Graham, Michael

Tenure Summary

Michael Graham entered the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2015 as a correctional officer at Burruss Correctional Training Center ($29,458.32), then moved through the lieutenant ranks in 2016–2018 before serving as Correctional Unit Manager at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in 2019. He spent two years as Deputy Warden at Dooly State Prison (2020–2021), three and a half years as Deputy Warden at Central State Prison (2022 through July 15, 2025), and was appointed Warden at Autry State Prison on July 16, 2025 — the role he holds per GPS records, which show no end date.

Per GPS records, 37 deaths are attributed to facilities during his leadership tenures: 20 at Central State Prison, 12 at Dooly State Prison, and 5 at Autry State Prison. GPS records list no lawsuits naming Graham as a defendant.

What happened on their watch

Dooly State Prison — Deputy Warden, 2020–2021 (12 deaths). The deaths span February 2020 to November 2021 and range in age from 46 (James Robb Yarbrough) to 73 (Charles Scott Blassingame). Eleven are coded "Natural" and one "Undetermined" — but GPS notes that this cause coding is GDC's own classification, obtained by the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project through an open-records request covering 2015–2021; it is not an autopsy finding and no pathologist examined the bodies for these determinations. Separately, an AJC investigation describes a James Yarbrough who suffered uncontrolled diabetes for months at Dooly and died of ketoacidosis in a case alleging medical malpractice; GPS records list a James Robb Yarbrough, 46, who died at Dooly on August 14, 2020, GDC-coded "Undetermined." The name, age and facility appear to correspond, though the records do not state definitively that these are the same man. An AJC-sourced allegation that a coroner believed Carlos Omar Soldiew-Acosta may have been dead more than 24 hours before his body was found at Dooly carries no date in GPS records and cannot be tied to this tenure.

Central State Prison — Deputy Warden, 2022–July 2025 (20 deaths). Decedents range from 26 to 73 years old. Three are recorded as homicides per the AJC Georgia prison homicides investigation: Marquis Lamar Johnson, 26, stabbed in the prison barbershop on December 8 and died December 18, 2023, after cardiac arrest secondary to the stabbing; Hollis Alan Bryant, 28, who suffered sharp force trauma to the left femoral artery on December 17, 2023, and whose killing the AJC/DOJ account says led to three other prisoners being criminally charged; and Leon Culver Kelly, 47, stabbed to death on December 9, 2024, with the coroner confirming multiple stab wounds, per 13WMAZ. Ricky Eugene Rogers, 68, died April 21, 2025; a GPS provenance note describes the entry as "Natural/Drug OD (C-bldg)," reclassified from an official GDC list to prisoner reporting. Matthew Maddox died January 28, 2025, with "Cerebral Herniation due to Extremely High BP" recorded in GDC's January 2025 mortality data (GDC #804966) — the only month GDC published causes. Anthony Le Ray Baugher, 68, died October 26, 2024, a date verified against the GDC CY2024 mortality report (ORR R018717-012425). A December 27, 2023 GPB report on six statewide prison deaths in a single month attributed conditions to severe staff shortages that let gang members "effectively run" facilities; three of those December 2023 deaths appear in GPS records at Central. In March 2025, three former Central guards were accused of beating an inmate and attempting to cover it up, per 13WMAZ — an allegation falling inside this tenure.

Autry State Prison — Warden from July 16, 2025 (5 deaths). In roughly nine months: Alton Anson Kelly, 61, and James Melvin Tudor, 86 (both August 23, 2025); Richard Merritt, 75 (October 20, 2025); Chaudhry Abudl Rashid, 74 (November 11, 2025); and Richard Cleveland Castleberry, 72 (April 23, 2026). All five carry the same cause category in GPS records, which the file does not define and provides no notes for.

Intel reports tied to Dooly — 2026 gang-related fights, stabbings, a statewide lockdown, and contraband-smuggling prosecutions — postdate Graham's 2020–2021 Dooly tenure. Similarly, the 2026 intel entries at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison postdate his 2019 unit-manager posting there, and GPS attributes no deaths at that facility to any leadership tenure of his.

Sources

• GPS personnel and mortality records (tenure totals, facility attributions, provenance notes)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia prison homicides investigation (Johnson, Bryant at Central; Dooly allegations); "Georgia prisons in crisis" consultants reporting
• DOJ findings as reported by the AJC (Bryant homicide, criminal charges)
• 13WMAZ — Central State Prison stabbing and guard-misconduct reporting
• Georgia Public Broadcasting — December 27, 2023 report on statewide deaths and staffing
• UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project custodial mortality dataset (GA-Individual.csv, GDC coding 2015–2021, obtained via open records request)
• GDC official mortality reports — January 2025 (GDC #804966), CY2024 (ORR R018717-012425)
• WGXA, WALB — Dooly State Prison contraband and incident reporting

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 13, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.