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Rogers, Tandra Tiease
Status: active
Profile written May 31, 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
Tandra Tiease Rogers began working for the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2015 in financial operations and purchasing assistant roles, progressing through increasingly senior business-support and analyst positions. In January 2023, she was appointed Deputy Warden of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (GDCP) — the state’s highest-security intake and execution facility. GPS records place her in that role continuously through at least the end of 2025, and her profile remains active; 62 deaths are attributed to the facility during her tenure as Deputy Warden, spanning January 2023 through March 2026. Her watch coincided with multiple homicides, a death from exposure in a stripped cell, documented suicides, and a cascade of medical‑neglect allegations, all unfolding inside a prison that consultants and investigative reporters describe as dangerously overcrowded and physically crumbling.What happened on their watch
Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison – Deputy Warden (January 2023–present) According to GPS records, 62 incarcerated people died at GDCP while Rogers held the Deputy Warden post. The deaths, logged from early January 2023 into March 2026, include a cluster of violent fatalities: Carrell Beontae Johnson, 32, died on June 6, 2023, from chopping injuries to the head and sharp‑force injuries to the torso, per an Atlanta Journal‑Constitution homicide investigation. Elmer W. Pless, 65, was killed by strangulation on May 15, 2023, and William Rhodes, 38, died by homicide on February 20, 2025. Brandon Trace Burrell, 31, died on January 28, 2024, after an assault while under methamphetamine’s effects, reportedly suffering numerous stab wounds. A user‑sourced report describes 19‑year‑old Christopher Lee being placed in a stripped cell in H‑house over a weekend, possibly for suicide watch, and found dead; staff accounts claim the cause was cold or exposure. GPS intel events separately document the suicide of Desmond Layne Hattaway, 27, who died in April 2023 after being held in segregation and a mental‑health dorm with what internal sources describe as inadequate monitoring; his death was not entered into the public database.Multiple deaths are connected to medical neglect claims. Mark Smith, 53, a prisoner with advanced Parkinson’s disease, died on June 7, 2025, after repeated requests for transfer to a medical unit were denied; he was found dead in his cell following hours without rounds. In April 2025, an inmate was fatally stabbed in the chest while witnesses reported a 30‑minute delay before officers responded. An earlier incident, in April 2024, saw inmate Ronald Allen suffer severe frostbite injuries to his hands — ultimately leading to amputation and permanent damage — after he was ordered to separate frozen beef patties with inadequate protective gloves during a riot response; his subsequent federal civil rights lawsuit, filed in March 2026, names twelve GDC defendants.
Broader systemic findings overlap Rogers’ tenure. GPS intel reports note that GDCP held approximately 4,540 people — 568 percent of its original 800‑person design capacity — as of early 2025, with the medical clinic, kitchen, and showers unchanged since 1968. The AJC detailed widespread vandalism, contraband cell‑phone trafficking (including an officer paid to tip off a death‑row prisoner about shakedowns), and newly convicted inmates photographed with homemade shanks within days of arrival. In October 2025, GPS documented a systemic failure in death reporting and investigation at the facility: deaths were deleted from the inmate database, no autopsy was ordered in at least one case, and witness statements disappeared.
Sources
- GPS internal records — personnel history, death logs, intel events, and user reports for Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, 2023–2026
- Atlanta Journal‑Constitution — “Ga prison homicides: A list of those killed in Georgia’s prison system” (homicide data for Johnson, Pless, Burrell)
- Atlanta Journal‑Constitution — “Georgia prisons in crisis, say consultants hired by governor” (overcrowding, infrastructure failure at GDCP)
- Atlanta Journal‑Constitution — “Locked up but not stopped: Georgia prisoners run drug trafficking networks” (contraband cell phones at GDCP)
- Atlanta Journal‑Constitution — “Georgia DA warns prison conditions threaten public safety” (contraband weapons, security failures)
- Atlanta Journal‑Constitution — “Prison system failures cost Georgia taxpayers millions” (failure to protect, medical neglect at GDCP)
- GPS intel — Ronald Allen v. Georgia Department of Corrections (federal civil rights lawsuit, medical neglect, hand amputation, filed March 2026)
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| DEPUTY WARDEN | GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION STATE PRISON | 2023-01-01 → present |
| BUSI SUPPORT ANALYST 1 | 2022-01-01 → 2022-12-31 | |
| FINANCIAL OPS GENERALIST 3 | 2021-01-01 → 2021-12-31 | |
| FINANCIAL OPS GENERALIST 1 | 2019-01-01 → 2020-12-31 | |
| PURCHASING ASST 2 | 2018-01-01 → 2018-12-31 | |
| FINANCIAL OPS GEN (AL) | 2015-01-01 → 2016-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:12-md-02329 | GAND | 2012-02-27 | terminated |
Deaths attributed during tenure
62 people died at facilities under Rogers, Tandra Tiease's leadership.
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