Rowland, Brandon Carl

Tenure Summary

Brandon Carl Rowland began his career with the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2015 as a corrections officer and rose through the ranks over a decade, holding roles as sergeant, lieutenant, and unit manager. GPS records show that in 2024, Rowland was promoted to deputy warden at Baldwin State Prison, a facility-level leadership position he continues to hold. During Rowland’s tenure as deputy warden, a total of 28 deaths have been attributed to Baldwin State Prison, according to GPS data. The facility has been the subject of numerous allegations and federal scrutiny regarding violence, understaffing, and staff misconduct.

What happened on their watch

Rowland’s leadership tenure at Baldwin State Prison began in January 2024. GPS records attribute 28 deaths to the facility during his time as deputy warden, a period marked by multiple homicides and a series of reports detailing systemic contraband smuggling and gang activity. The deaths documented by GPS span from January 2024 through July 2026 and include a mix of cause categories. For example, the death of Vincent Reshad Dyer on August 21, 2024, was attributed to sharp force chest trauma from a stabbing. A subsequent incident report described the event as a homicide involving a fight and contraband. The death of Henry Finley on January 19, 2025, was listed as a homicide due to multiple puncture wounds. The death of Isaac Evan Robinson on January 2, 2026, generated a witness account alleging that wardens watched as officers forcibly dragged a handcuffed man back to his housing unit in the protective custody K-3 building, and that the warden over care and treatment “does not care.”

These deaths occurred against a backdrop of broader, well-documented turmoil at the prison. Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Department of Justice announced in 2021 it was investigating violence and conditions in Georgia prisons. That same year, Baldwin State Prison Lt. Tracey Wise was discovered to have smuggled K-2-laced papers into the facility for an inmate, for which he later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation. A subsequent federal indictment in 2023 charged over a dozen defendants, including three former correctional officers at the prison, with participating in a criminal enterprise that coordinated drug trafficking and murders from inside the facility.

Intel reports collected by GPS cite multiple Atlanta Journal-Constitution articles detailing the violence and security failures during Rowland’s tenure. Allegations include that advocates claim incarcerated people are not adequately protected from violence due to insufficient staff, that hundreds of Georgia prison employees have been arrested for smuggling contraband since 2018, and that a lawsuit filed in 2025 alleges inmate Joshua Emanuel Williams was negligently placed in a cell with a prisoner who had previously stabbed others. A separate 2026 report from 13WMAZ summarizes a lawsuit claiming an officer at the prison shanked inmate Akeim Burgest while a lieutenant watched without intervening.

Litigation

GPS records do not list any lawsuits in which Rowland is directly named as a defendant. However, multiple lawsuits were filed during his tenure concerning conditions and violence at Baldwin State Prison:

* Akeim Burgest v. GDC staffers, filed February 2026. A lawsuit alleges an officer threw a water bottle at Burgest and later stabbed him with a shank while a lieutenant failed to intervene. A federal judge subsequently ordered the GDC to preserve all records related to the case, including camera footage.
* Joshua Emanuel Williams lawsuit, filed January 2025. A lawsuit by Williams’s mother alleges negligent cell placement led to his death, claiming he was housed with an inmate known for stabbing others.
* Ryan Brandt et al. federal indictment, November 2023. A 12-count federal indictment charged multiple defendants, including former Baldwin State Prison officers, with a racketeering conspiracy covering murders, drug trafficking, and contraband smuggling at the facility.

Sources

* GPS personnel and death-records database — tenure dates, death counts, and individual decedent names for Brandon Carl Rowland at Baldwin State Prison.
* Atlanta Journal-Constitution — multiple reports on homicides, understaffing, staff contraband arrests, the DOJ investigation, and gang activity at Baldwin State Prison.
* 13WMAZ — report on a lawsuit alleging an officer shanked an inmate at Baldwin State Prison while a lieutenant watched.
* GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (via Open Records) — state liability payouts tied to incidents at Baldwin State Prison.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Jul 12, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.