Graham, Michael

Tenure Summary

Michael Graham entered the Georgia Department of Corrections as a corrections officer at Burruss Correctional Training Center (2015), served as a CSM correctional lieutenant from 2016 through 2018, and worked as a CSM correctional unit manager at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in 2019. His facility-leadership career began in 2020, when he became Deputy Warden at Dooly State Prison (2020–2021), followed by Deputy Warden at Central State Prison (2022 through July 15, 2025). On July 16, 2025 he was named Warden at Autry State Prison, a post he holds as of the current record.

Across his leadership-tier tenures — Deputy Warden and Warden — 37 deaths are attributed to the facilities he served: 20 at Central State Prison, 12 at Dooly State Prison, and 5 at Autry State Prison. The records list no lawsuit naming Graham as a defendant. They do document state liability settlements tied to the two facilities where he served as Deputy Warden, including a $700,000 payout tied to Dooly State Prison (2020 incident) linked to a documented death record. No news report in the record names Graham directly.

What happened on their watch

Dooly State Prison — Deputy Warden, 2020–2021 (12 deaths attributed). Decedents in the record from this tenure range from 46 to 73 years old, among them Charles Scott Blassingame (73, Feb. 2, 2020), Terry Lee Mintz (63, April 6, 2020), Kenneth Hicks (68, May 22, 2020), Shelton Luzester Donaldson (56, June 2, 2020), Glenn Whorton (54, June 10, 2020), Michael Devern Terry (59, July 16, 2020), Nathaniel Troy Jr. (53, Aug. 5, 2020), James Robb Yarbrough (46, Aug. 14, 2020), Andrew Harris (58, Jan. 7, 2021), Luckie Odis Miller (72, Feb. 21, 2021), Charles Busbee (73, May 25, 2021) and David Hunter (63, Nov. 19, 2021). Most of the listed Dooly deaths share a single cause classification in the records; Yarbrough’s is recorded under a separate one. Per the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through open records, the state paid $700,000 in a matter tied to Dooly State Prison (2020 incident) and linked to a documented death record — Yarbrough’s — and a further $3,100 tied to Dooly (2020 incident, Rodney McCrary).

Central State Prison — Deputy Warden, 2022–July 15, 2025 (20 deaths attributed). The Central State deaths in the record span 2022 to April 2025 and range in age from 26 to 73, including Daniel Tyler Ball (37), Deanthony Terrell Fleming (37), Jeremiah Eugene Taylor (41), Brandon Jamal Pool (38), Lamancha Ware (48), Travis Jamal Gaither (41) and Matthew Maddox. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, citing a DOJ report, states that Marquis L. Johnson, 26, was stabbed in the prison barbershop on Dec. 8, 2023, hospitalized, and died Dec. 18, 2023 after cardiac arrest secondary to the stabbing; and that Hollis Alan Bryant, 28, died Dec. 17, 2023 of sharp force trauma to the left femoral artery, with three other prisoners criminally charged. Georgia Public Broadcasting reported on Dec. 27, 2023 that two incarcerated men had been stabbed to death at Central State in late December and that six people had died in Georgia state prisons in the prior month. In the same reporting, GPB described conditions as horrific with staffing levels endangering incarcerated people, said families are left without information about deaths, and reported that severe staff shortages had allowed gang members to effectively run state prisons. Per GDC data reported at the time, 2023 was the system’s most violent year since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The DOAS settlement ledger records a $22,000 state payout tied to Central State (2022 incident, Joshua David Turk).

Autry State Prison — Warden, from July 16, 2025 (5 deaths attributed). The five deaths attributed to his tenure as Warden are those of James Melvin Tudor (86) and Alton Anson Kelly (61), both on Aug. 23, 2025; Richard Merritt (75, Oct. 20, 2025); Chaudhry Abudl Rashid (74, Nov. 11, 2025); and Richard Cleveland Castleberry (72, April 23, 2026). All five are recorded under the same cause classification.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — reported Jan. 21, 2025, citing a DOJ report, on the stabbing deaths of Marquis L. Johnson and Hollis Alan Bryant at Central State Prison.
• Georgia Public Broadcasting — Dec. 27, 2023 report on six deaths in Georgia prisons in the prior month, the two late-December stabbing deaths at Central State, staffing shortages and family notification failures.
• Georgia Department of Corrections data — 2023 as the most violent year in the prison system since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger (open records) — $700,000 and $3,100 payouts tied to Dooly State Prison (2020) and a $22,000 payout tied to Central State Prison (2022).

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.