Dogan, Helen R

Tenure Summary

Helen R. Dogan entered the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2015 in a Business Operations role. The following year, she assumed the position of deputy warden at Washington State Prison, a post she has held continuously through at least 2025. GPS records attribute 41 deaths to the facility during her deputy warden tenure. No lawsuits naming Dogan as a defendant appear in GPS records. Her time at Washington State Prison coincided with a series of inmate homicides, a January 2026 gang-affiliated riot that killed at least four people and injured over a dozen, and a 2024 U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found Georgia prison officials “deliberately indifferent” to violence, drug trafficking, and sexual abuse. Multiple news reports and family allegations during this period described broken locks, chronic understaffing, and a facility where incarcerated people were often left unmonitored.

What happened on their watch

Washington State Prison — Deputy Warden (2016–2025)
Forty-one deaths were recorded at Washington State Prison during Dogan’s ten years as deputy warden. The decedents, as listed in GPS records, ranged in age from 22 to 77. Causes of death spanned natural illness, suicide, homicide, and a large number of cases officially undetermined by the GBI. Homicides documented in the records include Dontavious Carter (stabbed, January 2025), Michael Larico Daniel (homicide, June 2025), Jacob Cole Henson (shot by a GDC officer during a hospital fight, April 2024, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution), Devonte Tiger Williams (sharp force injuries, August 2024, per AJC), Michael Lee Jackson (blunt force injuries, August 2022, per AJC), and Marquis Reshawn Jefferson (stab wounds, May 2022, per AJC). The most catastrophic event occurred on January 11–12, 2026, when a gang-affiliated brawl described by GDC as a “disturbance” left three men—Teddy Jackson, Ahmod Hatcher, and Jimmy Trammell—dead at the scene. A fourth, Silas Westbrook, died days later from stab wounds sustained in the riot; a fifth inmate death was later connected to the incident, according to intel reports. Twelve inmates were charged with felony murder and related offenses. A subsequent family report alleged the facility remained on continuous lockdown for roughly 50 days.

During this period, a U.S. DOJ investigation (referenced by the AJC and WGXA) concluded that Georgia prison staff showed deliberate indifference to rampant violence, drug trafficking, extortion, and sexual abuse. A state-commissioned consultant study, cited by the AJC, found that maintenance deficiencies allowed prisoners to fashion weapons, broken cell-door locks permitted free movement, and severe understaffing left officers unable to monitor areas or enforce rules. Family members and former inmates, in interviews with 13WMAZ, alleged that dorms holding over 50 men lacked educational programs, job training, or recreation; that gangs committed daily robberies and stabbings; and that staff often failed to intervene even in life-or-death situations. WGXA reported in May 2026 that an inmate, Luis Alfonso Ramirez, had directed a fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking ring from inside the prison using contraband cellphones. Additionally, a family complaint in May 2026 asserted that legal mail was withheld beyond the department’s own administrative deadlines. The GDC’s Office of Professional Standards investigated multiple deaths, including the June 2026 fatalities of Isreal Moses Jones and Courtney Davis—both of which occurred on Dogan’s watch and were initially described by the department as having no signs of foul play, though confidential-source accounts later characterized Jones’s death as a homicide.

Litigation

No lawsuits naming Dogan as a defendant are present in the GPS database.

Sources

• GPS records — personnel file, death counts, and facility mortality logs
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — investigation of Georgia prison homicides, reporting on DOJ findings, and coverage of the Washington State Prison riot
• WGXA — drug trafficking indictment of Luis Alfonso Ramirez and reports on gang affiliations
• 13WMAZ — former inmate accounts of conditions and riot aftermath
• 41NBC — DOJ report findings and updates on deaths at Washington State Prison
• 11Alive — GDC statement alleging gang involvement in the riot
• WFXL — charging of 12 inmates after the January 2026 disturbance

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Jun 21, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.