Copeland, Tanja

Tenure Summary

Tanja Copeland's documented GDC career sits entirely at Autry State Prison, at the deputy-warden tier. She is listed as Deputy Warden of Administration from June 16, 2024; as Deputy Warden for calendar year 2025 (January 1–December 31); as Deputy Warden of Administration again from July 16, 2026, with no end date listed; and on a one-day Deputy Warden entry dated August 27, 2026. Her status is listed as active.

GPS's death registry attributes 7 deaths to Copeland's leadership tenures, all of them at Autry State Prison, and records none at any other facility. Every one of the seven carries the cause Unknown/Pending in the registry — GPS does not yet know the causes. No lawsuit naming Copeland as a defendant appears in the records reviewed, and no news report naming her directly appears there either.

What happened on their watch

Autry State Prison — Deputy Warden of Administration (from June 16, 2024)

• Alerick Campbell died December 22, 2024, at Autry State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 56.
• Richard Cleveland Castleberry died April 23, 2026, at Autry State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 72.

Autry State Prison — Deputy Warden (January 1–December 31, 2025)

• Harvey Jack Woodard died May 8, 2025, at Autry State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 69.
• Alton Anson Kelly died August 23, 2025, at Autry State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 61.
• James Melvin Tudor died August 23, 2025, at Autry State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 86.
• Richard Merritt died October 20, 2025, at Autry State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 75.
• Chaudhry Abudl Rashid died November 11, 2025, at Autry State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 74.

Two of those deaths — Kelly and Tudor — are recorded on the same date, August 23, 2025. The ages recorded across the five range from 61 to 86. No causes are established in the registry for any of them.

Separately, GPS's facility intel log holds four incident entries dated January 1, 2025, each logged with Deputy Warden as Copeland's role at the time. Each entry records Legionella bacteria contamination at Autry State Prison: an inmate tested positive for Legionnaires' disease in 2021, and the facility closed in June 2023 for infrastructure repairs, described variously as plumbing and HVAC upgrades. Those entries document conditions at the facility; nothing in the records connects them to the deaths listed above, and no such connection is asserted here.

Autry State Prison — Deputy Warden of Administration (from July 16, 2026); Deputy Warden (August 27, 2026)

Sources

• GPS death registry — seven deaths at Autry State Prison with Copeland's deputy-warden roles listed as the position held at the time, 2024–2026; causes recorded as Unknown/Pending.
• GPS facility intel log — four Autry State Prison incident entries on Legionella contamination and the facility's June 2023 closure, dated January 1, 2025 and logged against the Deputy Warden role.
• GPS personnel records — position titles and dates for Copeland's Autry State Prison deputy-warden postings.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 11, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.