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Powell, Beau J
Status: active
Profile written August 23, 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
Beau J. Powell served as a Business Support Analyst 1 in the Georgia Department of Corrections from 2019 through 2022, with no facility assignment listed in GPS records. In 2023, he became Deputy Warden at Whitworth Women’s Facility, a posting GPS records show he held through 2025. GPS records attribute one death to his facility-leader tenure: Rhianna Woods, who died on Jan. 10, 2025, while Powell held the deputy warden role. The medical examiner record lists the death as an accidental overdose. GPS records flag a facility discrepancy on the death — the GPS database lists Whitworth Women’s Facility, but the DeKalb County Medical Examiner places Woods at Metro Reentry Facility. The provided records include no lawsuits naming Powell as a defendant and no intel reports or news mentions attached to his postings.What happened on their watch
Before his facility posting, Powell worked as a Business Support Analyst 1 from Jan. 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2022. GPS records do not associate those staff-tier years with a facility or with deaths.Whitworth Women’s Facility — Deputy Warden, 2023–2025. GPS records list one death attributed to Whitworth during Powell’s deputy warden tenure. On Jan. 10, 2025, Rhianna Woods died while Powell held the deputy warden role, according to GPS records. The DeKalb County Medical Examiner case number is 25-0059; GPS records summarizing that file state the manner was accident (overdose) and the cause was acute drug (benzodiazepine) intoxication. The summary also states Woods reportedly swallowed something the evening of Jan. 8, 2025, then had seizures; admission bloodwork was positive for benzodiazepine and she developed respiratory failure. The GDC’s January 2025 mortality data, released as a PDF, carried the entry “Acute Respiratory Failure/ Possible Drug Overdose” for Woods, according to GPS provenance notes.
GPS records flag a facility discrepancy on this death: the GPS database of record is Whitworth Women’s Facility, but the medical examiner report places Woods at Metro Reentry Facility, 1301 Constitution Rd SE, DeKalb County, where she ingested the substance and where the death was investigated under DeKalb County jurisdiction. GPS records describe an administrative hypothesis — that GDC may make a technical or administrative transfer of an inmate to Metro when the person is near death or sent to an Atlanta-area hospital — but that is framed in the record as a hypothesis about GDC recordkeeping, not an established finding. No intel reports, intel events, or news mentions are attached to the Whitworth posting in the GPS data.
Sources
- Georgia Prisoners’ Speak — personnel record for Beau J. Powell and mortality record for Rhianna Woods, including facility discrepancy and provenance notes.
- DeKalb County Medical Examiner — case 25-0059, as summarized in GPS records.
- Georgia Department of Corrections — January 2025 mortality data PDF entry for Woods, a GDC-released official report.
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| DEPUTY WARDEN | WHITWORTH WOMEN’S FACILITY | 2023-01-01 → present |
| Deputy Warden | WHITWORTH WOMEN’S FACILITY | 2023-11-22 → 2023-11-22 |
| BUSI SUPPORT ANALYST 1 | 2019-01-01 → 2022-12-31 |
Deaths attributed during tenure
1 people died at facilities under Powell, Beau J's leadership.
| Date | Decedent | Age | Facility | Role at time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-01-10 | Rhianna Woods | — | WHITWORTH WOMEN’S FACILITY | DEPUTY WARDEN |
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