Sailem, Tiffany C

Tenure Summary

What happened on their watch

Broader systemic failures at Johnson State Prison punctuated Sailem’s tenure. In April 2026, GPS case submissions documented contaminated food trays with residue buildup, and incident reports tied the contamination to a broken dishwashing system that forced a chemical-dunk process; incarcerated people were reportedly falling ill. The facility had earlier received a failing food-safety inspection in December 2023, scoring 64 out of 100, with inspectors noting rats, roaches, and broken kitchen equipment, according to GPS incident logs.

The most prominent incident attached to Johnson during this period — though the death predates Sailem’s deputy role — is the October 2021 homicide of David Lamar Henegar. Henegar was beaten and strangled over the course of a five-hour attack by his cellmate, Antone Hinton‑Leonard. The Atlanta Journal‑Constitution reported that a lawsuit alleged officers ignored screams from neighboring prisoners and that Henegar, who had a disability, had been housed with a mentally ill cellmate who had previously attacked him. Sailem, then a correctional unit manager, was named as a defendant in the resulting suit, Wade v. Morgan, filed in 2023. In April 2026, the state agreed to a $4 million settlement, paid by the Georgia Department of Administrative Services, on the eve of a scheduled federal trial, according to GPS records and the DOAS settlement ledger. Hinton‑Leonard was charged with murder and awaits trial.

Litigation

• Wade v. Morgan, No. 3:23‑cv‑00073 (S.D. Ga., filed Aug. 31, 2023), pending. The suit alleged that prison staff failed to protect David Henegar from a fatal cellmate attack in 2021. A $4 million settlement was reached in March–April 2026, per the GA DOAS settlement ledger and GPS event records. Sailem was named as a defendant.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal‑Constitution — reporting on the Henegar homicide, the cellmate’s prior attack, and the staff’s alleged failure to intervene; coverage of the $4 million settlement.
• GPS records — death database attributing 25 deaths to Johnson State Prison during Sailem’s deputy warden tenure; incident reports on contaminated food trays and dishwashing failures in April 2026; incident log for the 2023 food‑safety inspection failure.
• Georgia Department of Administrative Services — settlement ledger entry confirming a $4 million payout for the Henegar case, and other Johnson SP settlements (e.g., $1.45 million for Jerry Brown in 2020).
• Court records — Wade v. Morgan docket (CourtListener).
• GPS intelligence — Telegram‑relayed report regarding the ambiguous cause of death for Martrese Jamon McKay.

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.