Jones, Deserre'

Tenure Summary

Deserre' Jones entered the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2015 in a central-office financial operations role and moved through business-support analyst postings in 2016 and 2017 — all without an assigned facility — before being named Deputy Warden at Macon State Prison in 2018. Jones has held that deputy warden post continuously in the records reviewed, with annual salary rising from $51,182.40 in 2018 to $74,324.91 in 2025; separate position entries list the same title dated Nov. 22, 2023, and Aug. 27, 2026. Jones is not the warden of record at Macon State: GDC announced on Feb. 1, 2025 that Gregory Sampson, formerly warden at Dooly State Prison, took over the top job there.

GPS attributes 89 deaths at Macon State Prison to Jones's leadership tenure as deputy warden — the only facility where he has held a leadership post. The records list no lawsuit naming Jones as a defendant. During his tenure the facility was the subject of a Southern Center for Human Rights suit over crowding and sanitation filed Jan. 24, 2025, a federal suit over the 2020 strangulation death of Bobby Edward Lee Jr., and sustained AJC reporting on homicides and staffing, alongside a U.S. Department of Justice findings report on Georgia prison conditions released in October 2024.

What happened on their watch

Macon State Prison — Deputy Warden, 2018 to present (89 deaths attributed)

The deaths in the sampled record run from Johnny Eugene Young, 24, who died Jan. 27, 2020 of a sharp-force injury to the mouth and tongue, to Brett Michael Scudder, 37, who died June 20, 2026. Decedent ages in that sample range from 23 (Carrington Juwon Frye, March 20, 2020) to 77 (Randall Allen Cleveland, Nov. 30, 2025). Recorded causes are dominated by sharp-force and blunt-force trauma, ligature strangulation and asphyxia. Named decedents include Sabino Carlos Ramos, 34 (March 22, 2023), Kevin Deshawn Lamar, 44 (Aug. 10, 2023), Jonathan Mitchell (Jan. 21, 2025), Henry Finley (Jan. 18, 2025), Sanchez Jackson (June 2025), and Taurean Hardy, 41 (Dec. 10, 2023).

Conditions at the facility drew repeated findings inside this period. Per the AJC (March 31, 2025), about two-thirds of correctional officer jobs at Macon State were unfilled as of October 2024, and the Macon County coroner reported only five to eight officers staffing the entire facility when responding to deaths. The same reporting says low staffing let gangs exert influence and that poor maintenance — locks that don't work, wall and ceiling material easily fashioned into shanks — fed violence. A DOJ report cited by the AJC stated that four gang members ran past an officer to the kitchen area and fatally stabbed a prisoner, with eleven prisoners ultimately stabbed. A Southern Center for Human Rights suit filed Jan. 24, 2025 was reported to document 96 inmates sharing a single toilet.

Family accounts in AJC reporting allege specific failures: that Kendrick Malik Brown, 25, was placed in a cell with a prisoner known to be dangerous a month before his scheduled release; that Carrington Juwon Frye bled for more than half an hour after being stabbed before help arrived; and that Bobby Edward Lee Jr., 38, was strangled by a cellmate, a convicted murderer, after officials placed him there despite his pleas — the basis of a federal suit alleging understaffing and indifference. Per the AJC, Sanchez Jackson's family received only a brief call from the warden about his death, with a promised follow-up that never came; Jackson's sister said he told her as many as four men were packed into one cell. Separately, per GDC records reported by the AJC, inmate Rodney Edward Smith was extradited to Florida on Aug. 16, 2025 over an alleged hunting-lease fraud scheme run from inside the prison using smuggled cell phones between July 1, 2025 and April 30, 2025. Other recorded incidents during the tenure include the reported torture of Glen Christian Krauch, found in January 2025 with brain bleeds, broken ribs, cigarette burns and a necrotic wound.

State liability payouts tied to incidents at Macon State during this period appear in the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger: $1,375,000 (Bobby Edward Lee, 2020 incident), $750,000 (Coty Silvers, 2020), $98,000 (Javante Harris-Evans, 2021), $32,500 (Robin Kimbrel, 2022), $6,250 (Bavarious Nelson, 2022) and $450 (Frank Gillis, 2021).

Litigation

• No suit lists Jones as a defendant in the records reviewed.
• Federal lawsuit over the death of Bobby Edward Lee Jr. (recorded Jan. 21, 2025) — alleges Lee was strangled by his cellmate, a convicted murderer, and blames understaffing and indifference by prison officials. Facility-level, not naming Jones.
• Southern Center for Human Rights suit against Macon State Prison (filed Jan. 24, 2025); attorney Sarah Geraghty named in connection with the filing — overcrowding, inadequate bedding and hygiene, 96 inmates sharing one toilet. Facility-level, not naming Jones.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — "Georgia prison homicides outpacing last year" (Sept. 16, 2025); "Prison homicides soar as Georgia legislators focus on fixes" (March 31, 2025); "GA prison homicides: a list of those killed in Georgia's prison system" (Jan. 21, 2025); "Prison system failures cost Georgia taxpayers millions"
• U.S. Department of Justice — findings on Georgia prison conditions, released October 2024
• Southern Center for Human Rights — Jan. 24, 2025 filing on Macon State Prison conditions (attorney Sarah Geraghty)
• Georgia Department of Administrative Services, Risk Management settlement ledger (open records)
• Macon County Coroner Eddie T. Hosley, as quoted by the AJC
• GDC position and salary records, 2015–2026

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 23, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.