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Nash, Torika R
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
Torika R Nash’s career with the Georgia Department of Corrections began in 2006 as a Behavioral Health Counselor II at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison. Over nearly two decades, she rose through clinical roles — from Behavioral Health Counselor to Behavioral Health Counselor Supervisor — before being appointed Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment at the Special Management Unit in October 2024, later becoming Deputy Warden there in 2025. GPS records attribute three deaths to the facility during her deputy-warden tenure, all at the Special Management Unit. While no lawsuits name Nash as a defendant, her leadership overlapped with a period of intense federal scrutiny of the SMU: a Department of Justice investigation found conditions there inhumane, a federal judge held the GDC in contempt for flouting a 2019 settlement agreement, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution documented systemic falsehoods, falsified records, and deadly gaps in prisoner supervision.What happened on their watch
Special Management Unit (Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment / Deputy Warden, Oct. 16 2024–present) Nash assumed her first deputy-warder role at SMU on October 16, 2024. Six days later, Emilio Christopher Canales, 40, died inside the facility; GPS records list his cause of death under category 6. In 2025, two additional deaths followed: Lashion Boddie, 30, on September 2, and Michael Ogletree, 33, on October 31 — both also cause‑category 6. These three deaths bring the total attributed to Nash’s tenure as a facility deputy to three.Her time at SMU coincided with an extraordinary cascade of systemic faults documented by outside authorities. In October 2024 — just as Nash began — the U.S. Department of Justice released a report calling Georgia’s prisons “inhumane,” detailing how people were “assaulted, stabbed, raped, and killed” in woefully understaffed facilities, and describing how the GDC obstructed investigators by restricting access, refusing records, and repairing buildings ahead of visits. Earlier that year, a federal judge had issued a contempt order against the GDC for “thumbing their noses” at a 2019 settlement meant to reform SMU; the order cited falsified and backdated prisoner-review forms and found that officials stalled compliance until the injunction neared expiration.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, SMU had a history of lethal neglect: after one prisoner died, his attorneys discovered that no one had checked on him for nearly seven hours, despite policies requiring checks every 15 to 30 minutes; in another case, prison records showed a deceased inmate attending “table time” and recreation after he had already been pronounced dead. The AJC also reported that SMU prisoner Arthur Lee Cofield Jr. manipulated a multi‑million‑dollar financial scheme using a contraband cellphone — evidence, the newspaper noted, that the state’s top‑security prison struggled to contain illicit communication and activity. While none of the specific deaths on Nash’s watch are publicly linked by these reports, the facility’s documented failures in oversight, record‑keeping, and safety were active and unresolved throughout her tenure.
Litigation
No lawsuits listing Nash as a defendant were identified.Sources
- GPS records — personnel file, deaths during tenure, and facility assignment data for Torika R Nash.
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — multiple investigative reports on violence, deception, and contraband at SMU, including the Cofield case and GDC’s false statements to federal investigators and lawmakers.
- U.S. Department of Justice — October 2024 report on inhumane conditions in Georgia prisons and GDC’s obstruction of federal oversight.
- Federal court records — contempt order issued by U.S. District Judge Marc T. Treadwell in April 2024 against GDC for violating the 2019 SMU settlement, citing falsified documents and non‑compliance.
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| DEPUTY WARDEN | SPECIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT | 2025-01-01 → present |
| Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment | SPECIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT | 2024-10-16 → present |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR SPV | 2022-01-01 → 2024-10-15 | |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR SPV | GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION STATE PRISON | 2021-01-01 → 2021-12-31 |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR 3 | 2018-01-01 → 2020-12-31 | |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR 3 | GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION STATE PRISON | 2017-01-01 → 2017-12-31 |
| BEHAVIORAL HLTH COUNSELOR 2 | 2016-01-01 → 2016-12-31 | |
| BEH HEALTH/COUNSELOR (WL) | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 | |
| Behavioral Health Counselor II | GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION STATE PRISON | 2006-01-01 → 2006-12-31 |
Deaths attributed during tenure
3 people died at facilities under Nash, Torika R's leadership.
| Date | Decedent | Age | Facility | Role at time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-10-31 | MICHAEL OGLETREE | 33 | SPECIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2025-09-02 | LASHION BODDIE | 30 | SPECIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2024-10-22 | EMILIO CHRISTOPHER CANALES | 40 | SPECIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT | Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment |
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