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McDaniel, Derrick B
Status: active
Profile written June 7, 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
Derrick B. McDaniel began his career with the Georgia Department of Corrections as a correctional officer in 2015 and rose through the ranks — serving as sergeant, lieutenant, and unit manager — before being appointed deputy warden at Macon State Prison in 2022. He held that facility-deputy position through at least 2025. GPS records attribute 67 deaths to Macon State Prison during McDaniel’s tenure as deputy warden, a period defined by a surge of homicides, suicides, and undetermined deaths. The bloodshed occurred amid what a U.S. Department of Justice investigation described as horrific conditions, and an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis found that roughly two-thirds of correctional officer posts at the prison were vacant by late 2024.The facility drew sustained national scrutiny. A DOJ report documented routine violence; the AJC chronicled dozens of inmate-on-inmate homicides; and a federal lawsuit over a prior strangulation death was settled for $1.375 million while McDaniel served as deputy warden. In early 2025, a separate class-action lawsuit alleged that 96 men were forced to share a single toilet in one dormitory. Though no suit has named McDaniel individually, his watch coincided with record-setting prisoner fatalities and systemic collapse inside Georgia’s deadliest lockup.
What happened on their watch
MACON STATE PRISON — Deputy Warden (2022–2025) The 67 deaths attributed to Macon State Prison during McDaniel’s tenure as deputy warden overwhelmingly involved inmate-on-inmate violence. Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, James Cornelius McLeroy, 26, died of stab wounds in December 2022; Kendrick Malik Brown, 25, suffered a blunt force head injury in October 2022 — his mother later alleged he was placed in a cell with a known dangerous prisoner shortly before his scheduled release. In 2023, Carlos Sabino Ramos, 34, was stabbed multiple times in a gang assault; Kevin Deshawn Lamar, 44, died of sharp force chest trauma; Taurean Dante Hardy, 40, was killed in an altercation with his cellmate. The violence accelerated in 2024: Kenneth Keith Malcom, 38, died of sharp force trauma to the head, neck and torso; Reginald Lamar Ginn, 31, received blunt force head injuries; Mathis Lee Ward, 37, was assaulted with a homemade sharp instrument; Shannon Wayne Pickett, 48, bled to death from sharp force injuries. In 2025, homicides continued with Sanchez Jackson, 48, killed in what an investigator told his family was a gang attack; Pierre Cedric Scott, 41, was killed by his cellmate in the segregation unit; Xavier Anthony Adams, 40, died in another homicide; and Marquis Young, 37, was also listed as a homicide. Suicides contributed to the toll: Calvin Earl Noble, 25, hanged himself in a one-man cell in August 2025; Cassiem Mahlon Johnson, 55, died by suicide the same month; David Gill died of a drug overdose in January 2025, which GPS records classify as suicide.The deputy warden’s watch unfolded against a backdrop of a staggering staffing emergency and collapsing infrastructure. Per the AJC, about two-thirds of correctional officer jobs at Macon State Prison were unfilled as of October 2024, leaving only five to eight officers to staff the entire facility when deaths occurred. A U.S. Department of Justice report released that same month described how “assaults, stabbings and rapes had become routine” in woefully understaffed Georgia prisons. GPS intelligence records further document an incident in mid-2024 in which inmate Glen Christian Krauch was tortured for three weeks and left under a bunk with brain bleeds, broken ribs, cigarette burns, and a necrotic wound. In September 2024, four Macon State Prison correctional officers were arrested for violating their oaths and providing false statements. A Southern Center for Human Rights lawsuit filed in January 2025 alleged that a dormitory housed 96 men who were forced to share a single toilet, with inadequate bedding and severe sanitation deprivation.
Litigation
- Bobby Edward Lee Jr. estate v. Georgia prison officials — A federal lawsuit alleged that Lee, who was strangled by his cellmate in July 2020, was placed with a known violent offender despite pleas for protection, and that understaffing and indifference by officials caused his death. The state settled the case in January 2025 for $1.375 million, during McDaniel’s tenure as deputy warden.
- Southern Center for Human Rights v. Macon State Prison (2025) — Filed in federal court in January 2025, this class-action lawsuit alleged that conditions in a Macon SP dormitory violated the Eighth Amendment, citing 96 inmates sharing one toilet, inadequate bedding, and a sanitation crisis.
Sources
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — multiple homicide investigations, DOJ report summary, staffing data, and individual death accounts at Macon State Prison.
- U.S. Department of Justice — investigation report released October 2024 describing horrific conditions and routine violence across Georgia prisons.
- GPS records — death counts and individual decedent details for 67 deaths at Macon State Prison under McDaniel’s deputy warden tenure.
- Southern Center for Human Rights — 2025 lawsuit filings detailing dormitory sanitation and overcrowding at Macon SP.
- 13WMAZ — reporting on officer arrests and drug trafficking pleas at Macon State Prison.
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| DEPUTY WARDEN | MACON STATE PRISON | 2022-01-01 → present |
| CORRECTIONAL UNIT MANAGER | 2021-01-01 → 2021-12-31 | |
| CORRECTIONAL SERGEANT | 2019-01-01 → 2020-12-31 | |
| CORRECTIONAL LIEUTENANT | 2017-01-01 → 2018-12-31 | |
| CORRECTIONAL SERGEANT | 2016-01-01 → 2016-12-31 | |
| CORRECTIONS OFFICER (SP) | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
Deaths attributed during tenure
67 people died at facilities under McDaniel, Derrick B's leadership.
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