Holt, Ahmed A

Tenure Summary

Ahmed A. Holt's Georgia Department of Corrections career runs from a 2015 Correction Administration post through the warden ranks and into the agency's central leadership. State salary records list him as WARDEN 2 in 2016 and 2017, DEPUTY DIRECTOR in 2018 and 2019, and Assistant Commissioner of the Facilities Division from 2020 through 2025, with annual pay rising from $83,899.92 to $155,432.77 over that span. A single entry records him as "Commissioner, Assistant" dated Aug. 27, 2026, with no salary listed.

The headline accountability fact in this data is the absence of one: the death records compiled for this profile attribute zero deaths to any of Holt's leadership tenures, and list no per-facility death totals for him. His footprint here is litigation and one finding about sworn testimony — 18 federal lawsuits in which he is listed as a defendant between 2015 and 2025, and an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation reporting that Holt swore under oath that prisoners were receiving required out-of-cell time, educational programming and adequate staffing, all of which the outlet reported the evidence contradicted.

What happened on their watch

WARDEN 2 (2016–2017). The records do not attach a facility to this posting, so no facility-level death count can be tied to it; GPS records attribute no deaths to this role. Court dockets list Holt as a defendant in Griggs v. Davis, filed July 27, 2017 in the Southern District of Georgia (terminated Jan. 3, 2022).

DEPUTY DIRECTOR (2018–2019). No deaths are attributed to this posting in the data. No new lawsuit naming Holt appears in the docket list for either calendar year; the position's tier is not classified in the salary records.

Assistant Commissioner, Facilities Division (2020–2025). This is Holt's longest central-office posting and the period covering most of the litigation below — 13 of the 18 listed cases were filed while he held this role. No deaths are attributed to it, and the intel-report and intel-event lists tied to his facilities contain no items dated inside this tenure. According to the AJC investigation (record dated May 2026), Holt swore under oath that prisoners were receiving required out-of-cell time, educational programming and adequate staffing, which the outlet reported was contradicted by the evidence. That is the outlet's characterization of his testimony, not a court finding in this data.

Commissioner, Assistant (Aug. 27, 2026). A single-day entry; no death counts, lawsuits or incidents are recorded against it.

Litigation

All entries are federal dockets listing Holt as a defendant; dispositions are as recorded, with no settlement amounts reported.

• Miller v. Holt — 5:25-cv-00356, M.D. Ga., filed Aug. 25, 2025; pending.
• Roberson v. Oliver — 3:25-cv-00084, S.D. Ga., filed Aug. 13, 2025; pending.
• Hamilton v. Beasley — 6:25-cv-00057, S.D. Ga., filed July 22, 2025; pending.
• Jones v. Holt — 5:25-cv-00271, M.D. Ga., filed June 25, 2025; pending.
• Morgan v. Oliver — 1:25-cv-01700, N.D. Ga., filed Mar. 31, 2025; pending.
• Tucker v. Holt — 5:24-cv-00360, M.D. Ga., filed Oct. 16, 2024; terminated June 11, 2025.
• Ryhme v. Georgia Department of Corrections — 1:24-cv-04156, N.D. Ga., filed Sept. 16, 2024; pending.
• Emery v. Holt — 1:24-cv-03486, N.D. Ga., filed Aug. 6, 2024; pending.
• Tucker v. Wellpath LLC — 5:24-cv-00215, M.D. Ga., filed July 3, 2024; pending.
• Hall v. Shepard — 5:23-cv-00205, M.D. Ga., filed June 8, 2023; terminated June 11, 2024.
• Bonner v. Ward — 6:23-cv-00014, S.D. Ga., filed Feb. 24, 2023; terminated Aug. 16, 2024.
• Martin v. Holt — 5:23-cv-00004, M.D. Ga., filed Jan. 4, 2023; pending.
• Canning v. Jackson — 6:22-cv-00038, S.D. Ga., filed May 25, 2022; terminated Nov. 2, 2023.
• Lynch v. Ward — 5:21-cv-00461, M.D. Ga., filed Dec. 27, 2021; terminated June 7, 2023.
• Middleton v. Ward — 5:21-cv-00334, M.D. Ga., filed Sept. 10, 2021; terminated Mar. 9, 2022.
• Diamond v. Ward — 5:20-cv-00453, M.D. Ga., filed Dec. 1, 2020; terminated Jan. 23, 2023.
• Griggs v. Davis — 1:17-cv-00089, S.D. Ga., filed July 27, 2017; terminated Jan. 3, 2022.
• Gumm v. Jacobs — 5:15-cv-00041, M.D. Ga., filed Feb. 12, 2015; terminated May 7, 2019.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — "Georgia prison system engages in deception as crisis builds," reporting Holt's sworn statements on out-of-cell time, programming and staffing.
• CourtListener federal dockets — M.D. Ga., S.D. Ga. and N.D. Ga. case records listed above.
• Georgia state salary records — Holt's year-by-year position titles and compensation, 2015–2025.

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.