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Fulbright, Joshua Craig
Status: active
Profile written August 30, 2026
This profile reflects positional accountability — this individual held the leadership roles shown during the dates shown, during which the listed deaths or lawsuits occurred. Inclusion does not constitute a legal finding of personal culpability for any specific incident.
Tenure Summary
Joshua Craig Fulbright began his Georgia Department of Corrections career at Lee Arrendale State Prison in 2011 as a correctional officer and held successive posts there: sergeant in 2016, lieutenant in 2017, captain in 2022 and 2023, and correctional unit manager from 2023 until September 2024. On October 1, 2024, he became Deputy Warden of Security at Phillips State Prison; subsequent records list him as Deputy Warden in 2025 and in an August 27, 2026 record. GPS records attribute 27 deaths to Fulbright’s leadership tenure, all at Phillips State Prison. No lawsuits naming Fulbright as a defendant appear in the structured record.
What happened on their watch
Arrendale State Prison (2011–2024)
Fulbright held staff and unit-supervisor roles at Arrendale for roughly 13 years. The deaths attributed to his leadership tenure in the GPS dataset do not include Arrendale; the only facility in the deaths-by-facility table is Phillips State Prison. During his final Arrendale months, GPS records document serious incidents at the prison, including the April and May 2024 strangulation deaths of Sherry Joyce, 61, and Hallie Reed, 23, in a mental health unit, and the May 2024 arrest of a lieutenant on a sexual-contact charge. Those are documented in GPS facility records but are not part of the 27-death attribution.
Phillips State Prison (Oct. 2024–present)
The earliest deaths in the GPS sample after Fulbright’s October 1, 2024 start are Nile Baptiste Young, 33, suicide on October 7, 2024, per Gwinnett County Medical Examiner case 24G-1750, and Brandon Lashaun Mincey, 37, homicide on October 11, 2024, per case 24G-1781. December 2024 brought additional records: Leroy Brooks, 64, on December 9, classified undetermined and contested by his family — the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner declined jurisdiction and no autopsy was performed; his daughter, Fredericka Thompson, disputed a natural-causes conclusion, telling the medical examiner “it can’t be natural causes,” per GPS investigative case #141. Corey Madison Cochran, 29, was recorded as homicide on December 18, 2024, case 24G-2249, and Eddie Ray Scott, 60, as natural on December 19, 2024, case 24G-2245.
In 2025, Gwinnett County records list multiple natural deaths, including Joseph Ulrich, 30, on June 1; John Dean Tolbert, 69, on May 4; Taron Edmonds, 32, on March 31; and Jerry Wayne Spencer, 58, on March 10. Suicides include Christopher Blake Hines, 37, on March 24, 2025, case 25G-0645; GBI DOFS records still showed testing incomplete sixteen months later. Terry Nichols, 42, died October 14, 2025, case 25G-2007, certified suicide; GBI toxicology was positive for warfarin. Jody Stokes’s January 13, 2025 death was certified homicide due to strangulation, according to a GDC-released January 2025 mortality file. Alonzo Carter Jr., 78, died September 20, 2025; the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner report describes a May 12, 2025 assault at Phillips and certifies homicide from complications of blunt-force head trauma, while noting the custodial medical record had not been received when the report was completed. Accident manners are recorded for Kendrick Keon Scales, 35, on August 27, 2025, and Justin Curtis Kinsey, 37, on November 8, 2025, per Gwinnett medical examiner reports.
Records into 2026 include Willie Roseborough, 54, on January 13, natural; Rodger Scales, 40, on February 9, natural; and Cornelius Burge, 42, found February 11, 2026. In Burge’s case the Gwinnett medical examiner certified natural — probable cardiac dysrhythmia due to concentric left ventricular hypertrophy — with schizoaffective disorder listed as another significant condition; the report states February 11 is a found date, not an observed time of death. Rickie Lynn Rutherford, 41, on April 18; Richard L. Thatcher, 58, on May 3; and Jacob Ray Nicholson, 29, on July 13, appear in GPS records with no cause narrative in the provided data.
Sources
- Gwinnett County Medical Examiner / Coroner open records productions for Phillips State Prison in-custody deaths, OCR’d June 26, 2026
- GBI DOFS open records responses, including R000917-072626, R000918-072626, and GBI DOFS 2025-1035924 toxicology
- GDC-released January 2025 mortality data
- GPS investigative case #141 — Leroy Brooks contested in-custody death, Phillips State Prison
- Georgia Prisoners’ Speak personnel and facility records
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| Deputy Warden | PHILLIPS STATE PRISON | 2026-08-27 → present |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | PHILLIPS STATE PRISON | 2025-01-01 → present |
| Deputy Warden of Security | PHILLIPS STATE PRISON | 2024-10-01 → 2026-01-15 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER | 2024-01-01 → 2024-09-30 | |
| CSM Correctional Unit Manager | Arrendale State Prison | 2023-11-22 → 2023-11-22 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL CAPTAIN | Arrendale State Prison | 2022-01-01 → 2023-12-31 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 2 | 2018-01-01 → 2018-12-31 | |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL LIEUTENANT | Arrendale State Prison | 2017-01-01 → 2017-12-31 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL SERGEANT | Arrendale State Prison | 2016-01-01 → 2016-12-31 |
| CORRECTIONS OFFICER(WL) | Arrendale State Prison | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
| Correctional Officer | Arrendale State Prison | 2011-01-01 → 2011-12-31 |
Deaths attributed during tenure
27 people died at facilities under Fulbright, Joshua Craig's leadership.
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