Home › Intelligence › Personnel Accountability › Kellom, Jimmy J
Kellom, Jimmy J
Status: active
Profile written August 2, 2026
Salary
$72,656
2025 · state payroll
This profile reflects positional accountability — this individual held the leadership roles shown during the dates shown, during which the listed deaths or lawsuits occurred. Inclusion does not constitute a legal finding of personal culpability for any specific incident.
Tenure Summary
Jimmy J. Kellom’s career with the Georgia Department of Corrections spans two decades, beginning as a Correctional Officer at Wilcox State Prison in 2005. After a decade-long gap in state payroll records, he returned to Wilcox in 2015 as an officer, rose to Correctional Sergeant, then transferred in 2022 to Telfair State Prison as a CSM Correctional Lieutenant. He advanced through Captain and Unit Manager roles before being appointed Deputy Warden of Security at Wilcox State Prison in May 2026, the highest leadership tier he has held. GPS records attribute one death — that of 65-year-old Gary Dwayne Felver — to a facility during Kellom’s leadership tenure. The death occurred at Wilcox State Prison roughly six weeks after he assumed the deputy warden role. While his prior supervisory postings at Telfair coincided with a period of extraordinary violence and a high-profile heat-related death that resulted in a $3.2 million state settlement, no deaths have been formally attributed to him from that period.What happened on their watch
Wilcox State Prison – Deputy Warden of Security (May 2026–present)
Kellom was sworn in as Deputy Warden of Security at Wilcox State Prison on May 1, 2026. On June 15, 2026, Gary Dwayne Felver, age 65, died at the facility. The records provided to GPS list no cause of death, only a cause category, and no further notes were available. Felver’s death is the single fatality attributed to a facility under Kellom’s leadership in GPS records. A public Facebook allegation posted days before Kellom’s start date claimed that Wilcox routinely limits inmate movement and that basic supplies like toothbrushes and undergarments had gone unissued for roughly a year, though staff were reportedly provided new uniforms; there is no indication Kellom was involved in that alleged practice. Earlier in the year, Wilcox experienced a gang fight that hospitalized nine inmates and a lockdown following multiple stabbings, but both incidents predate Kellom’s tenure.Telfair State Prison – Unit Supervisor roles (2022–2025)
Between 2022 and 2025, Kellom held three sequentially higher unit supervisor positions at Telfair State Prison: CSM Correctional Lieutenant, CSM Correctional Captain, and CSM Correctional Unit Manager. During this window, Telfair was the site of repeated homicides, a U.S. Department of Justice finding that Georgia’s prisons are “gang-run” and riddled with violence and sexual assault, and a widely reported death that led to a multimillion-dollar settlement. On July 20, 2023, inmate Juan Carlos Ramirez Bibiano died after being left in an unshaded outdoor cage for roughly five hours while the heat index reached 105°F; a 13WMAZ report cites an officer allegedly saying “if he dies, he dies” when Bibiano pleaded for help. The state later paid $3.2 million to his family. Other inmate homicides at Telfair during Kellom’s tenure included: Xavier LaMar Warren (December 2022, stab wound), De’ahmoz Oshmic Floyd (April 2023, stabbed in neck; family claims he was attacked when no staff were present), Kwesi Jamal Stultz (December 2023, blunt head injuries), Joey Lebron Kilgore (February 2024), Lamar Wilson (June 2024), Zoumana Madiou Sarre (July 2024, sharp force injuries), Henry Crump and Eric Whitehead (September 2024), and multiple others. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Telfair was missing as much as 79% of its correctional officer positions, leaving only a few dozen officers to supervise around 1,400 prisoners. A federal drug-trafficking case, Operation Ghost Busted, also revealed that a Telfair sergeant had helped an inmate smuggle methamphetamine inside the prison for at least two years. GPS records do not formally attribute any of these deaths to Kellom’s unit-supervisor roles, but the incidents and systemic failures defined the environment at the facility while he held increasing responsibility.Earlier Wilcox State Prison appointments (2005, 2015–2021)
Kellom’s earlier service at Wilcox as a Correctional Officer (2005) and later as a Correctional Officer II and Sergeant (2015–2021) preceded his leadership-tier roles. During those years, several lawsuits against the state involving Wilcox were settled, including a $750,000 payout over the 2017 hanging death of James Wheeler — which an AJC report alleges resulted from a failure to recognize his mental health needs despite a history of self-harm — and a $550,000 settlement for Jimmy Lucero (2016 incident). No fatalities are attributed to Kellom’s staff-level tenures.Sources
- GPS intelligence records — personnel profile and facility-level death attributions.
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — multiple reports on Telfair State Prison homicides, staffing shortages, contraband smuggling, the James Wheeler death at Wilcox, and the DOJ gang-violence findings.
- 13WMAZ — coverage of the Juan Carlos Ramirez Bibiano heat death and $3.2 million settlement, including the allegation that an officer said “if he dies, he dies.”
- Solitary Watch — historical reporting on tactical officer rampages and heat shutoffs at Telfair.
- U.S. Department of Justice — report on gang-run Georgia prisons (2024).
- GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (open records) — settlements for incidents at Telfair and Wilcox State Prisons.
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| Deputy Warden of Security | WILCOX STATE PRISON | 2026-05-01 → present |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER | TELFAIR STATE PRISON | 2024-01-01 → present |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL CAPTAIN | TELFAIR STATE PRISON | 2023-01-01 → 2023-12-31 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL LIEUTENANT | TELFAIR STATE PRISON | 2022-01-01 → 2022-12-31 |
| CORRECTIONAL SERGEANT | WILCOX STATE PRISON | 2019-01-01 → 2021-12-31 |
| CORRECTIONAL OFC 2 | WILCOX STATE PRISON | 2016-01-01 → 2018-12-31 |
| CORRECTIONS OFFICER(WL) | WILCOX STATE PRISON | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
| Correctional Officer | WILCOX STATE PRISON | 2005-01-01 → 2005-12-31 |
Deaths attributed during tenure
1 people died at facilities under Kellom, Jimmy J's leadership.
| Date | Decedent | Age | Facility | Role at time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-15 | GARY DWAYNE FELVER | 65 | WILCOX STATE PRISON | Deputy Warden of Security |
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