Reaves, Jessica

Tenure Summary

Jessica Reaves began her career with the Georgia Department of Corrections as a financial operations generalist, holding a series of progressively senior financial roles from 2015 through 2022. In 2023, Reaves moved into a leadership position as Deputy Warden at Baldwin State Prison, a facility that has been the subject of multiple federal and state investigations into systemic violence, contraband smuggling, and staff misconduct. During Reaves’s tenure as Deputy Warden, GPS records attribute 37 deaths to Baldwin State Prison. Several of those deaths were homicides, and multiple lawsuits and intelligence reports allege that staff negligence, inmate-on-inmate violence, and a corrupt institutional culture contributed to the harm.

What happened on their watch

Reaves served as Deputy Warden at Baldwin State Prison from January 2023 through at least the end of 2025. GPS records show 37 deaths occurred at the facility during that period. Among the deceased are men who died from stab wounds, blunt force trauma, and medical conditions that advocates allege were exacerbated by inadequate care. Incidents recorded during this time include the homicide of Johnny Lee Vaughn (39), who died from a stab wound to the torso on October 4, 2023, after an altercation involving several inmates; the killing of Fredrick Louis Spears Jr. (27), who died from a stab wound to the torso on May 2, 2023; and the death of Henry Finley, whose cause is listed as homicide by multiple puncture wounds in January 2025. On August 21, 2024, Vincent Reshad Dyer (50) died from sharp force chest trauma in a fight that prison records describe as a homicide involving contraband.

Medical neglect allegations also surfaced during Reaves’s watch. Almir Harris (23), an autistic man with type 1 diabetes, died on December 31, 2024, from diabetic ketoacidosis; multiple reports claim he was denied essential medical care. The pattern of deaths includes a large number of men recorded under cause category 6, which often corresponds to natural causes or medical complications; the ages at death range from 23 to 87. GPS records also note the death of Ricky Mathis in April 2026, with his cause pending investigation; the facility’s response was still being sought at the time of that report.

Broader systemic allegations dogged Baldwin State Prison during Reaves’s tenure. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed that at least 360 Georgia prison employees had been arrested since 2018 for smuggling contraband, which prison officials acknowledged fuels violence among the incarcerated. In November 2023, a federal indictment charged 23 defendants, including three former correctional officers, with running a criminal enterprise involving murders, assaults, and drug trafficking that operated in part inside Baldwin. A separate federal indictment detailed how former Lieutenant Tracey Wise smuggled K-2‑laced papers into the prison for a Bloods gang member in exchange for payments of $2,500 per delivery. Advocates’ protests outside the Governor’s Mansion in October 2023 specifically cited violent conditions, understaffing, and medical neglect inside the state prison system.

Two lawsuits filed during Reaves’s time at Baldwin alleged staff misconduct and systemic failures. In January 2025, the mother of Joshua Emanuel Williams sued, claiming her son was negligently placed in a cell with an inmate who had previously stabbed others; Williams died in 2020, but the lawsuit was filed while Reaves was Deputy Warden. In April 2026, inmate Akeim Burgest filed a lawsuit alleging that in March 2025 an officer threw a water bottle at him, then returned with a shank and stabbed him while a lieutenant watched without intervening. A federal judge ordered GDC to preserve all records related to that incident.

Litigation

• Nautilus Insurance Company v. Headhunters Racetrack Llc, Case No. 5:13‑cv‑00426 (GAMD), filed November 11, 2013, terminated March 31, 2016. This civil insurance matter predates Reaves’s leadership role and does not involve Baldwin State Prison or the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Sources

• GPS records — death counts, dates, causes, and facility data for Baldwin State Prison during Deputy Warden Jessica Reaves’s tenure.
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — “Ga. prison homicides: A list of those killed,” October 2023 investigation; reporting on contraband arrests and the federal indictment of Sex Money Murder gang members; article on inmate slayings and protests, October 2023.
• 13WMAZ — reporting on the lawsuit filed by Akeim Burgest alleging he was stabbed by an officer at Baldwin State Prison, May 2026.
• Court records — Nautilus Insurance Company v. Headhunters Racetrack Llc, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.
• Department of Justice — 2021 announcement of an investigation into violence and conditions in Georgia prisons.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on May 31, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.