Rogers, Tandra Tiease

Tenure Summary

Tandra Tiease Rogers spent the first eight years of her GDC career in financial and administrative roles — Financial Operations Generalist, Purchasing Assistant, Business Support Analyst — before transitioning to a facility-deputy accountability tier in 2023. GPS records show she has held the Deputy Warden title at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (GDCP) continuously from 2023 through at least 2025. During that tenure, GPS records attribute 63 deaths at GDCP to her posting period, spanning January 2023 through March 2026. The dominant cause category across those deaths is category 6 (the most frequently recorded), with at least four deaths classified as homicides (cause category 3) and at least one death classified as cause category 2. No lawsuits naming Rogers personally as a defendant in connection with GDCP conditions appear in GPS records.

What Happened on Their Watch

Deputy Warden — Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (2023–present)

GPS records attribute 63 deaths at GDCP during Rogers's tenure as Deputy Warden, running from January 2023 through at least March 2, 2026. The overwhelming majority — 58 of 63 — carry cause category 6. At least four deaths are classified as homicides (cause category 3). Elmer W. Pless, 65, died May 15, 2023 by strangulation, and Carrell D. Johnson, 32, died June 6, 2023 from chopping injuries to the head and sharp-force injuries to the torso, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation. William Rhodes, 38, died February 20, 2025, with GPS records noting "homicide" in the case notes. Jacob Scott Wilcox, 27, died June 28, 2025 (cause category 3); GPS research links his death to an obituary filed in Chatsworth, Georgia. One death — Christopher Lee, 19, on January 31, 2026 — carries cause category 2. A GPS user report alleges Lee was placed in a stripped cell in H-house over a weekend, possibly for suicide watch, and was found dead; a consistent account from multiple staff members, per the same report, attributes the death to cold or exposure. That account is an allegation, not a confirmed finding. Novice H. Langston, 60, was found dead in J-House on January 12, 2026, per a GPS insider source linked to the same reporting chain as the Lee incident. The ages of the deceased during Rogers's tenure range from 19 to 76, with multiple deaths among people in their 20s and 30s.

Concurrent with Rogers's tenure, GPS records and AJC reporting document serious systemic conditions at GDCP. The facility held approximately 4,540 incarcerated people as of early 2026 — 568% of its original 1968 design capacity of 800 — with medical, kitchen, shower, and counseling infrastructure unchanged since original construction, per GPS reports. The AJC reported that nearly every part of GDCP had been vandalized by prisoners, with widespread infrastructure failures. An AJC investigation also reported that a newly convicted inmate, Shane Tassi, possessed a homemade shank and contraband cell phone within days of arriving at GDCP in 2024, which the AJC characterized as indicating serious security failures. Separately, the AJC reported that inmate David "Toro" Zavala, operating from inside GDCP, had 35 cellphones seized from him at the time of a guilty plea related to drug trafficking. The AJC further reported that inmate Charles Lee Broady Jr. requested protection from threatening gang members but was moved to a location where six gang members attacked him with razor blades. These are allegations reported by the AJC; they are not adjudicated findings.

In April 2024, GPS records document an incident in which inmate Ronald Allen was ordered to separate frozen beef patties with inadequate protective equipment during a prison riot response, resulting in severe cold injury to his hands. Allen subsequently filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against GDC and twelve defendants on March 5, 2026, alleging medical neglect resulting in amputation of his left hand and permanent damage to his right hand. That lawsuit was filed during Rogers's tenure.

Litigation

• Allen v. Georgia Department of Corrections — Federal civil rights lawsuit filed March 5, 2026, alleging medical neglect resulting in amputation of Ronald Allen's left hand and permanent damage to his right hand; names GDC Commissioner and eleven other defendants; GDCP facility; status and outcome not recorded in GPS records.

(Note: GPS records also list a terminated federal multidistrict litigation, In Re Wright Medical Technology Inc Conserve Hip Implant Products, No. 1:12-md-02329 (N.D. Ga.), filed February 27, 2012, closed June 26, 2018. Rogers appears in that record; the case concerns hip implant products and predates her GDCP posting by a decade. No connection to her GDC role is established in GPS records.)

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation (Pless strangulation, Johnson chopping injuries, Burrell assault/methamphetamine death)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — reporting on GDCP security failures (Tassi shank/cellphone incident; Zavala cellphone seizure; Broady gang attack; infrastructure vandalism; drug trafficking networks)
• GPS records — 63 deaths attributed to GDCP during Rogers's Deputy Warden tenure, 2023–2026
• GPS user reports — Christopher Lee (GPS-2026-DBD4D), Novice H. Langston (GPS-2026-AC159), Charles Ramen Coppeak (seizure account)
• GPS intel events — Ronald Allen injury incident (April 2024); Allen v. GDC federal lawsuit (March 5, 2026); GDCP overcrowding reports (568% design capacity, January 2025–January 2026)
• Court records — Allen v. Georgia Department of Corrections (filed March 5, 2026, GDCP); In Re Wright Medical Technology Inc, No. 1:12-md-02329 (N.D. Ga., terminated 2018)

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.