Kelley, Tina

Tenure Summary

Tina Kelley's career with the Georgia Department of Corrections began as a Correctional Officer at Smith State Prison in 2003, and after a further Corrections Officer (AL) year at Smith State Prison in 2015 she moved into behavioral health work: Behavioral Health Counselor 2 from 2016 through 2021 (with Georgia State Prison listed for 2018 and 2021), Behavioral Health Counselor 3 at Montgomery State Prison in 2022 and at Emanuel Women's Facility in 2023, and Behavioral Health Counselor Supervisor from January 2024 to September 15, 2024. On September 16, 2024, she entered facility leadership as Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment at Rogers State Prison, where payroll records also show her as Deputy Warden in 2025.

GPS attributes 5 deaths to her leadership tenure, all 5 at Rogers State Prison. Two are recorded as Natural/Medical, two as Suicide, and one as Unknown/Pending. She is also listed as a defendant in one federal civil case, Daker v. Bryson, filed in 2016 and terminated in 2017. Since 2026, GPS has logged five reports and allegations arising from Rogers State Prison while she held the Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment role. No news coverage naming her is recorded.

What happened on their watch

Rogers State Prison — Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment (from September 16, 2024), later also listed as Deputy Warden (2025)

Five deaths are attributed to Kelley's tenure at Rogers State Prison. Taylor Anthony Hunt died September 28, 2024, at Rogers State Prison; GPS's registry lists the cause as Suicide, age 29 — twelve days after Kelley's start as Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment. David Edward Wood died February 4, 2025, at Rogers State Prison, cause listed as Natural/Medical; the registry does not give an age. Justin Waymon Hollingsworth died June 26, 2025, at Rogers State Prison, cause listed as Suicide, age 43, while Kelley was recorded as Deputy Warden. Randy Eugene Stewart died July 17, 2025, at Rogers State Prison, cause listed as Natural/Medical, age 60, also during her Deputy Warden period. John Meeks died February 19, 2026, at Rogers State Prison, age 49; GPS's registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, meaning the cause is not yet known and is not recorded as anything else.

Beyond the deaths, the record carries five reports and allegations tied to Rogers State Prison and to Kelley's Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment role. Per a report dated May 28, 2026, two officers were stabbed at Rogers State Prison in 2026, with injuries described as serious and at least one officer transported to an external medical facility. A separate account dated June 2, 2026 states that guards were stabbed during gang-related conflicts at the facility and that the incident appears to have triggered a continuing modified lockdown. Three claims dated September 1, 2026, come from a public comment in a Georgia prison family group by a formerly incarcerated person: that a ceiling fan motor caught fire in a housing unit, that maintenance staff indicated the motor was the cause, that facility leadership and a fire official then discussed needing to blame someone, and that a prisoner from that unit was later removed and charged; that a civilian farm hand on a dairy detail supplied contraband and allowed incarcerated workers into a farm office to use a computer and then told Georgia Correctional Industries staff the workers had broken in; and that a counselor at the facility was arrested after it was discovered he had brought contraband drugs and cell phones inside. These are claims by the sources named, not findings.

Litigation

• Daker v. Bryson, Case No. 5:16-cv-00538, filed December 7, 2016, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia; terminated June 9, 2017. Kelley is listed as a defendant; no outcome amount is recorded. The filing date falls in the period when her listed position was Behavioral Health Counselor 2, with no facility recorded for that year.

Sources

• Georgia Department of Corrections payroll and position records — Kelley's postings at Smith State Prison, Georgia State Prison, Montgomery State Prison, Emanuel Women's Facility and Rogers State Prison, 2003–2026
• GPS death registry — five deaths at Rogers State Prison attributed to her leadership tenure (Hunt, Wood, Hollingsworth, Stewart, Meeks)
• CourtListener — Daker v. Bryson, 5:16-cv-00538 (filed Dec. 7, 2016; terminated June 9, 2017)
• Facebook, public comment in a Georgia prison family group — three former-prisoner claims at Rogers State Prison (report dated September 1, 2026)
• GPS case submissions — officer stabbing report at Rogers State Prison (report dated May 28, 2026)
• GPS intelligence conversation record — gang-related stabbing of guards and modified lockdown at Rogers State Prison (report dated June 2, 2026)

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 11, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.