Smith, Tarmarshe A

Tenure Summary

Tarmarshe A. Smith began his career with the Georgia Department of Corrections as a Correctional Officer at Georgia State Prison in 2002. After a stint in correctional administration in 2015, he rose through facility leadership roles: Deputy Warden at Smith State Prison (2016–2017), Deputy Warden at Calhoun State Prison (2018), Warden 1 at Calhoun (2019), and then Warden — first as Warden 1, later Warden 3 — at Macon State Prison from 2020 until June 2023. Smith subsequently moved into regional oversight as Assistant Regional Director for the Southeast and, as of October 2025, Southeast Regional Director. GPS records attribute 36 deaths to his leadership tenure — all occurring at Macon State Prison during the years he served as its warden. Smith has been named as a defendant in at least ten federal lawsuits, including one that directly identifies him by name, Whiting v. Tarmarshe Smith.

What happened on their watch

Smith State Prison (Deputy Warden, 2016–2017)
GPS records show no deaths attributed to Smith’s time as Deputy Warden at this facility. Incidents and investigations that later plagued Smith State Prison — including a massive contraband and racketeering case involving its warden, and the killing of a kitchen worker by an armed inmate — occurred well after Smith’s departure.

Calhoun State Prison (Deputy Warden, 2018; Warden, 2019)
No deaths were recorded during Smith’s Calhoun tenures. The facility later became the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into systemic violence and neglect, but the deaths documented in that investigation (including the stabbing of DaQuavious Lackey and a dehydration death in restrictive housing) postdate Smith’s term.

Macon State Prison (Warden, Jan. 2020 – June 2023)
Smith oversaw Macon State Prison while 36 incarcerated people died. The deaths spanned his entire tenure, from January 2020 to April 2023. Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s homicide investigation, at least 15 of those deaths were homicides, with causes including multiple stab wounds, blunt-force head injury, ligature strangulation, asphyxia, and sharp force injuries to the head and neck.

The AJC reported troubling circumstances surrounding several of these deaths. Carrington Juwon Frye’s mother alleged her son bled for more than half an hour before help arrived after he was stabbed. A federal lawsuit alleges Bobby Edward Lee Jr. was strangled by his cellmate — a convicted murderer — after prison officials ignored his pleas for protection. Kendrick Malik Brown’s mother claimed he was placed in a cell with a prisoner known to be dangerous just before his scheduled release.

Broader systemic failures documented by the U.S. Department of Justice intersected with Smith’s Macon tenure. The DOJ’s investigation, covering 2018 to 2023, found that Georgia’s prison homicide rate was nearly triple the national average, that correctional officer vacancy rates exceeded 50%, and that staff often failed to prevent fatal assaults. A DOJ report specifically cited an incident at Macon where four gang members ran past an officer and fatally stabbed a prisoner, indicating a failure to intervene. Allegations of drug trafficking rings operating from within the prison — including a fentanyl conspiracy involving inmate Devito Duran Young — also surfaced, with one report (13WMAZ) noting the operation used contraband cellphones to import drugs from China. Although the indictments and arrests came after Smith left Macon, the conduct described overlaps his wardenship.

Litigation

Smith is listed as a defendant in multiple federal lawsuits, several filed during his Macon tenure. These include:

• Gilmore v. Georgia Department of Corrections, filed 2018 (before his warden role), terminated Jan. 2023.
• Clayton v. Ward, filed Jan. 2021 in the Middle District of Georgia, terminated Feb. 2022.
• Whiting v. Tarmarshe Smith, filed March 2021 in the Northern District of Georgia, terminated Sept. 2021 — the only case that names him in the caption.
• Cox v. Ward, filed Jan. 2022, terminated Aug. 2023.
• Gillis v. Saldana, filed May 2022, terminated Dec. 2024.
• Clark v. Troutman, filed July 2022, terminated Sept. 2023.
• Tucker v. Wellpath Llc and Tucker v. Holt, filed in 2024 — still pending as of the latest data.
• Daker v. Oliver Filing Restriction Per 59 Order, filed 2025, terminated 2026.
• Mckenzie v. Oliver, filed April 2026, pending.

All dispositions are listed as terminated or pending; no settlement or award amounts are recorded in the provided data.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Georgia Prison Homicides Investigation, detailing causes of death and systemic failures at Macon State Prison
• U.S. Department of Justice — investigation findings (2018–2023) on homicides, staffing, and neglect in Georgia prisons, including Macon State Prison
• 13WMAZ — reporting on drug trafficking operation run from Macon State Prison
• CourtListener — docket records for federal lawsuits naming Smith as a defendant
• GPS records — incident logs and facility-level death compilations

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on May 31, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.