Jones, Deshawn B

Tenure Summary

Deshawn B. Jones began his Georgia Department of Corrections career as a correctional officer at Arrendale State Prison in 2006 and returned to that facility in 2015. GPS records show he moved into a social services program manager role at Arrendale Transitional Center in 2016, held a correctional assistant superintendent post in 2017, and served as correctional superintendent at Atlanta Transitional Center in 2018. His first facility-leader posting came at Rutledge State Prison, where GPS records place him as correctional superintendent in 2020 and warden from December 2020 to June 2022. He then led Phillips State Prison from 2022 until June 2024, and Augusta State Medical Prison from June 16, 2024 onward.

GPS records attribute 127 deaths across Jones’s leadership tenures: 3 at Rutledge State Prison, 22 at Phillips State Prison, and 102 at Augusta State Medical Prison. Jones is also linked in GPS records to five federal lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia; four remain pending and one terminated.

What happened on their watch

Rutledge State Prison (2020–2022; 3 deaths attributed)

GPS records attribute three deaths to Jones’s Rutledge leadership. Harold Edward Brown, 53, died on March 5, 2021; the Georgia Department of Corrections’ own coding, obtained by the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project through an open records request, classified the death as natural, though GPS notes no autopsy supported that determination. Curtis Mincey, 74, died on July 22, 2021; according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s homicide investigation, his cause was blunt force trauma to the head, neck, torso, and extremities, while GDC’s coding listed natural—a conflict flagged in GPS records. The AJC also reported that a lawsuit filed by Mincey’s sister alleged he had a mental illness and did not receive appropriate medical or psychological assistance before his death. Boyzie Barnes, 65, died on April 30, 2022, with no cause listed in GPS records.

Phillips State Prison (2022–June 2024; 22 deaths attributed)

At Phillips, GPS records attribute 22 deaths during Jones’s tenure. The documented sample includes several young men killed in custody: Jamal Cymonne Johnson, 32; Sidney Neally, 22; Jacob Daniels, 18; Quafabian Melik McBride, 19; Alim Racheed Lovett, 33; and Arthur Wimbush, 46. Coroner records from Gwinnett County and the GBI Medical Examiner’s Office list homicides for these decedents. Suicides recorded during the period include Joseph Ray Morrison, 57; James Arthur Smith, 25; Jerry Dewayne Hunnicutt, 38; and William Jason McClure, 45. AJC reporting carried an allegation that officers arranged for McBride to be brought to a lockdown unit on the day he was killed in a gang-related stabbing, and a separate allegation that prisoner Dave Stone was assaulted in a mental health ward with two pipes wrapped in cloth, resulting in brain death. Those remain allegations, not established findings in the GPS record.

Augusta State Medical Prison (June 16, 2024–present; 102 deaths attributed)

Augusta accounts for 102 of the 127 attributed deaths. GPS records and Richmond County Coroner’s Office summaries document many natural deaths, including cancers, cardiac disease, COPD, sepsis, kidney failure, and other conditions. The sample also includes suicides: Milton Cameron, 49, by ligature hanging on September 5, 2024; Jamie Lang Lewis, 53, by hanging on June 29, 2024; and Stephen Prochaska, 70, by hanging on January 21, 2025, confirmed by a GBI autopsy. Homicide-related records include Jacobi Alandis Chomicki, 23, who a user-reported witness account describes as killed in the D2 unit on May 22, 2026; and Jerry Merritt, 59, who a user report describes as stabbed with a sharpened object on January 20, 2026. GPS intel events note that the GDC Office of Professional Standards opened investigations into Augusta deaths as standard procedure. The state reached a $5 million settlement in January 2025 over the death of Thomas Henry Giles at Augusta, though Giles died in October 2020, before Jones’s tenure. AJC and DOJ-related reporting also documented systemic allegations at Augusta, including failures to protect prisoners from violence.

Litigation

• Leaphart v. Jones, 1:23-cv-02227, filed May 17, 2023, in the Northern District of Georgia; terminated March 28, 2024.
• Doe v. Georgia Department of Corrections, 1:23-cv-05578, filed December 6, 2023; pending.
• Emery v. Holt, 1:24-cv-03486, filed August 6, 2024; pending.
• Ryhme v. Georgia Department of Corrections, 1:24-cv-04156, filed September 16, 2024; pending.
• Morgan v. Oliver, 1:25-cv-01700, filed March 31, 2025; pending.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia prison homicides investigation, prison-system failures reporting, and related Augusta State Medical Prison and Phillips State Prison coverage.
• Richmond County Coroner’s Office summaries, obtained via GPS ORR records.
• Gwinnett County Coroner / GBI Medical Examiner records for Phillips State Prison deaths.
• GDC monthly mortality reports and UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project custodial mortality dataset.
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia dockets via CourtListener.
• DOJ investigation materials as referenced in AJC reporting.
• GPS records, intelligence reports, and case submissions.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Aug 16, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.