Home › Intelligence › Personnel Accountability › Jester, Teketa
Jester, Teketa
Status: active
Profile written June 7, 2026
Salary
$111,278
2025 · state payroll
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
Teketa Jester’s career with the Georgia Department of Corrections spans more than two decades, moving from line-officer roles into unit-supervisor and eventually facility-lead positions. After serving as a sergeant and corrections officer at West Central Integrated Treatment Facility, Jester became a correctional captain and unit manager before stepping into the deputy warden rank in 2021. By mid-2023 Jester was named warden at Central State Prison, and in January 2024 she simultaneously assumed the warden role at Baldwin State Prison. GPS records attribute 38 deaths to facilities where Jester held a leadership-tier post — 13 at Central State Prison (while deputy warden and then warden) and 25 at Baldwin State Prison (while warden). During these tenures, two federal lawsuits name Jester as a defendant, and the period coincided with a DOJ investigation into violence in Georgia prisons, staff-contraband smuggling cases, and multiple allegations of abusive conditions inside both facilities.What happened on their watch
Central State Prison (deputy warden: Jan–Jun 2023; warden: Jul 2023–Dec 2024)
Jester arrived at Central as deputy warden in early 2023, a year the Department of Corrections would later describe as its most violent since before the pandemic. During that six-month deputy stint, three men died from medical causes, per GPS records: Jerry Page (73), Trong Tran (49), and Clifford Booth (71). After Jester became warden in July 2023, an additional ten deaths were recorded before she left the post in December 2024. The warden’s first months were marked by a cluster of homicides — on December 17, 2023, Hollis Alan Bryant, 28, died from sharp-force trauma to the femoral artery, and the next day Marquis L. Johnson, 26, succumbed to cardiac arrest after being stabbed in the prison barbershop; both cases were documented by the AJC and in the DOJ’s findings, with three other prisoners charged in Bryant’s death. On December 9, 2024, a third fatal stabbing occurred when Leon Culver Kelly, 47, was killed by multiple stab wounds, according to 13WMAZ and coroner records. The remaining seven deaths under Jester’s wardenship at Central (Leonardo Llamas, Joseph Akins, Thomas Kiker, Jeremih Taylor, Adel Eackles, Deanthony Fleming, and Anthony Baugher) were attributed to natural or medical causes. Advocacy reports from Georgia Public Broadcasting during this span described Central State Prison as dangerously understaffed, with gang violence spilling into the open and families receiving no information after deaths. Separately, news reports note that three former guards were accused of beating an inmate and attempting a cover‑up in March 2025 — an incident that, while dated slightly after Jester’s transfer, points to patterns that began under her watch.Baldwin State Prison (warden: Jan 2024–present)
Jester’s wardenship at Baldwin began in January 2024, overlapping with her final months at Central. GPS records show 25 individuals died at Baldwin while Jester held the facility‑lead role. A significant number of these deaths — 21 of the 25 — are classified as natural/medical (cause category 6); however, some of those entries carry disputed circumstances. The death of Almir Harris, a 23‑year‑old autistic man with Type 1 diabetes, on December 31, 2024, is tied by GPS event records to diabetic ketoacidosis after being “denied essential medical care.” Vincent Reshad Dyer, 50, appears in the death list with cause category 6, but a GPS entry simultaneously labels his August 2024 death a homicide by sharp-force chest trauma during a fight that also involved contraband. The remaining fatalities include three homicides in 2025‑2026: Henry Finley was killed by multiple puncture wounds in January 2025, an unidentified John Doe died under cause category 3 in February 2026, and Isaac Evan Robinson, 41, died in protective custody in January 2026; a social‑media tip relayed by GPS states that inmates in that unit were regularly dragged by the CERT team while “wardens watch all this” and alleges that wardens “do not care.” The period was also marked by a steady flow of allegations. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that lieutenant Tracey Wise smuggled K‑2‑laced papers for a Bloods gang member at Baldwin, and former officer Kierra Williams was accused of doing the same at the direction of inmate Ryan Brandt, who allegedly ran a criminal enterprise across multiple prisons. A lawsuit filed by Akeim Burgest claims an officer shanked him after throwing a water bottle, while a lieutenant stood by; a federal judge ordered GDC to preserve all evidence. Another suit by the mother of Joshua Emanuel Williams alleges he was negligently housed with an inmate known to have stabbed others. Throughout 2023‑2025, protests outside the Governor’s Mansion, a DOJ investigation, and an AJC finding that over 360 Georgia prison employees had been arrested for contraband since 2018 all underscored systemic breakdowns that coincided with Jester’s tenure.Litigation
- Davis v. Jester (Case 1:24‑cv‑03244, USDC N.D. Ga.), filed July 23, 2024, terminated April 21, 2025. No settlement amount disclosed.
- Goetz v. Jester (Case 1:25‑cv‑00107, USDC S.D. Ga.), filed May 7, 2025, pending as of last record.
Sources
- GPS structured records — tenure timeline, death totals, decedent names, cause categories.
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — DOJ report excerpts on Hollis Bryant and Marquis Johnson; investigation into prison contraband and employee arrests; coverage of violent conditions and protests.
- 13WMAZ — reporting on Leon Kelly stabbing, Burgest shanking lawsuit, guard abuse charges at Central State Prison.
- Georgia Public Broadcasting — interviews on staff shortages, gang control, and family information blackouts (December 2023).
- CourtListener — dockets for Davis v. Jester and Goetz v. Jester.
- Social media tip (Ga. Prisons Exposed) — allegations of wardens witnessing forced cell extractions in Baldwin’s protective custody unit.
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| WARDEN 2 | BALDWIN STATE PRISON | 2025-01-01 → present |
| Warden | BALDWIN STATE PRISON | 2024-11-16 → present |
| WARDEN 1 | BALDWIN STATE PRISON | 2024-01-01 → 2024-11-15 |
| Warden | CENTRAL STATE PRISON | 2023-07-01 → 2024-12-15 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | CENTRAL STATE PRISON | 2023-01-01 → 2023-06-30 |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | 2021-01-01 → 2022-12-31 | |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER | 2017-01-01 → 2020-12-31 | |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL CAPTAIN | 2016-01-01 → 2016-12-31 | |
| CORRECTIONS OFFICER (SP) | WEST CENTRAL INTEGRATED TREATMENT FACILITY | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
| Sergeant | WEST CENTRAL INTEGRATED TREATMENT FACILITY | 2003-01-01 → 2003-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:25-cv-00107 | GASD | 2025-05-07 | pending |
| 1:24-cv-03244 | GAND | 2024-07-23 | terminated |
Deaths attributed during tenure
38 people died at facilities under Jester, Teketa's leadership.
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