Foston, Jeremy Andrew

Tenure Summary

Jeremy Andrew Foston entered Georgia Department of Corrections service in behavioral health, per state payroll records: behavioral health counselor from 2015 through 2016, then counselor supervisor in 2017–2018, with no facility assigned in those entries. In January 2019 he moved into custody leadership as Deputy Warden at Hancock State Prison, a post payroll records show him holding every year from 2019 through 2025; death and incident records dated into 2026 continue to list him in that same role. Hancock is the only facility tied to his leadership tenure.

GPS death records attribute 27 deaths at Hancock State Prison to Foston's tenure as Deputy Warden — all of the deaths attributed to his leadership fall at that one facility. The individual records describe prisoners dying by stabbing and other sharp-force injuries, blunt-force trauma and strangulation, frequently in gang-related or cellmate altercations. The GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (open records) records three state payouts tied to Hancock incidents — $600,000 (2019), $437,500 (2021) and $424,710.20 (2022) — and a federal lawsuit listing him as a defendant remains pending.

What happened on their watch

Hancock State Prison — Deputy Warden, January 2019 onward. Early in his tenure, records describe Cesar Arnold Pastrana Morales, 33, stabbed to death on March 13, 2020, with an incident report showing five other prisoners involved, and Xaysana Thao, 40, dead on December 20, 2020. On January 4, 2021, Rashad Bolton, 29, died of a puncture wound to the chest; his parents' lawsuit claims he was stabbed to death, and the settlement ledger records a $437,500 payout. Dwayne Zackery Jr., 22, died February 12, 2021, from a stab wound inflicted by his cellmate with a homemade knife, per death data. Michael Anthony Brown, 54, and Terrill Bernard Howard, 51, died later that year.

In 2022, Charles "Tristen" McKee, 24, was stabbed 13 times on May 23; the DOJ investigation found he tried to escape gang members by jumping through stair railings and was stabbed on the floor below. A lawsuit alleges he was housed in a dorm with gang members hostile to LGBTQ prisoners and that staff failed to act on his repeated requests to be moved the day before. The settlement ledger records $424,710.20 in that case. Terry Lee Bishop, 49, died October 18, 2022, of blunt-force trauma with methamphetamine and cannabinoid toxicity; Norman Jackson Samples, 59, died December 27, 2022, of blunt-force injuries to the head and torso. Roland Lamont Phillips, 33, died June 28, 2023, of multiple sharp-force injuries — 11 puncture wounds — and a murder warrant was served against his cellmate. Francisco Melgar-Saldivar, 26, died August 12, 2023, of strangulation and blunt force; a claim against the state alleges he was not given appropriate medical care after an attack by another prisoner. Travon Walthour, 29, was killed October 13, 2024, with four other prisoners involved per GDC incident data; the AJC reported seven prisoners were disciplined for a September 2024 gang assault.

On January 30, 2025, William Holeman, 34, and Prince Porter, 38, were found dead 15–20 feet apart in the same dorm after gang-related violence — Porter with a single puncture wound, Holeman with no marks, per the AJC. Corey Jose July, 33, was stabbed in the prison yard on June 17, 2025; a Hancock County jury later convicted Vershaun Smith of malice murder, with prosecutors presenting surveillance video of Smith chasing July and cornering him at a locked gate. Deaths followed during his tenure on July 24 and September 9, 2025, and — in records that still list him as Deputy Warden — on January 25, 2026 (Steven Monroe Wood, 54), February 6, 2026 (Jaylin Bell, 32, after an altercation with his roommate), February 18, 2026, April 7, 2026 (Jacorey Derrelle Pearson, 36) and July 30, 2026. The GDC's Office of Professional Standards opened investigations into the Wood, Bell and Pearson deaths.

Systemic findings during his tenure include AJC reporting that 73.5% of correctional officer positions at Hancock were vacant as of October 2024 — 49 officers for over 1,100 prisoners — and consultants' finding that vacancies at 20 of 34 state prisons had reached "emergency levels," with broken cell locks. A 2024 U.S. Department of Justice report described violence, sexual assaults and gang-run prisons fueled by a culture of indifference. In January 2026, five prisoners were stabbed with shanks at Hancock and two airlifted; a brawl injured at least two more the next night. GPS intel submissions from his tenure include a March 2026 source report of a gang-related dorm assault, a reported visitation-area stabbing, and a May 2026 family report of a prisoner held in solitary six-plus weeks without communication access.

Litigation

• Spradlin v. Toby, No. 5:23-cv-00328 (M.D. Ga.), filed August 29, 2023 — Foston is listed as a defendant; status pending, no disposition or amount recorded. (CourtListener docket.)

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Hancock vacancy rates, gang violence, McKee and Melgar-Saldivar homicides, Georgia prison homicide list
• 41NBC and WGXA — Jaylin Bell and Corey Jose July death reports; Vershaun Smith malice-murder conviction
• U.S. Department of Justice — 2024 findings on Georgia prison violence and gang control
• Georgia Department of Corrections — Office of Professional Standards investigation statements, incident-report data, GBI crime lab referrals
• Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (open records) — Hancock payouts, 2019, 2021, 2022
• Court records — CourtListener docket, Spradlin v. Toby
• GPS records — death records attributed to Foston's Hancock State Prison tenure

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.