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Lawson, Nancy LEE
On GDC's 2025 payroll
Profile written September 23, 2026
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
Nancy Lee Lawson entered Georgia Department of Corrections service in 2015 as a correctional officer and, per GDC personnel and salary records, advanced through lieutenant (2016), captain (2017–2020), correctional unit manager (2021–2023), and a unit-manager posting at Macon State Prison recorded Nov. 22, 2023. From 2024 she held the Deputy Warden role at Macon State Prison, with salary records for 2024 and 2025 and a position record dated Aug. 27, 2026; her personnel status is listed as active.
Fifty deaths are attributed to her facility-leadership tenure — all 50 at Macon State Prison, all recorded while she held the Deputy Warden role there, per GDC records compiled by GPS. No lawsuit in the records names her as a defendant, and no news coverage in the records names her directly.
What happened on their watch
Correctional officer, lieutenant, captain, unit manager (2015–2023). Records show these non-leadership and unit-supervisor postings, with the unit-manager role listed at Macon State Prison on Nov. 22, 2023.
Deputy Warden, Macon State Prison (2024–2026). This is the posting to which all 50 attributed deaths belong. The recorded decedents range from age 25 (Calvin Earl Noble, Aug. 26, 2025) to 77 (Randall Allen Cleveland, Nov. 30, 2025), and include men in their twenties and thirties — among them D'Andrius Brown (30), Johnathan Douglas Vann (26), Darrell Brent Dasher (27), Devontae Marquez Young (28) and Marquel Smith (29). Death records for the period list cause code categories without decoded labels; the largest single group falls under category 6, followed by category 3.
AJC reporting from inside this tenure documents specific deaths and conditions. Jonathan Mitchell died after being beaten by fellow prisoner Jon Edward Pippin, who was accused of using his "foot, knee and fist" on Mitchell's head and face (AJC, March 31, 2025). Henry Finley died Jan. 18, 2025 after being stabbed, confirmed by Macon County Coroner Eddie T. Hosley. Medical-examiner findings reported by the AJC record Reginald Ginn (31) beaten with a fan motor tied to a belt, Shannon Pickett (49) dying of exsanguination and sharp-force trauma, Mathis Lee Ward (37) assaulted with a sharpened two-piece metal instrument, and Kenneth Keith Malcom (38) killed by sharp-force trauma. Per AJC reporting dated Sept. 16, 2025, Sanchez Jackson was killed at Macon — his sister was told by an investigator there was a rumor he died in a gang attack, and the family received only a brief call from the warden.
Staffing and conditions allegations during the same period: about two-thirds of correctional officer jobs at Macon State Prison were unfilled as of October 2024, and the coroner reported only five to eight officers staffing the facility when responding to deaths (AJC, March 31, 2025). The same reporting cites a U.S. Department of Justice report released October 2024 describing assaults, stabbings and rapes as routine in understaffed Georgia prisons; the DOJ findings state that four gang members ran past an officer to a kitchen area and fatally stabbed a prisoner. That AJC coverage also notes a record 66 homicide investigations and 332 total prisoner deaths statewide in 2024.
Facility-level litigation filed during her tenure, none naming her: a Southern Center for Human Rights suit (Jan. 24, 2025) alleging overcrowding and inadequate bedding, with 96 inmates sharing a single toilet, and a federal suit over the death of Bobby Edward Lee Jr. (Jan. 21, 2025) alleging he was strangled by a cellmate and blaming understaffing and indifference by prison officials. Gregory Sampson became warden at Macon on Feb. 1, 2025, per GDC records.
Sources
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — homicide reports at Macon State Prison during 2024–2025 Deputy Warden tenure; "Prison homicides soar as Georgia legislators focus on fixes" (March 31, 2025); "GA prison homicides: a list of those killed in Georgia's prison system" (Jan. 21, 2025); "Georgia prison homicides outpacing last year" (Sept. 16, 2025); "Prison system failures cost Georgia taxpayers millions" (Jan. 21, 2025)
- U.S. Department of Justice — October 2024 findings on conditions in Georgia prisons, as reported by the AJC
- GDC personnel and salary records; Georgia death and incident records as compiled by GPS
- Court records — Southern Center for Human Rights suit at Macon State Prison (filed Jan. 24, 2025); federal suit over the death of Bobby Edward Lee Jr. (filed Jan. 21, 2025)
- Macon County Coroner Eddie T. Hosley, as cited in AJC reporting on the death of Henry Finley
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| Deputy Warden | MACON STATE PRISON | 2026-08-27 → present |
| Deputy Warden of Security | MACON STATE PRISON | 2026-07-16 → present |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | MACON STATE PRISON | 2024-01-01 → present |
| CSM Correctional Unit Manager | MACON STATE PRISON | 2023-11-22 → 2023-11-22 |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER | 2021-01-01 → 2023-12-31 | |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL CAPTAIN | 2017-01-01 → 2020-12-31 | |
| CSM CORRECTIONAL LIEUTENANT | 2016-01-01 → 2016-12-31 | |
| CORRECTIONS OFFICER (SP) | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
Deaths attributed during tenure
50 people died at facilities under Lawson, Nancy LEE's leadership.
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