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Johnson, Curtis Tyrone
Status: active
Profile written August 2, 2026
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
Curtis Tyrone Johnson built a two-decade career inside the Georgia Department of Corrections, moving from tactical squad and sergeant roles to behavioral health counselor before ascending to facility leadership. In 2025, he was appointed DEPUTY WARDEN at Calhoun State Prison, and in May of that year his title was changed to Deputy Warden of Security — a facility-deputy position with direct oversight of safety and custody operations. GPS records attribute eight in‑custody deaths to Calhoun State Prison during Johnson’s leadership tenure there, including two homicides confirmed by coroner and official mortality records. His watch coincided with the aftermath of a sweeping U.S. Department of Justice investigation that had already flagged Calhoun as a site of systemic violence, understaffing, and failures to protect incarcerated people.What happened on their watch
Calhoun State Prison — Deputy Warden (Jan 1, 2025 to May 15, 2025) and Deputy Warden of Security (May 16, 2025 to present) Johnson became DEPUTY WARDEN on January 1, 2025. Six days later, Charles Owens died; a GDC-released mortality report listed his cause as a ruptured abdominal aneurysm. On January 19, Theodore Roundtree was killed — his death certificate, later obtained by GPS, records the manner as homicide from sharp‑force abdominal trauma, and the GDC’s own January 2025 mortality data described the cause as “Homicide due to Multiple Stab Wounds.” Gary Bernard Duncan died on May 4, though no public cause or manner has been disclosed. Johnson’s title changed to Deputy Warden of Security on May 16. Between June and December 2025, three additional deaths occurred: Tyler Jackson (age 30) on June 28 (cause category not specified); Thomas Haugabook (age 67) on September 25, whose coroner record cites an intracranial hemorrhage due to a ruptured cerebral artery; and Matthew Len Nutt (age 37) on December 21, with a coroner‑confirmed homicide by blunt force trauma. In 2026, two more natural‑cause deaths were recorded: Jimmy McMullen (age 67) on January 28 from pancreatic cancer, and Freddie Lee Patterson (age 51) on May 13.The eight deaths spanned two confirmed homicides, several natural causes, and several where the cause category remains publicly unspecified. During Johnson’s tenure, Calhoun State Prison remained under the shadow of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that had covered 2018‑2023 and found that Georgia’s prison homicide rate was nearly triple the national average. According to the Atlanta Journal‑Constitution, the DOJ specifically cited Calhoun for staff failures to follow classification and housing‑assignment procedures that contributed to a 2022 homicide. While those findings predated Johnson’s deputy role, the facility continued to generate allegations recorded by GPS: among them, a WALB report detailing a DOJ finding that an incarcerated person died of dehydration in a restrictive‑housing cell at Calhoun in February 2023 after staff allegedly cut off food and water. Just before Johnson’s promotion, a $3.25 million state settlement was paid for the 2023 death of Reginald Jacobs Jr. at the prison, according to Georgia Department of Administrative Services records.
Broader institutional turmoil also marked Johnson’s deputy‑warden tenure. In early 2026, the prison carried out a mass transfer of 87 lifers to higher‑security facilities. The Department of Corrections deployed a Managed Access System to block contraband cell phones at Calhoun mid‑2025 — after, the AJC reported, two inmates had already been convicted of a nationwide wire‑fraud scheme run from the prison using contraband phones. Earlier, nearly two dozen drug‑smuggling cases tied to the facility were dismissed when evidence was never submitted to the state crime lab, as detailed by the AJC.
Sources
- GPS records — personnel positions, death totals, coroner records, and mortality reports
- Georgia Department of Corrections official January 2025 mortality report (PDF)
- Calhoun County death certificates (obtained via GPS open‑records request)
- Atlanta Journal‑Constitution — DOJ investigation findings, contraband‑phone fraud convictions, untested drug‑evidence scandal
- WALB — reporting on DOJ investigation and systemic failures
- Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| Deputy Warden of Security | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | 2025-05-16 → present |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | 2025-01-01 → present |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR SPV | 2024-01-01 → 2024-12-31 | |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR 3 | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | 2023-01-01 → 2023-12-31 |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR 3 | 2021-01-01 → 2022-12-31 | |
| CORRECTIONAL LIEUTENANT | 2017-01-01 → 2020-12-31 | |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR 3 | ALBANY TRANSITIONAL CENTER | 2016-01-01 → 2016-12-31 |
| BEH HEALTH/COUNSELOR (WL) | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 | |
| Counselor | 2014-01-01 → 2014-12-31 | |
| CERT Team Sergeant | 2013-01-01 → 2013-12-31 | |
| Sergeant | 2007-01-01 → 2007-12-31 | |
| Tactical (TACT) Squad | AUTRY STATE PRISON | 2005-01-01 → 2005-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:14-cv-00253 | GAND | 2014-01-28 | terminated |
Deaths attributed during tenure
8 people died at facilities under Johnson, Curtis Tyrone's leadership.
| Date | Decedent | Age | Facility | Role at time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-13 | FREDDIE LEE PATTERSON | 51 | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Security |
| 2026-01-28 | JIMMY MCMULLEN | 67 | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Security |
| 2025-12-21 | MATTHEW LEN NUTT | 37 | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Security |
| 2025-09-25 | THOMAS HAUGABOOK | 67 | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Security |
| 2025-06-28 | TYLER JACKSON | 30 | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Security |
| 2025-05-04 | GARY BERNARD DUNCAN | 67 | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2025-01-19 | Theodore Roundtree | — | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2025-01-06 | Charles Owens | — | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | DEPUTY WARDEN |
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