Colon, Barbra

Tenure Summary

Barbra Colon joined the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2015 as a behavioral health counselor, rising through supervisory ranks before transitioning into facility leadership. In 2022, Colon was appointed Deputy Warden at Augusta State Medical Prison (ASMP), Georgia's primary medical facility for incarcerated people, a post she has held continuously through at least 2025. GPS records show 168 deaths attributed to ASMP during Colon's tenure as Deputy Warden — spanning January 2022 through April 2026. The overwhelming majority are classified under cause category 6 (unspecified or pending classification), with documented homicides, at least one suicide, and at least one confirmed natural-cause death also in the record. No lawsuits name Colon personally as a defendant. ASMP has been the subject of ongoing AJC investigative reporting and overlaps with a 2024 DOJ investigation into systemic GDC violence.

What Happened on Their Watch

Augusta State Medical Prison — Deputy Warden, 2022–present (GPS records)

Colon held the Deputy Warden role at ASMP beginning in 2022. GPS records show 168 deaths at the facility during her tenure, running from November 2022 through April 2026. The vast majority carry cause category 6; the population skews heavily toward older and medically vulnerable individuals, with numerous decedents in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s — consistent with ASMP's function as a medical prison — though deaths among people in their 20s and 30s also appear throughout the record.

Among the documented homicides during Colon's tenure: Amos Bennett Huff Jr., 60, was strangled on March 30, 2023; according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, his 26-year-old cellmate was charged with murder. Jerry Wayne Merritt, 59, was stabbed on January 20, 2026; per GPS records, another incarcerated person is accused of stabbing Merritt with a sharpened object in the chest and shoulder. Kendius Hill died January 9, 2025, with the cause listed as homicide, anoxic brain injury, and septic shock. Rodarick Lee Hayes, 29, died May 25, 2024 from a sharp force injury; per GPS records, two prisoners and a correctional officer were charged with murder — the officer accused of aiding in the attack. The AJC further alleges that Hayes had been attacked on multiple prior occasions before his death, and that a DOJ investigation found a failure to protect him. Thomas Preston Johnson, 56, died April 12, 2024 in what GPS records classify as a homicide.

The AJC alleges that guards at ASMP moved a prisoner with a documented history of strangulation into Eddie Gosier's cell in May 2020 — before Colon's deputy warden tenure — and that Gosier was killed hours later; the state agreed to pay Gosier's family $5 million to settle a lawsuit. The AJC also alleges that Thomas Henry Giles, 31, was left in his smoke-filled cell for hours while nearby inmates were evacuated, resulting in his death from smoke inhalation in October 2020; the GBI ruled that death a homicide. Both incidents predate Colon's appointment as Deputy Warden but are part of the documented institutional history at ASMP.

A suicide by hanging — Stephen Prochaska — is recorded at ASMP on January 21, 2025. The AJC alleges that Jimmy Lucero was placed in solitary confinement at ASMP without required medical checks and fell into a catatonic state and starved, though the date of that incident is not specified in the structured records.

GPS relay reports during Colon's tenure include unattributed allegations of an inmate stabbed in the eye in D building (April 2026), an incarcerated person severely beaten (April 2026), and four individuals arriving at ASMP with wired-shut jaws indicating prior assaults (April 2026). A user report alleges that the family of DeQuan Osborne — who died February 17, 2026 — was not notified until after he had been removed from life support.

Colon's tenure at ASMP overlaps with a 2024 DOJ report that, according to the AJC, described "horrific violence, sexual assaults, and gang-run prisons within the GDC enabled by a culture of indifference." A federal judge separately found the GDC in contempt in 2024 for disregarding court-ordered improvements to a high-security prison wing. In February 2026, Judge Self summoned GDC Commissioner Tyrone Oliver to testify and found it "shocking" that the department had defied an 11th Circuit order on inmate email access, with the AJC reporting allegations of rampant corruption, massive understaffing, and suppression of information about prison deaths across the system.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — investigative reporting on Georgia prison homicides, ASMP-specific deaths (Gosier, Giles, Hayes, Huff), and GDC systemic findings; "Ga. prison homicides: A list of those killed in Georgia's prison system"; "Prison system failures cost Georgia taxpayers millions"; "Federal judge chides Georgia prison boss and GDC for acting above the law" (February 2026)
• GPS records — 168 death records attributed to Augusta State Medical Prison during Colon's Deputy Warden tenure, 2022–2026
• GPS user/relay reports — incident allegations at ASMP, 2026 (GPS case submissions #75, #86, #142, #146, #153, #170)
• U.S. Department of Justice — 2024 report on GDC violence, sexual assault, and gang-run prisons
• Benning v. Oliver — federal First Amendment litigation over GDC email restrictions; district court summary judgment November 18, 2024; 11th Circuit ruling 2024; contempt proceedings February 2026
• GPS intel events — documented deaths of Rodarick Lee Hayes (May 2024), Lamar Wesson Phillips (June 2024), Thomas Preston Johnson (April 2024), Amos Bennett Huff Jr. (March 2023), Randall Joey Futch (June 2023), Raphael Zachery Milligan (July 2022)

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on May 10, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.