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McDaniel, Derrick B
Status: active
Profile written July 12, 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 Georgia Department of Corrections career as a correctional officer in 2015, rose through staff and unit-supervisor roles as sergeant, lieutenant, sergeant again, and unit manager, and was appointed Deputy Warden at Macon State Prison in 2022, a post he has held through 2025. GPS records attribute 68 deaths to Macon State Prison during his tenure as Deputy Warden — all of them occurring at that single facility. While Georgia Prisoners’ Speak lists no lawsuits naming McDaniel personally as a defendant, Macon State Prison during his watch has been the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation, federal civil-rights litigation, multiple homicide probes, and media reports alleging extreme understaffing, drug-trafficking operations orchestrated from inside the prison, and failures to protect incarcerated people from lethal violence.
What happened on their watch
McDaniel assumed the Deputy Warden role at Macon State Prison in January 2022. From that date through the most recent reporting period, 68 deaths have been documented at the facility under his leadership, according to GPS records. Among the decedents are individuals whose deaths were classified as homicides: James Cornelius McLeroy (stabbed, December 2022), Kendrick Brown (blunt force head injury, October 2022), Dan Brooks (stabbed, August 2022), Joseph Brown (multiple stab wounds, July 2022), and Carlos Ramos (multiple stab wounds, March 2023). In the April 2023 killing of Sabino Carlos Ramos, a U.S. Department of Justice report later noted that four gang members ran past an officer to reach a kitchen area and fatally stabbed the 34-year-old; eleven prisoners were ultimately stabbed in that incident, per the DOJ.
Homicides continued through 2024 and 2025. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution identified and investigated several of them: Mathis Lee Ward (sharp force trauma, June 2024), Devontae Young (sharp force chest trauma, May 2024), Reginald Ginn (blunt force head trauma, March 2024), Kenneth Malcom (sharp force trauma, February 2024), and others. In January 2025, Jonathan Mitchell died from head trauma after a fellow prisoner allegedly beat him with fists, knee, and foot; the AJC reported that the accused assailant later confessed. Earlier, the DOJ report cited an incident in which a prisoner bled for more than half an hour before help arrived, according to a mother’s account published by the AJC. Macon State Prison also recorded multiple suicides during McDaniel’s tenure, including Calvin Noble (hanging, August 2025) and Cassiem Johnson (August 2025). Many other deaths remain classified as undetermined or are awaiting autopsy reports.
Broader systemic failures documented during McDaniel’s deputy warden service included a DOJ investigation released in October 2024 that described Georgia prisons — and Macon State Prison specifically — as places where stabbings, assaults, and sexual violence had become routine amid woeful understaffing. The AJC reported that roughly two-thirds of correctional officer jobs at Macon State Prison were unfilled as of October 2024, and the county coroner told reporters that only five to eight officers were staffing the entire facility when responding to deaths. In January 2025, the Southern Center for Human Rights filed a federal lawsuit alleging that 96 men at the prison were forced to share a single toilet and were denied adequate bedding and hygiene. Also during this period, four Macon State Prison correctional officers were arrested in September 2024 on charges of violating their oath and providing false statements, and in 2026 two men were sentenced to lengthy federal prison terms for directing a fentanyl and synthetic cannabinoid trafficking enterprise from inside the prison using contraband cellphones.
Sources
- GPS Records — death tally and decedent listings for Macon State Prison, 2022–2026
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation, multiple inmate homicide reports, understaffing data, family allegations
- U.S. Department of Justice — 2024 investigation report documenting systemic violence and failures at Georgia prisons, including Macon State Prison
- Southern Center for Human Rights — 2025 federal lawsuit alleging unconstitutional conditions of confinement at Macon State Prison
- 13WMAZ — coverage of drug trafficking operation orchestrated from Macon State Prison
- Ftp.nestcollaborative.com — reports on correctional officer arrests at Macon State Prison in 2024
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
68 people died at facilities under McDaniel, Derrick B's leadership.
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