Jones, Deserre'

Tenure Summary

Deserre' Jones entered the Georgia Department of Corrections on a financial track — recorded as a Financial Ops Gen (AL) in 2015 at $26,915.43, then as a Business Support Analyst 1 in 2016 and 2017 — before moving into facility leadership as Deputy Warden at Macon State Prison, a post the records show from 2018 through 2025. From July 16, 2026, the records list Jones as Deputy Warden of Administration at the same facility. No lawsuit naming Jones as a defendant appears in the records, and no news report in the records names Jones directly. The person's status is listed as active, with no sourced status action attached.

During Jones's leadership tenure, 87 deaths are attributed to Macon State Prison — the whole of the deaths attributed to those leadership posts. The facility's record over those years includes a U.S. Department of Justice report released in October 2024 describing assaults, stabbings and rapes as routine in "woefully understaffed" Georgia prisons; AJC reporting that about two-thirds of correctional officer jobs at Macon State Prison were unfilled as of October 2024 and that the coroner found only five to eight officers staffing the entire facility when responding to deaths; and state liability payouts recorded in the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger, among them $1,375,000 tied to the 2020 death of Bobby Edward Lee and $750,000 tied to the 2020 death of Coty Silvers.

What happened on their watch

Macon State Prison — Deputy Warden, 2018–2025. All 87 deaths attributed to Jones's leadership tenure occurred at Macon State Prison. The deaths during this period that the death registry names run from January 2020 into 2025 and span homicide, suicide and undetermined causes; several decedents were in their twenties and thirties. Coroner and court records cited by the AJC describe specific mechanisms: Mathis Lee Ward died June 8, 2024, of sharp-force chest and neck trauma from a weapon made of two sharpened pieces of metal; Reginald Lamonte Ginn died March 13, 2024, of blunt-force head trauma, reportedly beaten with a fan motor tied to a belt; Shannon Pickett died July 21, 2024, of exsanguination and sharp-force trauma. The AJC reported that Henry Finley died January 18, 2025, after being stabbed at the prison, confirmed by Macon County Coroner Eddie T. Hosley. Records also log repeated incidents involving Christian Krauch, found severely injured at the prison in January 2025 with brain bleeds, broken ribs, lacerated feet, cigarette burns and a necrotic wound, after what the records describe as weeks of torture.

The 25 most recent deaths in the registry during this tenure:

• John Doe died October 23, 2026, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• Veasna Johnathan Bun died October 22, 2026, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• Juld Gerald Carter died October 21, 2026, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as homicide.
• Tony Horne, 48, died August 20, 2026, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• Randall Allen Cleveland, 77, died November 30, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• Michael Tony Cooper, 73, died November 20, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• Marquis Young, 37, died October 22, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as homicide.
• Gary Simpson, 63, died October 8, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• Calvin Earl Noble, 25, died August 26, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as suicide.
• Clifton B Boston, 67, died August 26, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• Cassiem Mahlon Johnson, 55, died August 25, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as suicide.
• Pierre Cedric Scott, 41, died August 22, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as homicide.
• Xavier Anthony Adams, 40, died July 22, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as homicide.
• Niko Lamar Swann, 36, died June 27, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• Lukas Lance Way, 32, died June 22, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as homicide.
• Sanchez Jackson, 48, died June 19, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as homicide.
• Terell Rasheen Everett, 35, died May 22, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• Cornelius Lee Mason, 64, died May 20, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• Douglas Wayne Medearis, 50, died May 19, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• Marion Washington, 61, died May 16, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• John Austin Mitchell, 50, died April 23, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• D'Andrius Brown, 30, died March 23, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as homicide.
• Lynn Alexander Durett, 74, died March 20, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• Michael Alvin Reddings, 64, died March 8, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as unknown/pending.
• Marquel Smith, 29, died February 14, 2025, at Macon State Prison; the registry lists the cause as homicide.

AJC reporting from this tenure describes conditions behind those numbers. Affidavits and family accounts relayed by the AJC allege that Sanchez Jackson told his sister as many as four men were packed into one cell, rotating spots just to sleep, and that his family received only a brief call from the warden with a promise to follow up that never came. The AJC reported that Kendrick Malik Brown's mother alleged he was placed in a cell with a prisoner known to be dangerous a month before his scheduled release. The DOJ report states that during the March 22, 2023, killing of Sabino Carlos Ramos, four gang members ran past an officer to the kitchen area and fatally stabbed a prisoner, with eleven prisoners ultimately stabbed. The AJC also reported that Jon Edward Pippin was accused of beating Jonathan Mitchell with his "foot, knee and fist," causing fatal head trauma, and reportedly confessed. CBS News reported that Rodney Edward Smith, an inmate at the prison, allegedly used smuggled cell phones and aliases to run a hunting-lease fraud scheme from inside the facility before his August 2025 extradition to Florida.

Macon State Prison — Deputy Warden of Administration, from July 16, 2026. Messages submitted to GPS from inside the prison in October 2026 describe a cluster of deaths: one sender reported a second incarcerated person killed in a housing unit and said there had been three killings in two days, with an emergency response team on site; a Telegram group report said an ambulance had left that morning and GBI investigators were still on scene. Other messages described a homicide victim found under a bunk, and a killing in which the victim was reportedly restrained for days and stabbed before the body was set on fire. The messages themselves did not name a facility. GDC said its Office of Professional Standards was investigating Juld Carter's death under standard procedure and that the death was being investigated as a homicide. A September 18, 2026, Telegram report indicated the prison had been taken off lockdown. Gregory Sampson was announced as the prison's new warden effective February 1, 2025.

Litigation

• Federal lawsuit over the death of Bobby Edward Lee Jr. (filed January 21, 2025): alleges Lee was strangled by his cellmate, a convicted murderer, despite his pleas for protection, and blames understaffing and indifference by prison officials; no officers responded until after he was strangled. Jones is not listed as a defendant in the records.
• Southern Center for Human Rights lawsuit at Macon State Prison (filed January 24, 2025, attorney Sarah Geraghty): concerns overcrowding and inadequate bedding, with reports that 96 inmates shared a single toilet.
• State liability payouts recorded in the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger for Macon State Prison incidents during the tenure: $1,375,000 (Bobby Edward Lee, 2020); $750,000 (Coty Silvers, 2020); $98,000 (Javante Harris-Evans, 2021); $32,500 (Robin Kimbrel, 2022); $6,250 (Bavarious Nelson, 2022); $450 (Frank Gillis, 2021).

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — homicide reports and family accounts during the 2018–2025 tenure; staffing and conditions reporting (March 31, 2025; September 16, 2025; January 21, 2025)
• U.S. Department of Justice — October 2024 findings report on Georgia prison conditions
• GDC and its Office of Professional Standards — statements on the 2026 Macon State Prison homicide investigations
• GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (open records) — liability payouts listed above
• CBS News (Miami) — Rodney Edward Smith fraud allegations, August 2025
• Southern Center for Human Rights filings, January 24, 2025
• GPS case submissions from inside Macon State Prison, September–October 2026

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 25, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.