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Fulbright, Joshua Craig
Status: active
Profile written May 31, 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 spent more than a decade in the Georgia Department of Corrections, starting as a correctional officer at Arrendale State Prison in 2011 and rising through the ranks to lieutenant, captain, and unit manager. In October 2024, he moved to Phillips State Prison as Deputy Warden of Security, a facility‑leadership role, and was subsequently designated Deputy Warden. GPS records attribute 24 deaths to Phillips State Prison during Fulbright’s tenure as a facility deputy warden. No lawsuits name Fulbright as a defendant.What happened on their watch
Fulbright assumed the Deputy Warden of Security post at Phillips State Prison on October 1, 2024. Over the following sixteen months — continuing into February 2026, according to the deaths logged — 24 incarcerated people died at the facility. The deaths span multiple cause categories. GPS records show that at least three were homicides: Jody Stokes, 49, died on January 13, 2025, from strangulation; Corey Madison Cochran, 29, died on December 18, 2024, in an incident the family described as high‑violence but whose cause remained unknown to them; and Brandon Lashaun Mincey, 37, was stabbed by other incarcerated people on October 11, 2024, an event reported by WTOC and FOX 5 Atlanta. Other deaths listed during Fulbright’s tenure involved natural causes such as myocardial infarction, complications from HIV, and end‑stage dementia, as well as blunt‑force trauma and unclassified medical events.The broader context is grim. Phillips State Prison has been the subject of federal scrutiny and repeated violence. The U.S. Department of Justice found that the 2022 gang‑related stabbing of Quafabian Melik McBride — which occurred before Fulbright arrived — triggered a gang war across multiple GDC prisons, with 20 hospitalizations in the following days. The Atlanta Journal‑Constitution reported allegations that officers at Phillips arranged for McBride to be moved to the lockdown unit on the day he was killed. The same outlet documented a separate claim that Dave Stone was assaulted in a mental‑health ward with two pipes wrapped in cloth, leaving him brain dead. Neither allegation names Fulbright, but both speak to the facility’s long‑standing pattern of severe officer‑involved and inmate‑on‑inmate violence. During Fulbright’s tenure, the facility also saw a gang‑violence eruption in January 2026 that produced five deaths and multiple hospitalizations, as well as the homicide deaths cited above.
Sources
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — multiple homicide reports and allegations regarding officer involvement in violence at Phillips State Prison
- WTOC — coverage of Brandon Mincey’s death in custody at Phillips State Prison
- FOX 5 Atlanta — reporting on Mincey’s death weeks after the DOJ report
- Georgia Prisoners’ Speak records — personnel history and death attribution data
- U.S. Department of Justice findings — referenced in GPS event descriptions documenting the gang war triggered by the 2022 McBride killing
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| 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 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
24 people died at facilities under Fulbright, Joshua Craig's leadership.
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