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Peoples, Delvin Rasaunn
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
Delvin Rasaunn Peoples began his career with the Georgia Department of Corrections as a Correctional Officer at Lee State Prison in 2006, later holding the ranks of Correctional Lieutenant and Assistant Superintendent at the McEver Probation Detention Center. He moved into facility-level leadership in 2019 as Correctional Superintendent at Calhoun State Prison, subsequently serving as Deputy Warden there from 2020 through August 2024. In September 2024 he joined Macon State Prison as Special Assistant to the Warden, was promoted to Deputy Warden in 2025, and ascended to Warden in January 2026. GPS records attribute 46 deaths to his leadership tenures—19 at Calhoun State Prison and 27 at Macon State Prison. These deaths include homicides, suicides, and undetermined causes amid documented patterns of understaffing, violence, and systemic failures. He was a named defendant in one lawsuit, Jacobs v. Georgia Department of Corrections, which challenged a fatal dehydration death at Calhoun and later settled.What happened on his watch
Calhoun State Prison (2019–2024) During Peoples’ tenure as Correctional Superintendent (2019) and Deputy Warden (2020–2024), 19 deaths were recorded at the facility. The sample of decedents includes Reginald Jerome Jacobs Jr., 24, who died in February 2023 from dehydration with renal failure. A subsequent lawsuit alleged that a GDC employee disabled the water supply to his segregation cell and that required 30-minute rounds were not performed; the death certificate listed the manner as natural. In May 2022, Daquavious Lackey, 21, was stabbed to death by his cellmate; the U.S. Department of Justice later found that staff failed to follow classification and housing-assignment procedures, contributing to the homicide. Additional homicides documented by coroner records include Martel Dorsey, 32, stabbed with sharp instruments in November 2023, and Kenneth Scott Piper, 37, killed in an inmate-on-inmate assault in May 2024. At least one suicide (Christopher Oliva, 43, hanging in April 2022) and multiple deaths from undetermined causes also occurred. The facility was the focus of a 2020 drug-smuggling investigation in which two correctional officers were arrested for bringing methamphetamine and tobacco into the prison concealed in Hot Pockets packages; the charges were later dismissed because drug evidence was never submitted to the state crime lab. Contraband-cellphone schemes enabled a nationwide wire-fraud and extortion operation that victimized roughly 119 people.Macon State Prison (September 2024 – Present)
From his arrival as Special Assistant through his tenures as Deputy Warden and Warden, 27 deaths have been attributed to the facility. The death sample reveals a dense cluster of inmate-on-inmate homicides: Jonathan Mitchell died from head trauma inflicted by another prisoner in January 2025; Sanchez Jackson was stabbed to death in June 2025; Pierre Cedric Scott was killed by his roommate in the restrictive-housing unit in August 2025; and Marquis Young was the victim of a homicide in October 2025. Suicides by hanging (Cassiem Mahlon Johnson, 55, and Calvin Earl Noble, 25, both in August 2025) and a suspected drug-overdose suicide (David Gill, January 2025) are also recorded. Many of the deaths occurred in the segregation unit, a recurring note in GPS intake reports. The facility has been described in press accounts as critically understaffed; the Bibb County coroner reported that only five to eight officers staff the entire prison when responding to deaths. A Department of Justice investigation released in October 2024 concluded that assaults, stabbings, and rapes had become routine at Georgia prisons—a finding that aligned with conditions at Macon, where a 2025 civil-rights lawsuit alleged 96 men were forced to share a single toilet. At the same time, two incarcerated men at the prison pled guilty to running a fentanyl- and synthetic-cannabinoid trafficking ring using contraband cellphones.
Litigation
- Jacobs v. Georgia Department of Corrections, No. 4:25-cv-00111 (M.D. Ga. filed Mar. 26, 2025). The complaint alleged that Reginald Jacobs Jr. died from dehydration at Calhoun State Prison after staff shut off his water and failed to provide alternate drinking sources. The case settled; a stipulation of dismissal was entered on Dec. 16, 2025.
Sources
- GPS death records and personnel tracking
- Coroner records and death certificates obtained via open-records requests (Calhoun County, including death certificates for Reginald Jacobs Jr., Martel Dorsey, Daquavious Lackey, Christopher Oliva, and others)
- U.S. Department of Justice investigation findings (2024–2025), reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WALB
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — coverage of prison homicides, the Hot Pockets drug-smuggling case, and the DOJ report
- 13WMAZ — reporting on drug-trafficking prosecutions stemming from Macon State Prison
- Court records: Jacobs v. Georgia Department of Corrections, 4:25-cv-00111 (M.D. Ga.), and referenced lawsuit filings at Macon State Prison by the Southern Center for Human Rights
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| Warden | MACON STATE PRISON | 2026-01-16 → present |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | MACON STATE PRISON | 2025-01-01 → present |
| Special Assistant to the Warden | MACON STATE PRISON | 2024-09-01 → present |
| DEPUTY WARDEN | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | 2020-01-01 → 2024-08-31 |
| CORRECTIONAL SUPERINTENDENT | CALHOUN STATE PRISON | 2019-01-01 → 2019-12-31 |
| CORRECTIONAL ASST. SUPT | McEVER PROBATION DETENTION CENTER | 2018-01-01 → 2018-12-31 |
| CORRECTIONAL LIEUTENANT | 2016-01-01 → 2017-12-31 | |
| CORRECTIONS OFFICER (SP) | LEE STATE PRISON | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
| Correctional Officer | LEE STATE PRISON | 2006-01-01 → 2006-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4:25-cv-00111 | GAMD | 2025-03-26 | pending |
Deaths attributed during tenure
46 people died at facilities under Peoples, Delvin Rasaunn's leadership.
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