Reynolds, Shavari

Tenure Summary

Shavari Reynolds began a GDC career in 2013 as a Correctional Officer at Burruss Correctional Training Center, later transitioning through community supervision and behavioral health roles before arriving at the Special Management Unit (SMU) — Georgia's supermax facility in Jackson — as a Behavioral Health Counselor in 2021. Reynolds was promoted to CSM Correctional Unit Manager at the SMU in 2025 and, per GPS records, was elevated to Deputy Warden of Security there effective April 16, 2026. GPS records attribute two deaths at the SMU to Reynolds's tenure as Unit Manager: Lashion Boddie, age 30, on September 2, 2025, and Michael Ogletree, age 33, on October 31, 2025. No lawsuits name Reynolds as a defendant.

What Happened on Their Watch

Special Management Unit — Unit Manager (2025)

Reynolds held the CSM Correctional Unit Manager role at the SMU when two incarcerated people died there in the fall of 2025. GPS records show Lashion Boddie, 30, died on September 2, 2025, and Michael Ogletree, 33, died on October 31, 2025; both deaths are categorized under cause category 6. No further details on cause or circumstance are available in GPS records for either death.

These deaths occurred against a documented backdrop of systemic failures at the SMU. A 2019 settlement of a class-action lawsuit — originating from a 2015 handwritten complaint by prisoner Timothy Gumm and litigated by the Southern Center for Human Rights — required sweeping changes to solitary confinement conditions at the facility. Federal Judge Marc T. Treadwell issued a contempt order against GDC in April 2024 for falsifying and backdating prisoner review forms and failing to comply with the settlement terms. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, prison records showed deceased inmate Ricardo Daughtry — the lead plaintiff in the SMU lawsuit — listed as attending activities after he had already been pronounced dead, and GDC failed to check on him for nearly seven hours despite a policy requiring checks every 30 minutes. Reynolds served as a Behavioral Health Counselor at the SMU during 2021 and 2024 and was promoted to Unit Manager in 2025, meaning Reynolds was present at the facility across multiple years in which these documented compliance failures were occurring.

The AJC also reported that GDC officials repeatedly presented false or misleading information to federal investigators, state lawmakers, and a federal judge, and that the agency obstructed DOJ investigators by restricting prison visits and refusing to release records. The DOJ separately found Georgia's prisons inhumane, with people being assaulted, stabbed, raped, and killed in woefully understaffed facilities. The AJC further reported that prisoner Arthur Lee Cofield Jr., housed at the SMU, operated an $11 million financial fraud scheme using a contraband cellphone — a cellphone seized in summer 2020 — and that GDC had learned of Cofield's financial crimes as early as 2018 but did not charge him until 2020. U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones sentenced Cofield in January 2024 to 135 months in federal prison and ordered more than $12.5 million in restitution. None of these institutional findings name Reynolds individually.

Reynolds was promoted to Deputy Warden of Security at the SMU on April 16, 2026. GPS records show that role is ongoing.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — reporting on SMU conditions, falsified GDC records, contempt order, Ricardo Daughtry death, and Arthur Lee Cofield Jr. prosecution
• GPS records — positions table, deaths-during-tenure records for Boddie and Ogletree
• Federal court records — Gumm v. Dozier (originating 2015); 2019 settlement; April 2024 contempt order issued by Judge Marc T. Treadwell
• U.S. District Court — sentencing of Arthur Lee Cofield Jr. by Judge Steve Jones, January 2024

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.