Johnson, Curtis Tyrone

Tenure Summary

Curtis Tyrone Johnson’s GDC record begins in 2005 with a Tactical (TACT) Squad posting at Autry State Prison, followed by roles as sergeant, CERT team sergeant, counselor, behavioral health counselor, and correctional lieutenant. He later appears at Calhoun State Prison: first as a behavioral health counselor in 2023, then in overlapping leadership postings as Deputy Warden and Chief Counselor from January 1 through May 15, 2025, and as Deputy Warden of Security from May 16, 2025 onward.

GPS records attribute 5 deaths to Calhoun State Prison during Johnson’s leadership tenure, all during his Deputy Warden of Security posting. No lawsuits naming Johnson as a defendant appear in the provided records.

What happened on their watch

Calhoun State Prison — Deputy Warden / Chief Counselor (Jan. 1–May 15, 2025).
GPS records show no deaths attributed to Johnson during this posting. In the first three months of 2025, GDC made payments totaling nearly $127,000 to Calhoun County Sheriff Josh Hilton and eight deputies for off-duty perimeter patrol at $45 per hour, according to GPS records.

Calhoun State Prison — Deputy Warden of Security (May 16, 2025 onward).
GPS attributes five deaths to this posting. Tyler Jackson, 30, died June 28, 2025; GPS records list cause category 6 with no further notes. Thomas Haugabook, 67, died September 25, 2025; a death certificate obtained by GPS lists a natural manner and cause of intracranial hemorrhage due to a ruptured cerebral artery. Matthew Len Nutt, 37, died December 21, 2025; the death certificate lists homicide by blunt force trauma from an assault by another individual, and the GPS record includes a user report describing it as a homicide in the hole at Calhoun. Jimmy McMullen, 67, died January 28, 2026; the death certificate lists natural death from pancreatic cancer. Freddie Lee Patterson, 51, died May 13, 2026; GPS records list cause category 6 with no further notes.

Broader facility activity on this watch includes a mid-2025 Managed Access System installation at Calhoun, a January 2026 conviction of two prisoners for a $464,920 wire-fraud/extortion operation run on contraband cellphones, and spring 2026 transfers of 87 lifers out of Calhoun to close-security facilities, per GPS records. In February 2026, WALB reported on a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found systemic violence, homicide underreporting, and safety failures across GDC, including classification and housing failures at Calhoun tied to a 2022 homicide. Those findings cover 2018–2023, largely before Johnson’s security-deputy tenure.

Sources

• GPS personnel, death-attribution, and facility-intelligence records
• Calhoun County Coroner death certificates obtained via GPS open-records request
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — DOJ and Calhoun State Prison reporting
• WALB — family reports and federal investigation coverage

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Aug 30, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.