Davis-Bragg, Chabara L

Tenure Summary

Chabara L. Davis-Bragg began her Georgia Department of Corrections career as a behavioral health counselor in 2015, advancing to supervisory roles and, in 2021, to Correctional Unit Manager. In 2022, she was appointed Deputy Warden at Johnson State Prison, a facility-deputy accountability post she has held through at least early 2026. GPS records attribute a total of 60 deaths to leadership tenures held by Davis-Bragg — every one occurring at Johnson State Prison during her time as Deputy Warden. While no lawsuits name her personally as a defendant, her tenure has overlapped with a $4 million state settlement arising from a 2021 in-custody killing, multiple homicides, documented infrastructure and sanitation failures, and recurring prisoner reports of unsafe conditions.

What happened on their watch

Deputy Warden, Johnson State Prison (2022–present)
Sixty people died at the facility during Davis-Bragg’s term as Deputy Warden. The causes recorded by GPS range from natural/illness categories to at least seven deaths classified as homicides. Among those killed were Kenneth Adam Robinson, 50 (August 2024 — the Atlanta Journal-Constitution lists the incident report as a homicide); Donald Prescott Lee, 41 (November 2023, blunt force trauma to the head, neck, and torso, per the AJC); Michael Todd Page, 53 (June 2023, homicide per the AJC); and Kevin Kosturi, 29 (December 2024). In early 2026, inmate Phillip Lamar Byrd, 46, died in what Telegram relay reports describe as a gang beating followed by a forced overdose, while Michael Elias Peschel, 36, was stabbed 20 times by a cellmate who had earlier confronted officers and, according to the notes, “should have been housed alone.” Another death that drew litigation — though it predates Davis-Bragg’s tenure — is the October 2021 killing of David Henegar by his cellmate. During Davis-Bragg’s watch, Henegar’s family filed a federal lawsuit in January 2025 alleging officers ignored hours of screaming and pleas from fellow prisoners. The state settled for $4 million in April 2026, on the eve of trial; the settlement was paid by the Department of Administrative Services.

Beyond the deaths, Johnson State Prison experienced repeated systemic failures. A December 2023 food safety inspection scored 64 out of 100, documenting rats, roaches, and broken kitchen equipment. In April 2026, multiple internal reports and inmate alerts described contaminated food trays with residue causing illness, linked to degraded dishwashing infrastructure that forced a manual chemical-dunk process. An unreported escape also occurred in April 2023, with no GDC news release.

Litigation

• Henegar v. Georgia Department of Corrections et al. — Filed in January 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, the suit alleged that three corrections officers and a prison manager failed to protect David Henegar from a cellmate, ignoring hours of audible struggle. The state agreed to a $4 million settlement in April 2026; no final court judgment was entered.

Sources

• GPS personnel and death records — Deputy Warden tenure and all 60 attributed deaths at Johnson State Prison.
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — homicide documentation for Lee, Page, and Robinson; details of the Henegar settlement.
• Telegram relay group reports — accounts of the deaths of Byrd and Peschel.
• GPS intel submissions — food safety inspection failure (score 64/100) and contaminated tray reports from 2023 and 2026.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on May 31, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.