Cooper, Dana Marie

Tenure Summary

Dana Marie Cooper's GDC leadership record centers on one facility posting. Position records show her as Superintendent of Helms Facility from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2022, with an earlier Correctional Assistant Superintendent entry covering calendar year 2020 (no facility assigned) and her superintendency carried on the books under the title "Correctional Superintendent" for the 2021 and 2022 salary years. GDC salary records list $56,095.08 for the 2020 assistant superintendent post, $60,451.12 in 2021 and $50,618.80 in 2022.

Twelve deaths are attributed to her leadership tenure, all of them at Helms Facility, per GPS's count of GDC death records. The decedents ranged in age from 48 to 66. Ten of the twelve deaths carry a single recorded cause classification (coded 1) and two carry a different one (coded 6). The records reviewed contain no lawsuits naming Cooper as a defendant, no intelligence reports or events dated inside her tenure, and no news coverage naming her.

What happened on their watch

Correctional Assistant Superintendent — calendar year 2020 (no facility listed). The position records place Cooper in this role for 2020; no deaths are attributed to this period in GPS's count.

Helms Facility — Superintendent, July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2022. All twelve deaths attributed to Cooper's leadership tenure occurred here. The first was Eddie Jerry Fortner, 61, on October 19, 2020. Four deaths followed in the first half of 2021: Thomas Larry Pyburn, 66 (April 18), Richard Timothy Casper, 53 (May 28), Jerry Wayne Kunstbeck, 59 (June 6). A marked cluster then appears in the fall of 2021 — five deaths in under four weeks: Shirley Lyons, 63 (October 14), Bryan Keith Mims, 48 (October 24), Terry Michael Sykes, 60 (November 1), Calvin Love, 57 (November 4), and Franklin Odell Cantrell, 64 (November 10). All nine of those 2020–2021 deaths are recorded under cause category 1. Three more deaths fall in the final six months of her tenure: Mitchell Lebron Dunn, 60, on January 26, 2022 (category 1); Kenneth Clyde, 65, on February 25, 2022; and Walton Jerome Thomas, 56, on June 26, 2022 — four days before her superintendency ended. Clyde and Thomas are the two deaths recorded under cause category 6.

The records do not state the underlying cause behind either category code, and GPS's dataset does not include a public narrative for any of the twelve deaths. Beyond the dates, ages and recorded cause classifications, GPS's intelligence feed contains no reports or events dated within her Helms tenure tied to the facility or her role, and no media coverage in the record names her in connection with any of the deaths.

Sources

• Georgia Prisoners' Speak personnel and accountability dataset — position dates, titles and tier for Cooper's GDC roles (2020–2022)
• GDC salary records — annual salary figures for 2020, 2021 and 2022
• GDC death records as compiled by GPS — the twelve Helms Facility deaths, dates, ages and cause classifications attributed to her superintendency
• No court records, DOJ findings, audits or news reports naming Cooper appear in the records reviewed for this profile

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.