HomeIntelligencePersonnel Accountability › Fulbright, Joshua Craig

Fulbright, Joshua Craig

Status: active

Profile written August 2, 2026

Current Position Deputy Warden Phillips State Prison
Salary $74,844 2025 · state payroll
Deaths Under Their Watch 26 during their tenure

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 career with the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2011 as a correctional officer at Lee Arrendale State Prison. Over the next thirteen years he rose through the ranks—sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and unit manager—before transferring to Phillips State Prison in October 2024 as Deputy Warden of Security, a role that was later reflected as Deputy Warden in state payroll records. GPS records show that 26 people died in custody at Phillips State Prison during Fulbright’s facility-deputy tenure, which spans from October 2024 through at least mid-January 2026. No lawsuits name Fulbright as a defendant.

What happened on their watch

Phillips State Prison — Deputy Warden of Security / Deputy Warden (October 2024–January 2026) GPS records attribute 26 deaths to Phillips State Prison during Fulbright’s time as a deputy warden. The deaths, documented through Gwinnett County coroner and GBI medical examiner reports obtained via open-records requests, show a mix of manners: the majority were ruled natural (e.g., Willie Roseborough, John Tolbert, Harry Taldon, Joseph Ulrich, and others); three were homicides (Jody Stokes by strangulation, Corey Madison Cochran, and Brandon Lashaun Mincey); three were suicides (Terry Nichols, Christopher Blake Hines, and Nile Baptiste Young); two were accidents (Justin Curtis Kinsey and Kendrick Keon Scales); and the rest were classified as undetermined or cause unknown. The death of Leroy Brooks on December 9, 2024, drew family opposition: his daughter told the medical examiner’s investigator that Brooks had a history of being beaten in custody and that she did not believe the death was natural; the medical examiner declined jurisdiction, and the death certificate was to be signed by the prison physician as natural based on medical history, but the cause remains contested in GPS’s investigative case files. Two of the suicides—Hines (March 2025) and Young (October 2024)—had GBI Division of Forensic Sciences toxicology and narrative reports still listed as “testing incomplete” more than 16 and 21 months after death, respectively, a delay that mirrors broader patterns in GDC death investigations.

The facility’s recent history includes allegations of staff complicity in violence. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, officers allegedly arranged for a prisoner to be brought to a lockdown unit on the day he was killed in a 2022 gang-related stabbing, and another prisoner was allegedly assaulted in a mental health ward. Those incidents predate Fulbright’s arrival, but they form a backdrop of persistent security failures at Phillips. No new allegations directly tied to Fulbright’s conduct appear in the intel records reviewed.

Sources

  • Gwinnett County Coroner / GBI Medical Examiner reports — multiple in-custody death determinations for Phillips State Prison, received and OCR’d by GPS (2026)
  • Atlanta Journal-Constitution — reporting on officer-arranged cell moves and assaults at Phillips State Prison (2026)
  • Georgia Department of Corrections — January 2025 mortality data release, used to establish cause-of-death for several early-2025 deaths
  • GPS intelligence records — open-records requests, death tracking, and facility incident database

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Aug 2, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.

Positions Held

TitleFacilityTenure
DEPUTY WARDENPHILLIPS STATE PRISON2025-01-01 → present
Deputy Warden of SecurityPHILLIPS STATE PRISON2024-10-01 → 2026-01-15
CSM CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER2024-01-01 → 2024-09-30
CSM CORRECTIONAL CAPTAINArrendale State Prison2022-01-01 → 2023-12-31
CSM CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 22018-01-01 → 2018-12-31
CSM CORRECTIONAL LIEUTENANTArrendale State Prison2017-01-01 → 2017-12-31
CSM CORRECTIONAL SERGEANTArrendale State Prison2016-01-01 → 2016-12-31
CORRECTIONS OFFICER(WL)Arrendale State Prison2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31
Correctional OfficerArrendale State Prison2011-01-01 → 2011-12-31

Deaths attributed during tenure

26 people died at facilities under Fulbright, Joshua Craig's leadership.

DateDecedentAgeFacilityRole at time
2026-05-03RICHARD L THATCHER58PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2026-04-18RICKIE LYNN RUTHERFORD41PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2026-02-11CORNELIUS BURGE42PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2026-02-09RODGER SCALES40PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2026-01-13WILLIE ROSEBOROUGH54PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-11-08JUSTIN CURTIS KINSEY37PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-10-14TERRY NICHOLS42PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-09-20ALONZO JR CARTER78PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-08-27KENDRICK KEON SCALES35PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-06-01JOSEPH ULRICH30PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-05-04JOHN DEAN TOLBERT69PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-03-31TARON EDMONDS32PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-03-24CHRISTOPHER BLAKE HINES37PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-03-10JERRY WAYNE SPENCER58PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-02-22HARRY RAY TALDON57PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-02-14TOMMYE MOBLEY45PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-02-07RICKY RAY BREEDLOVE71PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-01-23Thomas NicelyPHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-01-18Shun PinkstonPHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-01-14William PatePHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2025-01-13Jody StokesPHILLIPS STATE PRISONDEPUTY WARDEN
2024-12-19EDDIE RAY SCOTT60PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDeputy Warden of Security
2024-12-18COREY MADISON COCHRAN29PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDeputy Warden of Security
2024-12-09LEROY BROOKS64PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDeputy Warden of Security
2024-10-11BRANDON LASHAUN MINCEY37PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDeputy Warden of Security
2024-10-07NILE BAPTISTE YOUNG33PHILLIPS STATE PRISONDeputy Warden of Security

Submit a correction

If you are the named individual or an authorized representative and dispute information on this page, submit details below. Substantiated corrections are applied promptly. Disputes that remain unresolved are flagged on the profile.