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McDaniel, Derrick B
Status: active
Profile written May 31, 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 rose through Georgia Department of Corrections ranks from correctional officer in 2015 to deputy warden of Macon State Prison, a role he has held since 2022. During his leadership tenure at the facility, GPS records attribute 66 deaths to Macon State Prison — the only facility tied to his command post. Those deaths occurred against a backdrop of severe understaffing, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that condemned conditions, and a surge in prison homicides statewide.What happened on their watch
McDaniel began serving as deputy warden at Macon State Prison in January 2022. Over the subsequent years, GPS records document 66 deaths at the prison while he remained in that role. The deaths encompass a wide range: homicides by sharp-force and blunt trauma, suicides, and undetermined or pending causes. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s investigation, many of these deaths reflected systemic breakdowns. In 2024 alone, the AJC found that homicides at the prison included Keith Antwone Green, killed in an inmate assault; Shannon Wayne Pickett, who bled to death from sharp-force trauma; and Mathis Lee Ward, stabbed with a homemade sharp instrument. Other homicides during McDaniel’s tenure, per GPS and AJC records, include Marquis Young, Pierre C. Scott (killed in the “hole”), D’Andrius Brown, Jonathan Mitchell (beaten with foot, knee, and fist by a fellow prisoner), Sanchez Jackson (stabbed in what was described as a gang attack), and Reginald Lamar Ginn (blunt force head trauma). Suicides recorded include Calvin Earl Noble (hanging), Cassiem Mahlon Johnson, and David Gill (drug overdose). Many additional deaths — like Eric Roberts in February 2026 — remain under review by the GDC Office of Professional Standards, with autopsies pending.Beyond the deaths, McDaniel’s tenure coincided with damning institutional findings. In October 2024, a U.S. Department of Justice report described Georgia prisons as places where assaults, stabbings, and rapes had become routine amid woefully understaffed facilities. The AJC reported that, as of October 2024, roughly two-thirds of correctional-officer posts at Macon State Prison were unfilled; the county coroner told reporters he routinely found only five to eight officers staffing the entire prison when responding to deaths. The DOJ investigation also documented that four gang members at Macon had run past a single officer to the kitchen and fatally stabbed a prisoner, while eleven others were wounded.
During McDaniel’s watch, multiple lawsuits and enforcement actions targeted the prison. In January 2025, the Southern Center for Human Rights filed suit over conditions in a unit where 96 men shared a single toilet and received inadequate bedding and hygiene. That same month, a federal lawsuit over the strangulation death of Bobby Edward Lee Jr. — killed in 2020 before McDaniel’s tenure — was settled for $1.375 million; the suit alleged prison officials ignored Lee’s pleas for protection due to understaffing and indifference. Simultaneously, in September 2024, four correctional officers at Macon were arrested on charges of violating their oath and providing false statements, and an inmate-orchestrated drug trafficking operation using contraband phones to import fentanyl from overseas was exposed.
Litigation
No lawsuits naming Derrick B. McDaniel as a defendant appear in GPS records.Sources
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — investigation into Georgia prison homicides, DOJ findings, and staffing crises at Macon State Prison
- GPS case records — death reports for 66 individuals during McDaniel’s deputy warden tenure
- 13WMAZ — reports on drug trafficking and officer arrests at Macon State Prison
- U.S. Department of Justice — 2024 investigation into Georgia prison conditions
- Southern Center for Human Rights — January 2025 lawsuit over sanitation and overcrowding
- Solitary Watch — historical allegations regarding conditions during prisoner strikes
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
66 people died at facilities under McDaniel, Derrick B's leadership.
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