Keith, Tonja T

Tenure Summary

Tonja T. Keith's recorded career in the Georgia Department of Corrections begins in 2018 as a CSM Correctional Unit Manager — a unit-supervisor tier post with no facility listed — at an annual salary of $48,444.21. In 2019 she moved into facility leadership as Deputy Warden at Telfair State Prison, and annual salary records place her there continuously from 2019 ($49,472.88) through 2025 ($75,559.25), the latest full-year record in the set. Every death attributed to her leadership tenure occurred at that one facility: 59 deaths at Telfair State Prison. Court records also list her as a defendant in four federal lawsuits, all terminated, in the Southern District of Georgia. No news reporting in the records names her directly; all intel items are tied to her by her role as Deputy Warden on the date of the event.

What happened on their watch

CSM Correctional Unit Manager (2018; no facility listed). No deaths are attributed to this posting.

Deputy Warden, Telfair State Prison (2019–). Per GPS's facility tally, 59 deaths are attributed to Keith's tenure here — the entirety of her attributed total. A capped, most-recent sample of death records spans March 2020 through July 2026 and includes named decedents such as Cedric La'Troy Johnson Sr., 35, recorded as killed by strangulation (March 2020); Aldrich Norval Cain, 26, and Marcus Derrelle Pearson Jr., 28, recorded as killed by multiple stab wounds (April and May 2020); Luis Garcia Palacio, 41, recorded as killed by blunt impact injuries to the head (July 2020); Kwesi Jamal Stultz, 24, recorded as killed by multiple injuries to the head (December 2023); Zoumana Madiou Sarre, 23, recorded as killed by multiple sharp-force injuries to the neck and torso (July 2024); and Preston Cato Phelps, 28, whose December 2025 death the GDC Office of Professional Standards investigated as a homicide after an altercation with multiple inmates. Many decedents in the sample were in their twenties and thirties; the oldest listed is 74.

Two deaths stand out for the findings attached to them. Juan Carlos Ramirez Bibiano, 27, died July 20, 2023 after officers placed him in a roughly 12-by-8.5-foot fenced outdoor cage with no shade while the heat index reached about 105°F; he was left roughly five hours and arrived at the hospital with an internal body temperature of 107°F, per the incident record. The Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger shows a $3,249,873 payout to his family/estate. In the April 2023 death of De'ahmoz Oshmic Floyd, 29, who died of exsanguination from a stab wound to the neck, a claim filed against the state alleged — as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution — that he was stabbed by several prisoners at a time when no prison staff were present in the dorm, and that he had renounced his gang affiliation and was therefore a target of earlier attacks.

Staffing allegations documented during her tenure include an AJC report dated March 25, 2024 stating Telfair was missing 76% of its essential workforce, with 36 correctional officers supervising 1,400 prisoners, and an AJC report dated May 12, 2025 stating 79% of correctional officer positions were unfilled — 32 officers against a requirement of at least 153. Other recorded incidents in her tenure include a warden stabbed by an inmate during a contraband shakedown (March 2024); the sentencing of Telfair Sergeant Desiree Briley to 18 months for smuggling methamphetamine into the prison for at least two years as part of a Ghost Face Gangsters network; a bomb threat at an Atkinson County school in which the GBI identified Telfair inmate Kendall Alfonzo Stevens as the suspect (August 2025); and a 2021 incident in which legislators were turned away from an unannounced prison tour. Smaller liability payouts tied to Telfair appear in the DOAS ledger: $500 (Deante Gholston, 2024), $1,750 (Ryan Frank DeMon, 2023), $2,600 (Derrell Ruth, 2021), $5,361 (Darryl Thomas, 2021), and $1,850 (David Morris, 2021). The Georgia Senate authorized a study committee on the prison system in March 2024, also within her tenure.

Litigation

• Thomas v. White, No. 3:23-cv-00100 (S.D. Ga.), filed Dec. 21, 2023; terminated Feb. 23, 2024. Keith is listed as a defendant; no outcome amount recorded.
• Powell v. White, No. 3:23-cv-00096 (S.D. Ga.), filed Dec. 4, 2023; terminated March 28, 2024. No outcome amount recorded.
• Hall v. McFarlane, No. 3:23-cv-00094 (S.D. Ga.), filed Nov. 29, 2023; terminated March 4, 2024. No outcome amount recorded.
• McKinney v. White, No. 3:22-cv-00062 (S.D. Ga.), filed June 13, 2022; terminated Sept. 8, 2022. No outcome amount recorded.

The case captions name other officials; the records list Keith as a defendant in each.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — reporting on Telfair State Prison understaffing (March 25, 2024; May 12, 2025) and the claim filed over the April 2023 death of De'ahmoz Oshmic Floyd (Jan. 21, 2025)
• Georgia Department of Administrative Services, Risk Management settlement ledger (open records) — liability payouts tied to Telfair State Prison
• CourtListener dockets, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia — the four terminated cases above
• Georgia Department of Corrections statements and Office of Professional Standards — death and homicide investigations at Telfair, including Preston Cato Phelps and the December 2025 altercation death
• Death certificates and GBI Crime Lab referrals cited in the underlying incident records
• Georgia Senate Supporting Safety and Welfare of All Individuals in the Department of Corrections Facilities Study Committee (authorized March 2024)

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.