Davis-Bragg, Chabara L

Tenure Summary

Chabara L. Davis-Bragg worked in the Georgia Department of Corrections as a behavioral health counselor from 2015 through 2020, then as a correctional unit manager in 2021, before becoming deputy warden at Johnson State Prison in 2022. GPS records attribute 61 deaths to her leadership tenure at Johnson State Prison; all 61 are in the facility-level count for that single prison. The sampled individual death records list her role as deputy warden. No lawsuit naming Davis-Bragg as a defendant appears in the GPS dataset.

What happened on their watch

Johnson State Prison — deputy warden, 2022 through the records

Davis-Bragg’s listed deputy warden posting at Johnson State Prison begins January 1, 2022 in annual salary records and continues through 2025, with a later dated deputy warden entry in 2026. The most-recent sample of individual death records runs from January 2022 through June 2026. GPS records include deaths of people such as William John Maloney, 54, on January 12, 2022; Fred Thomas Reynolds, 54, on January 23, 2022; Russel Lee Townsend, 23, on July 13, 2022; Michael Page, 53, on June 29, 2023; Donald Prescott Lee, 41, on November 16, 2023; Kenneth Adam Robinson, 50, on August 10, 2024; Kevin Kosturi, 29, on December 13, 2024; Justin Brandon Hulett, 38, on February 12, 2025; Michael Elias Peschel, 36, on March 14, 2026; and Ernest Perez, 61, on June 23, 2026.

Specific causes are documented for only some of the 61 deaths. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation, Michael Page’s death was a homicide; Donald Prescott Lee died from blunt force trauma to the head, neck, and torso; and Kenneth Adam Robinson’s incident report data showed a homicide. A GPS death record states that Michael Elias Peschel suffered 20 stab wounds administered by his cellmate. For Phillip Lamar Byrd, who died January 18, 2026, GPS records include a prisoner report alleging he was killed by gang members, beaten, locked outside in the cold, and injected with drugs until overdose. For Martrese Jamon McKay, who died April 18, 2026, GPS records note that initial reports suggested suicide but subsequent information described a sudden collapse, with cause unclear and under investigation. Many other deaths in the 61 do not have a stated cause in this extract; GPS records emphasize that GDC monthly mortality reports confirm the fact of death only, not cause.

Outside the death records, GPS’s facility-event log records a Johnson State Prison escape on April 5, 2023, for which GDC issued no news release, and a December 2023 food safety inspection failure with a score of 64/100, documenting rats, roaches, and broken kitchen equipment. A GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger shows a $100,000 state liability payout tied to a 2023 Johnson State Prison incident involving Andrick Jackson. In April 2026, GPS source reports described contaminated food trays at Johnson State Prison allegedly causing illness. Tyler C. Ryals, a former GDC CERT commander/sergeant major, described on his YouTube channel a spring 2024 Johnson State Prison shift with only four staff covering roughly 1,400 incarcerated people, a taser use of force that went without an incident report, and a prior incident in which a female officer running lockdown showers alone was stabbed in the neck.

A $4 million settlement over the October 16, 2021 killing of David Lamar Henegar at Johnson State Prison also appears in the facility record, but that death predates Davis-Bragg’s deputy warden tenure and is not part of the 61 deaths attributed to her leadership posting.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation and Henegar settlement coverage
• Tyler C. Ryals YouTube channel — Johnson State Prison staffing and use-of-force account
• GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger — Open Records settlements tied to Johnson State Prison
• Georgia Department of Corrections monthly mortality reports — death confirmations without cause-of-death data
• GPS facility event log — food safety inspection, escape, and contaminated-tray reports
• Smalls Funeral Home / 13WMAZ — obituary and death investigation coverage for Justin Hulett
• Low Country Cremation — obituary record for Kevin Kosturi

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Aug 30, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.