Clark, Reginald Tyrone

Tenure Summary

Reginald Tyrone Clark entered the Georgia Department of Corrections as a corrections officer in 2015, then moved through lieutenant (2016–2017), captain (2018–2019) and correctional unit manager (2020–2022) before taking his first deputy warden post at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (GDCP) in 2023. Salary records show him as a GDCP deputy warden in 2023, 2024 and 2025; a separate single-date deputy warden record places him at Baldwin State Prison on November 22, 2023. On July 16, 2026 he became Deputy Warden of Security at GDCP, the position he holds as of the most recent record.

GPS's death registry attributes 63 deaths to Clark's leadership tenures, every one of them at GDCP. He is named as a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed in September 2023 that remains pending. No source in the records assigns him a status other than active.

What happened on their watch

Baldwin State Prison — Deputy Warden (November 22, 2023). The records contain a single-date deputy warden entry at Baldwin State Prison on November 22, 2023, and no other information for that posting.

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison — Deputy Warden (2023–2025) and Deputy Warden of Security (from July 16, 2026). The 63 deaths GPS's registry attributes to Clark's leadership tenure all occurred at GDCP. The registry lists a mixed picture across the recent entries: natural/medical deaths, suicides, overdoses, a homicide and an accident, with a large share still recorded as Unknown/Pending — meaning GPS does not yet know the cause.

Several deaths carry documented circumstances. Brandon Trace Burrell, 31, died January 28, 2024; the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported he was assaulted by another inmate while under the effects of methamphetamine and suffered numerous stab wounds, and the registry records the cause as methamphetamine intoxication complicated by a physical altercation. Carrell Beontae Johnson, 32, died June 6, 2023 from chopping injuries to the head and sharp force injuries to the torso; Elmer W. Pless, 65, died May 15, 2023 by strangulation. Desmond Layne Hattaway, 27, died by suicide in April 2023; GPS event records describe him as a former law enforcement officer placed in segregation with inadequate mental-health monitoring in a mental-health dorm.

Other items recorded during the tenure: a March 25, 2023 report from a family member who disputed a prison ruling of suicide, stating the deceased had received a death threat three days prior, was supposed to be in isolation, and asked for medical help minutes before being found but was told to wait until after count. GPS event records describe an October 24, 2025 pattern of deaths deleted from the inmate database, no autopsy ordered, and missing witness statements; a June 2025 death in which Mark Smith, a Parkinson's patient, was denied a medical unit transfer and found dead in a cell after hours without security rounds; and an April 2025 stabbing witnessed by multiple inmates with a 30-minute delay before officer response. An April 2024 event records inmate Ronald Allen suffering cold injury to his hands after being ordered to separate frozen beef patties with inadequate protective equipment.

Media and advocacy accounts naming the facility during the tenure include an AJC report of March 31, 2025 that consultants hired by the governor found almost every part of GDCP vandalized by prisoners amid widespread infrastructure failures; AJC reports of a shank and contraband phone found on newly arrived inmate Shane Tassi (2024) and 35 cellphones seized from David "Toro" Zavala (2024); and an AJC account that Charles Lee Broady Jr. was moved, despite requesting protection, to a location where six gang members attacked him with razor blades. A September 17, 2026 Facebook video by the Human and Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia, in which former officer Kerri-Ann Crumbley described hiring and retention problems and said things she could have done for an incarcerated patient on a hospital post were refused to her as against policy, was tagged to the facility. WGXA reported September 11, 2026 that Deivon Waller conspired to smuggle methamphetamine, marijuana and phones into multiple state prisons by drone. The September 2026 execution of Stacey Humphreys at GDCP, and the earlier December 2025 scheduled date, parole-board conflict rulings and clemency denials, are recorded as events under this tenure.

The 25 most recent deaths in GPS's registry during Clark's leadership tenure:

• Wendell Thomas Cochran died September 22, 2026, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; the registry lists cause as Natural/Medical, age 68.
• Dru Eggebrecht died September 5, 2026, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Unknown/Pending, age 39.
• Thomas Harold Broach died August 22, 2026, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Unknown/Pending, age 81.
• Michael Wayne Forker died August 8, 2026, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Unknown/Pending, age 74.
• Tommy L Tucker died August 6, 2026, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Unknown/Pending, age 77.
• Walter Brown died August 3, 2026, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Unknown/Pending, age 66.
• Juan Jose Rodriquez died December 10, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Overdose, age 53.
• Tabaya Marshall Gray died November 27, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Unknown/Pending, age 52.
• Charles Ramen Coppeak died November 19, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Overdose, age 26.
• Christopher Wayne Crook died August 5, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Unknown/Pending, age 49.
• Daniel Claude Callahan died July 26, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Natural/Medical, age 72.
• Woodrow Wilson Hodges died July 14, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Natural/Medical, age 68.
• Jacob Scott Wilcox died June 28, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Natural/Medical, age 27.
• Mark Smith died June 7, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Natural/Medical, age 53.
• David Octavious Robbs died April 30, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Unknown/Pending, age 37.
• Michael Scott West died March 6, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Accident, age 46.
• William Rhodes died February 20, 2025, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Homicide, age 38.
• John Irvin Jr Tidd died December 15, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Suicide, age 36.
• Willie Henry Ponder died November 8, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Unknown/Pending, age 47.
• Thomas Jr Williams died November 7, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Unknown/Pending, age 62.
• Stephen Allen Hester died November 6, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Unknown/Pending, age 41.
• Joshua Mark Holliday died October 21, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Suicide, age 43.
• Albert Stinson died September 24, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Unknown/Pending, age 76.
• Rodriquez Demorris Garrett died September 6, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Suicide, age 30.
• Christopher Shawn Burnett died July 14, 2024, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison; cause Suicide, age 37.

Litigation

• Jackson v. Deputy Warden Reginald Clark, No. 5:23-cv-00333 (GAMD), filed September 5, 2023; status pending, no recorded disposition or amount. Clark is named as a defendant while holding the GDCP deputy warden role.

Sources

• GPS death registry — 63 deaths attributed to Clark's leadership tenure at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison.
• GPS facility event log — Mark Smith (June 2025), Desmond Layne Hattaway (April 2023), the April 2025 stabbing, the October 2025 reporting-failure entry, and the Ronald Allen injury (April 2024).
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Brandon Trace Burrell homicide report; Broady Jr. failure-to-protect account; Zavala cellphone case; Tassi contraband report; March 31, 2025 consultants' findings on GDCP conditions.
• WGXA — drone contraband sentencing, September 11, 2026.
• WRDW and The Georgia Virtue — Humphreys clemency and parole-board conflict rulings (September 2026).
• Facebook — Human and Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia, share of former officer Kerri-Ann Crumbley's video, September 17, 2026.
• CourtListener docket — Jackson v. Deputy Warden Reginald Clark, 5:23-cv-00333.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Nov 1, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.