Kendrick, Lameka A

Tenure Summary

Lameka A. Kendrick's recorded GDC career began in 2015 as a behavioral health counselor and progressed through a behavioral health counselor supervisor post held from 2017 through 2021, a Correctional Unit Manager year in 2022, and Correctional Sergeant assignments recorded from 2023 through 2025. Her state salary rose from $31,601.52 in 2015 to $71,500.01 in 2025, per the position records. On August 16, 2026, she was recorded as Deputy Warden of Security at Dooly State Prison — the only facility-leadership post in her file, and the post under which the one death attributed to her tenure occurred.

GPS's records attribute one death to her leadership tenure, all of it at Dooly State Prison. No lawsuits naming her as a defendant appear in the records, and her listed status is active with no superseding sourced status.

What happened on their watch

Dooly State Prison — Deputy Warden of Security (from August 16, 2026)

Five days into her tenure, on August 21, 2026, Jerry Jerome Smith died at Dooly State Prison; GPS's death registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. He was 61. An inside report to GPS dated the same day describes an incarcerated person reported dead at the facility, with the cause unconfirmed and the facility reportedly in lockdown.

Other reports from Dooly reached GPS during her tenure as Deputy Warden of Security, all of them allegations from inside sources rather than documented findings. A report dated October 8, 2026 describes a disturbance in which roughly a dozen officers entered a housing unit and an incarcerated person was reportedly struck; the reports do not specify who struck the person. A second report of the same date describes a tactical squad accompanied by state officers moving through the facility overnight and entering a housing unit before leaving. A report dated October 10, 2026 alleges that the last meal that day was served at 12:10 pm and the next was breakfast at 5 to 6 am the following morning — a gap of about 17 hours — against GDC's own food-service policy (SOP 409.04.02), which the report says caps the evening-to-breakfast gap at 14 hours, including on two-meal weekend days. Each of these is an uncorroborated inside account and is presented here as an allegation.

Also reported during her tenure at Dooly, on August 20, 2026: former GDC cadet Julius Deshawn Williams Jr., 29, was sentenced to 10 years in prison plus five years of supervised release for smuggling methamphetamine into the prison, per WGXA. WGXA reported that Williams smuggled 640 grams of 100% pure methamphetamine into Dooly and had attempted to bring methamphetamine to an inmate while undergoing cadet training; he pleaded guilty in December to one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia. The underlying conduct predates Kendrick's tenure — the investigation began in June 2024, when GDC officers found four packages of meth hidden in his pants during a routine search, and a subsequent vehicle search uncovered four more packages and a pistol.

Macon State Prison appears in her file as brief assignment records only: CSM Correctional Sergeant on November 22, 2023, and CSM Correctional Unit Manager on August 27, 2026.

Sources

• GPS death registry — entry for Jerry Jerome Smith, died August 21, 2026, Dooly State Prison, cause listed Unknown/Pending
• Inside reports to GPS — Dooly State Prison submissions dated August 21, October 8 (two reports), and October 10, 2026
• WGXA — reporting on the sentencing of Julius Deshawn Williams Jr. for smuggling methamphetamine into Dooly State Prison
• U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia — plea and sentencing details as reported by WGXA
• GDC food-service policy SOP 409.04.02 — cited in the October 10, 2026 inside report
• GDC position and salary records — career history, 2015–2026

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 18, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.