Ford, Benjamin

Tenure Summary

Benjamin Ford is an active Georgia Department of Corrections leader. GPS position records show Ford held posts at Calhoun State Prison as Superintendent/Correction Special Assistant to the Warden in 2014, served in correction administration at Autry State Prison in 2015, returned to Calhoun as Warden 1 for 2016–2017, then moved to Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison as Warden 1 in 2018 and Warden 3 from 2019 through 2021. After 2021, he held department-level roles: Region Director in 2022–2023, Deputy Director of Field Operations in 2023, and Director/Director of Field Operations in 2024–2025.

GPS records attribute 35 deaths to Ford’s leadership tenure, all at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison. No deaths are attributed to Calhoun or Autry in the dataset. CourtListener dockets also list eight federal lawsuits naming Ford as a defendant.

What happened on their watch

Calhoun State Prison

Ford held Calhoun posts in 2014 and as Warden 1 from 2016 through 2017. GPS records show no deaths attributed to that facility during those periods. GPS intelligence records contain later Calhoun death allegations and DOJ findings — including a 2022 homicide tied in reporting to housing-assignment failures, a February 2023 restrictive-housing death from dehydration with renal failure, and a 2024 death — but those dates fall after Ford’s facility-level tenure at Calhoun and are not attributed to him as facility leader.

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison

Ford held the warden post at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison from January 2018 through December 2021. GPS records attribute 35 deaths to the facility during his tenure. The individual mortality records provided run from Jan. 7, 2020, through Oct. 2, 2021. Several deaths carry GBI Division of Forensic Sciences declinations rather than examiner findings: David Van Herrington, COVID-positive at intake and later in multi-organ failure; Michael William Ledford, a death-row inmate found handcuffed and leg-ironed to a hospital bed; Richard Dale Robinson, who had a witnessed cardiac arrest at the GDCP infirmary after being returned from Spalding the same day; and Johnny Lindsey Babb, described as severely malnourished with metastatic colon cancer. In at least one case, Kenneth Lee Jackson, a GBI autopsy certified hanging and suicide. GDC’s own coding, obtained by UCLA through open records, classified Michael Joseph LeBlanc, Tony Wesley Teal, and Michael William Brooks as suicides as well. Donnie Cleveland Lance, 66, appears in GDC coding as an execution. Other records reflect natural or medical deaths: GBI records for Raymond Russell Webb certified organic heart disease and did not list COVID-19 as a cause despite a positive test six days before death; Keith Leroy Tharpe’s GBI record lists complications of end-stage liver failure; John Francis Reilly died of cancer while being treated at Emory. Five decedents — Jeffery Ray Phillips, Richard Allan South, Larry Gene Phelps, Geriga Scott, and Craig Walker — are coded cause_category 6 with no narrative in the GPS data.

GPS intelligence records also include Atlanta Journal-Constitution allegations concerning GDCP: inmate Brandon Trace Burrell was reportedly assaulted and stabbed by another inmate while under methamphetamine; newly convicted Shane Tassi allegedly possessed a shank and contraband phone within days of arrival; officer Vera Jackson admitted to receiving money to provide death-row inmate Eric Perkinson information; David “Toro” Zavala had 35 cellphones seized; Charles Lee Broady Jr. was attacked after requesting protection; and consultants described widespread vandalism at GDCP. The underlying dates are not always stated, so GPS cannot confirm each allegation falls within Ford’s wardenship.

Litigation

• Hamilton v. Beasley, 6:25-cv-00057 (GASD), filed July 22, 2025; pending.
• Tucker v. Holt, 5:24-cv-00360 (GAMD), filed Oct. 16, 2024; terminated June 11, 2025.
• Anderson v. Georgia Department of Corrections, 1:21-cv-02585 (GAND), filed June 25, 2021; terminated March 28, 2025.
• Diamond v. Ward, 5:20-cv-00453 (GAMD), filed Dec. 1, 2020; terminated Jan. 23, 2023.
• Nance v. Oliver, 1:20-cv-00107 (GAND), filed Jan. 8, 2020; terminated Feb. 13, 2025.
• Zavala v. Ward, 5:19-cv-00383 (GAMD), filed Sept. 23, 2019; terminated March 2, 2021.
• Dunn v. Ward, 1:19-cv-00093 (GAMD), filed June 3, 2019; terminated Sept. 28, 2022.
• Henry v. Dozier, 1:18-cv-00090 (GAMD), filed April 27, 2018; terminated Jan. 17, 2020.

Sources

• GPS records — positions tables, death attribution data, and intelligence events.
• UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project custodial mortality dataset, comprising GDC death coding obtained via open records.
• GBI Division of Forensic Sciences autopsy and examination records, plus declination letters, obtained by GPS via open records.
• Butts County Coroner records cited within GPS death records.
• CourtListener docket entries for federal lawsuits naming Ford as a defendant.
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — investigative reporting on GDCP security, contraband, violence, and infrastructure.
• WALB — coverage of U.S. Department of Justice findings on Calhoun State Prison and GDC death reporting.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Aug 23, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.