Epperson, Alicia

Tenure Summary

Alicia Epperson's GDC career runs from 2007 to the present. She began as a Correctional Officer at Georgia State Prison in 2007, served as a Correctional Officer II there in 2008, held clerical posts (Secretary, 2012 and 2015), and was promoted to CSM Correctional Lieutenant (2016–2018) and CSM Correctional Unit Manager (2019) at the same facility. In 2020 she moved to Smith State Prison as a CSM Correctional Unit Manager, then held Deputy Warden postings at Montgomery State Prison (2021), Smith State Prison (2022), the Women's Probation Detention Center (2023), and a single-day Deputy Warden record at Montgomery (Nov. 22, 2023). From 2024 she has held facility-lead rank: a Correctional Superintendent posting (Jan. 1–June 15, 2024, no facility recorded) and Superintendent at the Women's PDC from June 16, 2024, with a Correctional Superintendent year recorded for 2025 at the same facility.

Five deaths are attributed to her leadership tenures, all of them at Smith State Prison. No deaths are attributed to her Montgomery or Women's PDC postings under those counts. One federal case lists her as a defendant. No news reports in these records name her directly.

What happened on their watch

Georgia State Prison — Correctional Officer (2007), Correctional Officer II (2008), Secretary (2012, 2015), CSM Correctional Lieutenant (2016–2018), CSM Correctional Unit Manager (2019). Staff and unit-supervision roles.

Smith State Prison — CSM Correctional Unit Manager (2020). Unit-supervision role.

Montgomery State Prison — Deputy Warden (2021).

Smith State Prison — Deputy Warden (2022). All five deaths attributed to Epperson's leadership tenures fall within this posting: Michael Lewis Turner, 38 (May 14, 2022); Jerome Tisdol, 67 (May 28, 2022); Manuel Villagomez, 24 (Sept. 16, 2022); Nathan Michael Mahan, 37 (Oct. 23, 2022); and Juan Miguel Orduña, 39 (Oct. 25, 2022). A separate incident record states Mahan died from stab wounds. The state records assign the five deaths to several different cause categories.

Other items recorded at Smith during this tenure: a GDC liability settlement of $3,472 tied to Smith State Prison and an incident involving Micki Antonio Brown, dated April 19, 2022, per the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through Open Records. GBI agents alleged that Brian Adams gave false statements in an April 13, 2022 interview when he said he had not been solicited or bribed by a GDC inmate in the prior decade — an allegation, not an adjudicated finding. GPS also logs at Smith in 2022: officer Andrew Phillips working 11 consecutive days as the only officer covering an area of 600 men, contending with a mass mattress fire and empty fire extinguishers. Statewide context dated to the same period includes overtime spending on prison workers exceeding $4 million between 2019 and 2022 as staffing fell by roughly one-third, at least 49 overdose deaths from 2019 to 2022, at least 43 suicides in 2022, and at least 90 people slain in Georgia prisons between 2020 and the end of 2022. Those statewide figures are period context, not attributions to Epperson.

Women's Probation Detention Center — Deputy Warden (2023).

Women's Probation Detention Center — Superintendent from June 16, 2024; Correctional Superintendent, 2025. Facility-lead role; a 2026 record at the same facility also appears in the position history.

Litigation

• Daker v. Oliver, "Filing Restriction Per 59 Order," No. 1:25-cv-03191, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia — filed June 6, 2025; terminated March 30, 2026. Epperson is listed as a defendant in this record; no monetary outcome is recorded.

Sources

• Georgia Prisoners' Speak death and incident records for Smith State Prison, 2022 tenure
• GBI agents' allegations as recorded in GPS incident records (April 2022 interview)
• GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (Open Records) — $3,472 Smith State Prison settlement
• CourtListener docket 70697118 — Daker v. Oliver, 1:25-cv-03191 (N.D. Ga.)
• Georgia Department of Corrections position and salary records, 2007–2026

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.