Peoples, Delvin Rasaunn

Tenure Summary

Delvin Rasaunn Peoples began his GDC career as a correctional officer at Lee State Prison in 2006, rose through lieutenant and assistant superintendent roles, and by 2019 held the superintendent title at Calhoun State Prison. He stepped back to Deputy Warden at Calhoun from 2020 through August 2024, then moved to Macon State Prison — first as Special Assistant to the Warden, then Deputy Warden, and as of January 16, 2026, Warden. GPS records show 44 deaths attributed to facilities during Peoples' leadership-tier tenures: 14 at Calhoun State Prison (2020–2024, as Deputy Warden) and 26 at Macon State Prison (2025–2026, as Deputy Warden and then Warden), spanning homicides, suicides, and deaths of undetermined or natural cause. One federal civil lawsuit names him as a defendant. Both facilities have been the subject of DOJ findings, AJC investigations, and ongoing grand jury proceedings during overlapping periods.

What Happened on Their Watch

Calhoun State Prison — Superintendent (2019) / Deputy Warden (2020–August 2024)

Peoples held facility-deputy or facility-lead rank at Calhoun from 2019 through mid-2024. GPS records attribute 14 deaths to the facility during his Deputy Warden years (2020–2024). Of those, four are classified as homicides: Daquavious Lackey (age 21, May 2022), Gonzalo Colmenero (age 54, July 2024), and Kenneth Scott Piper (age 37, May 2024), all documented by the AJC's Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation as inmate-to-inmate assaults; and Martel Orlando Dorsey (age 32, November 2023), listed by the AJC as killed by stabbing. The remaining ten deaths carry undetermined or natural-cause classifications. According to the AJC, the DOJ report found that staff at Calhoun failed to follow classification and housing assignment procedures before Lackey's 2022 killing — specifically, that his assailant was improperly moved between segregation and general population, resulting in Lackey being housed with and killed by his cellmate. Per WALB, federal investigators separately documented that a prisoner at Calhoun died of dehydration after staff shut off his water, closed his cell door flap, and withheld meals for two days; GPS records show a 24-year-old prisoner died at Calhoun in early 2023 with dehydration and renal failure listed as cause. According to the AJC, a GDC investigator took out arrest warrants in a contraband case at Calhoun but allegedly failed to submit drug evidence to the state crime lab, causing at least 11 cases involving 15 defendants — including five prison employees — to be dismissed. Per GPS intel records, two prisoners were later convicted of running a nationwide wire fraud and extortion operation targeting 119 victims across six states using contraband cell phones from inside Calhoun; a Managed Access System was installed at the facility mid-2025, after the scheme had already occurred. A grievance filed by a prisoner alleging extortion and gang violence was, according to WALB, rejected as untimely with no follow-up. GPS records also note that beginning in early 2026, 87 lifers were systematically transferred out of Calhoun, with 79.3% sent to Level 5 close-security facilities over a three-month period — after Peoples had departed for Macon.

Macon State Prison — Deputy Warden (2025) / Warden (January 16, 2026–present)

Peoples arrived at Macon State Prison in September 2024 as Special Assistant to the Warden and became Deputy Warden in January 2025, then Warden on January 16, 2026. GPS records attribute 26 deaths to Macon during his tenure there. During his time as Deputy Warden (2025), at least nine deaths are classified as homicides: Marquel Smith (age 29, February 2025), Jonathan Mitchell (head trauma, January 2025), D'Andrius Brown (age 30, March 2025, in the hole), Pierre Cedric Scott (age 41, August 2025, killed in the hole by a roommate, per GPS direct report), Xavier Anthony Adams (age 40, July 2025), Lukas Lance Way (age 32, June 2025, in the hole), Sanchez Jackson (age 48, June 2025, stabbed — confirmed by family and reported by 13WMAZ, WGXA, and 41NBC), and Marquis Young (age 37, October 2025, per GPS direct report). Two deaths in August 2025 are classified as suicides: Calvin Earl Noble (age 25, hanging in a single cell on tier 2) and Cassiem Mahlon Johnson (age 55). One January 2025 death, David Gill, is recorded as suicide by drug overdose. The remaining deaths carry undetermined or natural-cause classifications, with several decedents in their 60s and 70s. Since Peoples became Warden, GPS records show one additional death: Eric Roberts (age 33, February 9, 2026), cause undetermined; the GDC's Office of Professional Standards has opened an investigation, per GPS intel records. According to the AJC, Macon State Prison had approximately two-thirds of correctional officer positions unfilled as of October 2024, with the county coroner reporting only five to eight officers staffing the entire facility during death responses. The AJC further alleges that the DOJ found four gang members ran past an officer to a kitchen area and fatally stabbed a prisoner — an incident GPS records associate with the March 2023 death of Sabino Carlos Ramos, in which eleven prisoners were stabbed. According to the AJC, a federal lawsuit alleges Bobby Edward Lee Jr. was strangled by his convicted-murderer cellmate due to understaffing and indifference by prison officials; a separate AJC report alleges officials placed Lee in that cell despite his pleas for protection and that no officers responded until after he was dead. The AJC also reports that Kendrick Malik Brown's mother alleged her son was placed with a known dangerous prisoner shortly before his scheduled release. According to the AJC, Sanchez Jackson's family reported that as many as four men were packed into one cell at Macon, and that after his death the family received only a brief call from the warden with a follow-up that never materialized.

Litigation

• Jacobs v. Georgia Department of Corrections, Case No. 4:25-cv-00111, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia — filed March 26, 2025; status: pending as of GPS records. No settlement amount recorded.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation (multiple reports on Calhoun and Macon homicides, staffing, contraband, and DOJ findings)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — "Smuggling cases at Georgia prison fizzle; drugs were never tested" (Calhoun contraband/evidentiary failures)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — "Prison homicides soar as Georgia legislators focus on fixes" (Macon staffing and violence)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — "Prison system failures cost Georgia taxpayers millions" (Bobby Edward Lee Jr. / Macon)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — "Georgia prison homicides outpacing last year" (Sanchez Jackson / Macon overcrowding)
• WALB — reporting on Willie Andrew Willis Jr. / Calhoun, DOJ findings on underreporting, EMS delays, dehydration death, classification failures
• 13WMAZ, WGXA, 41NBC — Sanchez Jackson stabbing, Macon State Prison (June 2025)
• National Today — Willie Andrew Willis Jr. / Calhoun; federal report on "environment of fear and complacency"
• Solitary Watch — 2010 Georgia prisoner strike / Macon State Prison
• GPS records — deaths database, intel reports, case submissions GPS-DEATH-2026-DF391, GPS-DEATH-2025-CD311, GPS-DEATH-2025-2EF74, GPS-DEATH-2025-54697, GPS-DEATH-2025-BEAF7, GPS-DEATH-2025-B834B
• CourtListener — Jacobs v. Georgia Department of Corrections, 4:25-cv-00111 (GAMD)

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on May 6, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.