Lawson, Nancy LEE

Tenure Summary

Nancy LEE Lawson began her career with the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2015 as a correctional officer and rose through the ranks—serving as lieutenant, captain, and unit manager—before assuming the deputy warden post at Macon State Prison on January 1, 2024. GPS records attribute 48 deaths to Lawson’s leadership tenure, all recorded during her time as deputy warden at Macon State Prison. Her facility-level role coincided with a flood of violence, a U.S. Department of Justice report cataloguing systemic failures, a major drug-trafficking conspiracy run from inside the prison, and the settlement of a federal lawsuit over a prior homicide at the facility.

What happened on their watch

Lawson served as deputy warden at Macon State Prison from January 2024 through 2025. During this span, 48 deaths were recorded at the facility. Homicides accounted for a large share, many caused by inmate-on-inmate stabbings and beatings with makeshift weapons. Reginald Ginn, 31, was beaten to death with a fan motor tied to a belt in March 2024; Mathis Lee Ward, 37, died from sharp force chest trauma inflicted by a homemade metal shank in June; and Shannon Pickett, 48, bled to death from sharp force injuries in July. Suicides included Calvin Earl Noble, 25, who hung himself in a one-man cell in August 2025, and Cassiem Mahlon Johnson, 55, who also died by suicide the same week. Several deaths remained undetermined, among them Eric Roberts, 33, whose body was sent to the GBI crime lab in early 2026 and whose death was under investigation by the GDC’s Office of Professional Standards. In January 2025 alone, Jonathan Mitchell was beaten to death, David Gill died of a drug overdose classified as suicide, and James McDougal’s cause was pending autopsy—part of a broader surge that saw 13 homicides statewide in the year’s first five weeks, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The AJC reported that by October 2024 roughly two-thirds of correctional officer positions at Macon SP were vacant, and the county coroner said he typically encountered only five to eight officers on duty when responding to deaths. The October 2024 DOJ report on Georgia prisons described facilities where assaults, stabbings, and rapes were routine, noting an incident at Macon SP in which four gang members dashed past an officer and fatally stabbed a prisoner. During Lawson’s tenure, a federal lawsuit over the 2020 strangulation of Bobby Edward Lee Jr. at Macon SP—allegedly after officials ignored his pleas for protection—settled for $1.375 million. In January 2025 the Southern Center for Human Rights filed suit over conditions in a unit where 96 men shared one toilet and lacked adequate bedding. Meanwhile, a drug ring operated from inside the prison, with inmates using contraband phones to import fentanyl from China; several participants pleaded guilty in 2026. In September 2024, four correctional officers were arrested for violating their oaths and providing false statements. An inmate, Glen Christian Krauch, was tortured over three weeks in mid-2024 and left with brain bleeds, broken ribs, cigarette burns, and necrotic wounds, according to multiple incident reports.

Litigation

• Willis v. Government Employees Insurance Company, No. 5:23-cv-00430 (GAMD, filed Oct. 26, 2023): Terminated Jan. 23, 2026; no monetary disposition listed.
• Lechter v. Aprio Llp, No. 1:20-cv-01325 (GAND, filed Mar. 26, 2020): Pending as of data cutoff; no disposition.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — investigation of Georgia prison homicides, staffing analyses, DOJ report coverage, and multiple Macon SP death reports (2024–2025)
• 13WMAZ — coverage of Macon State Prison drug trafficking ring and guilty pleas (2026)
• Solitary Watch — historical reporting on Macon SP conditions (strike reference)
• CourtListener — docket records for Willis v. Government Employees Insurance Company and Lechter v. Aprio Llp
• Georgia Prisoners’ Speak records — death tallies, incident reports, and direct source communications from Macon State Prison

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Jun 7, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.