captain (GDCP, 2016–2018; Burruss C.T.C., 2019), Deputy Warden (Burruss, 2020–2023), and Warden posts at Autry State Prison (2024) and Valdosta State Prison (2025 through a recorded end date of May 31, 2026).

GPS records attribute 17 deaths to facilities during his leadership tenures — 14 at Valdosta, 2 at Autry, and 1 at Burruss — ranging in age from 21 to 69. GPS records list no lawsuits naming Carter as a defendant.

What happened on their watch

Burruss C.T.C. — Captain (2019), Deputy Warden (2020–2023). One death is attributed to this tenure: Robert Carey Seymour, 58, died March 9, 2022, while Carter held the Deputy Warden role. GPS records the cause as cause category 6.

Autry State Prison — Warden (2024 to mid-2025). Two deaths are attributed: Alerick Campbell, 56, on Dec. 22, 2024, and Harvey Jack Woodard, 69, on May 8, 2025. Both are recorded under cause category 6. No intel allegations or litigation in the input are tied specifically to this posting.

Valdosta State Prison — Warden (2025 through May 31, 2026). Fourteen of the 17 attributed deaths fall here, from Garrett Paul Schmidt, 40 (Sept. 21, 2025), through Kevin James Flamer, 26 (May 28, 2026). Recorded decedents also include Paul Hampton, 66; Arthur Nekita Burks, 61; Jessie James Kilgore, 56; Dequontist Marquez Lucas, 41; Ronnie Jackson, 62; Jevion Andrez Benham, 21; Sergio Hernandez, 39; Robert Louis Johnson, 60; Robert Jordan Watkins, 38; Dontarious Lamonta Burke, 23; Jeremiah Alan Brown, 40; and William Stacey Springer, 36.

Case-specific records and allegations:

• Jevion Andrez Benham, 21 — found dead Dec. 24, 2025; per GPS records citing WALB and the Lowndes County Coroner's Office, the death was estimated two days earlier, the cause was strangulation, and the manner was ruled homicide. Coroner Austin Fiveash told WTOC the two-day discovery gap was "a major security concern." A GDC open-records response produced a single incident report (430297) with its incident-detail block redacted; four of five requested categories — including welfare/round-check logs and video-coverage records — were not produced and no exemption cited. GPS records describe a welfare-check falsification allegation attributed to Benham's mother, which it frames as an untested allegation.
• Robert Jordan Watkins, 38 — a Telegram-relay report said his body was found on the J1 tier, possibly about two days after death; a later single-source inmate witness alleged suicide, and GPS records show the cause category was not changed without corroboration.
• William Stacey Springer, 36 — stabbed in the face and head; WALB reported family members said jailers did not respond for hours, and the family alleged GDC did not contact them.
• Ronnie Jackson, 62 — GPS records state he had a seizure, fell off his bunk, and hit his head.

Facility-wide allegations in the input covering this period include AJC reporting that 80% of Valdosta correctional-officer positions were vacant (April), the arrest of seven officers in "Operation Skyhawk" over an alleged contraband scheme run by a Valdosta prisoner, and a May 2026 federal indictment of Luis Ramirez and six others over a drug operation directed from Valdosta via contraband cellphones (Yahoo). A former Valdosta supervisor, commenting publicly in July 2026 on a GPS staffing story, alleged pressure to falsify staffing numbers and deputy-warden retaliation; the input does not date the underlying conduct to a specific tenure.

GDCP — Warden 3 (from Aug. 27, 2026). GPS records attribute no deaths to this posting. GDCP intel events in the period include the Sept. 11, 2026 sentencings of Deivon Waller (240 months) and other inmates in a drone-contraband case, and a Sept. 16, 2026 execution date scheduled for Stacey Humphreys. Recorded GDCP deaths in mid-2026 (Mark Rutledge, June 29; an unidentified young man, July 13) predate his start date and are not attributed to him.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Valdosta homicides, Operation Skyhawk contraband arrests, 80% officer-vacancy reporting, staffing and system-failure investigations
• WALB — Springer stabbing and family statements; Benham coverage
• WTOC — Coroner Austin Fiveash statement on the Benham discovery delay
• WRDW, WGXA, Yahoo — contraband/drone prosecutions and facility incidents
• GPS records and the ORR archive — GDC Open Records production R030514-072526 (incident report 430297); Telegram-relay and HCRC-GA Facebook reports
• Lowndes County Coroner's Office — Benham homicide ruling

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 13, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.