Johnson, Jacinta Booker

Tenure Summary

Jacinta Booker Johnson's Georgia Department of Corrections career, per GPS personnel records, begins with a correctional officer post in 2015 (annual salary $40,414.24) and runs through sergeant (2016–2018), correctional lieutenant at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (GDCP) in Jackson (2019–2020), correctional captain (2021–2023), correctional unit manager (2024–2025), and Deputy Warden of Security effective April 1, 2026 — her first posting at the facility-deputy accountability tier. Every facility-tagged position in the record is at GDCP.

GPS attributes 5 deaths to her leadership tenure, all of them at GDCP and all falling inside a 30-day window — June 14 to July 13, 2026 — while she held the Deputy Warden of Security role. GPS records list no lawsuits naming her as a defendant.

What happened on their watch

GDCP — Lieutenant (2019–2020) and Captain (2021–2023). No deaths are attributed to these postings in GPS data, and the facility intel events compiled in this record begin in January 2024.

GDCP — Correctional Unit Manager (2024–2025). GPS's intel file records several facility events in this window, none of them counted in the five attributed deaths above. Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Brandon Trace Burrell, 31, died on January 28, 2024 after being assaulted by another inmate while under the effects of methamphetamine and reportedly suffering numerous stab wounds. AJC reporting also describes inmate Ronald Allen suffering a severe cold-injury to his hands in April 2024 after being ordered to separate frozen beef patties with inadequate protective equipment; Allen filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against GDC and multiple defendants on March 5, 2026, alleging medical neglect that resulted in the amputation of his left hand. GPS intel records a June 2024 incident in which newly convicted inmate Shane Tassi was photographed with a homemade shank and a contraband cell phone within days of arriving at GDCP — an AJC report cites it as evidence of security failures.

In 2025 the intel file logs the June 1 death of Mark Smith, described in those records as neglect-related (advanced Parkinson's disease, missed medical transfer requests); and an April 6 fatal stabbing witnessed by multiple inmates with what the record describes as a 30-minute delay before an officer response. Reports dated January 2025 through January 2026 state that GDCP held 4,540 people in a facility designed for 800 — 568% of original design capacity.

GDCP — Deputy Warden of Security (from April 1, 2026). All five attributed deaths occurred here: Shaun Corey Farrell, 48, on July 13, 2026; James Nelson Hall, 67, on July 2, 2026; Leonel Cedillo, 42, on June 27, 2026; Mark Rutledge, 72, on June 26, 2026; and Phillip Dwayne Rogers, 66, on June 14, 2026. Four — Farrell, Hall, Cedillo and Rogers — share the same GPS cause category (6), a code the record does not define; notes fields are empty for all four. Rutledge's record is the most documented: it carries a witness account stating he "was beaten at GDCP on Father's Day," was auto-promoted from a user report, and was subsequently confirmed against the GDC June-2026 monthly mortality report. That GDC report confirms the fact of death only — it carries no cause of death. GPS's contemporaneous news-derived event notes that Rutledge's official cause of death was unknown and that GDC's Office of Professional Standards was investigating, with the body sent to a GBI crime lab. GPS flags an unresolved date discrepancy (its source recorded June 27, 2026; the GDC report states June 26, 2026). A separate GPS death report bears the same July 13, 2026 date as Farrell's death, describing an unidentified young man in an open-dorm electrocution; the record does not link that report to any named decedent.

Facility-level allegations published during this posting include AJC reports that officer Vera Jackson admitted receiving thousands of dollars to tip death row inmate Eric Perkinson to upcoming shakedowns and staff information; that inmate David "Toro" Zavala had 35 cellphones seized at the time of his guilty plea; that Charles Lee Broady Jr. was moved into a location where six gang members attacked him with razor blades after requesting protection; and that "almost every part" of GDCP had been vandalized. WGXA, citing the DOJ, reported a drone-based contraband conspiracy that brought methamphetamine, marijuana and phones into multiple state prisons; sentencing of Deivon Waller and others in that case was recorded September 11, 2026. Death row scheduling and clemency litigation for Stacey Humphreys also ran through GDCP in this period, per WRDW and The Georgia Virtue.

Sources

• GPS personnel and position records — Jacinta Booker Johnson (GDCP postings, 2019–2026; attributed death total: 5, all GDCP)
• GPS death records and intel events — GDCP, 2024–2026 (Farrell, Hall, Cedillo, Rutledge, Rogers; Smith; Burrell)
• GDC June-2026 monthly mortality report (image archived by GPS; confirms death of Mark Rutledge, no cause stated)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — prison homicide list; contraband cellphone and drone/contraband coverage; prison-conditions and infrastructure reporting at GDCP
• WGXA — DOJ drone-contraband prosecution (Deivon Waller, GDCP)
• WRDW and The Georgia Virtue — Humphreys execution scheduling and Pardons and Paroles conflict-of-interest rulings
• Court records — Allen v. Georgia Department of Corrections, federal civil rights suit filed March 5, 2026 (facility-level; Johnson not named as a defendant in GPS records)

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.