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 later returned to that facility as a Corrections Officer in 2015. By 2017 he had risen to Correctional Assistant Superintendent—a facility-deputy post—and in 2018 he became a Correctional Superintendent at the Atlanta Transitional Center. After a year in a superintendent role without a specified facility (2019), Jones was appointed Correctional Superintendent at Rutledge State Prison (2020) and soon advanced to Warden 1 there (2021). He then moved to Phillips State Prison as Warden 1 (2022) and Warden 2 (2023). Since January 2024, he has served as Warden 3—and from June 2024 as Warden—at Augusta State Medical Prison, the GDC’s largest medical-prison facility. GPS records attribute 157 deaths to facilities during his leadership tenures: 6 at Rutledge, 15 at Phillips, and 136 at Augusta State Medical Prison. Five federal lawsuits name Jones as a defendant; one was terminated, and four remain pending.

What happened on their watch

Rutledge State Prison (2020–2021)

Jones served as Correctional Superintendent in 2020 and Warden 1 in 2021. GPS records show six deaths at the facility during that span. Among them, the July 2021 death of Curtis Mincey, 74, was ruled a homicide by blunt force trauma to the head, neck, torso, and extremities, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation. A lawsuit filed by Mincey’s sister alleged that he suffered from a mental illness but did not receive appropriate medical or psychological assistance, per the AJC. The 2020 deaths—Richard Hatcher, Terry Williams, James Mitchell, and Andrew Campbell—are all recorded without a detailed cause category in the capped sample, though their official records list them under a general “pending/unknown” cause category. In a separate incident, the AJC reported that a sergeant at Rutledge was accused of providing contraband to prisoners in exchange for money, part of a broader contraband scheme; that allegation falls within Jones’s tenure.

Phillips State Prison (2022–2023)

As Warden 1 (2022) and Warden 2 (2023), Jones oversaw a period in which GPS records attribute 15 deaths to the facility. Gwinnett County coroner and GBI records—obtained by GPS—document multiple homicides: Alim Lovett (33), Quafabian McBride (19), Jacob Daniels (18), Sidney Neally (22), and Jamal Johnson (32) were all killed by homicide in 2022. Two suicides were also recorded: Joseph Morrison (57) and James Smith (25). In 2023, Arthur Wimbush (46) died by homicide, and Randall Futch (61)—initially ruled natural—was later reclassified by the Richmond County Coroner as a homicide from delayed complications of blunt force head trauma. The AJC reported an allegation that officers arranged for inmate McBride to be brought to a lockdown unit on the day he was stabbed in a gang-related killing; the publication also described an alleged assault in a mental health ward where a prisoner was beaten with pipes, resulting in brain death.

Augusta State Medical Prison (2024–present)

Jones became Warden 3 in January 2024 (and Warden in June 2024) at Augusta State Medical Prison, where GPS records attribute 136 deaths through the available data. The facility is the state’s primary prison for seriously ill and mentally fragile incarcerated people, and the death list includes a high proportion of natural causes—cancer, organ failure, sepsis, and chronic disease dominate the records, per Richmond County Coroner summaries. Nevertheless, violent deaths have occurred on Jones’s watch. In January 2026, Jerry Wayne Merritt, 59, was stabbed to death by a fellow prisoner over a commissary debt, according to witness accounts GPS collected; the assailant allegedly told a source he “went out so bad” over a list of owed items. In May 2026, Jacobi Alandis Chomicki, 23, was killed in a homicide in the D2 unit; a GPS user report identified an alleged assailant who had recently transferred into the prison. Suicides documented during Jones’s tenure include Stephen Prochaska (by hanging, January 2025) and Milton Cameron (ligature hanging, September 2024), per coroner records.

Beyond individual deaths, the AJC has reported that a DOJ investigation found Augusta prisoner Rodarick Lee Hayes had been attacked multiple times before his death, indicating a potential failure-to-protect pattern. The newspaper also detailed an allegation that guards moved a prisoner with a violent strangulation history into Eddie Gosier’s cell, leading to Gosier’s murder hours later. In a separate case, the state paid $5 million to settle a lawsuit over the 2020 death of Thomas Henry Giles, who died of smoke inhalation after being left in a smoke-filled cell at Augusta—the settlement came after Jones became warden and underscores long-running safety concerns at the facility. During Jones’s tenure, the AJC’s two-year investigation into GDC corruption, understaffing, and record homicides included Augusta State Medical Prison as a focal point, and a federal judge rebuked the department for defying court orders, holding the Commissioner in contempt.

Litigation

• Leaphart v. Jones, No. 1:23-cv-02227 (N.D. Ga.), filed May 17, 2023, terminated March 28, 2024; no settlement amount disclosed.
• Doe v. Georgia Department of Corrections, No. 1:23-cv-05578 (N.D. Ga.), filed December 6, 2023; pending.
• Emery v. Holt, No. 1:24-cv-03486 (N.D. Ga.), filed August 6, 2024; pending.
• Ryhme v. Georgia Department of Corrections, No. 1:24-cv-04156 (N.D. Ga.), filed September 16, 2024; pending.
• Morgan v. Oliver, No. 1:25-cv-01700 (N.D. Ga.), filed March 31, 2025; pending.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — homicide and contraband investigations, reporting on Curtis Mincey lawsuit, DOJ findings, and conditions at Augusta and Phillips State Prisons.
• Richmond County Coroner’s Office — death summaries for Augusta State Medical Prison (natural, accident, suicide, homicide determinations).
• Gwinnett County Coroner / GBI Medical Examiner records — death determinations for Phillips State Prison.
• GPS user reports and automated death detections — witness accounts of the Chomicki and Merritt homicides, facility conditions.
• U.S. Department of Justice — investigation findings on repeated attacks of Rodarick Lee Hayes at Augusta.
• Court records (Northern District of Georgia, via CourtListener) — lawsuits naming Jones as a defendant.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Jul 12, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.