Spann, James

Tenure Summary

James Spann is the current warden of Ware State Prison, a facility-leadership post he has held since July 5, 2026, according to GPS personnel records. GPS records attribute two deaths to his leadership tenure at Ware State Prison: Reberto Baez, 69, with an incident date of July 9, 2026, and David Miller Newman, 60, with an incident date of July 15, 2026. Both are recorded under cause category 6, and no narrative notes are provided in the structured file. GPS records list no lawsuits naming Spann as a defendant.

What happened on their watch

Ware State Prison — Warden, July 5, 2026 to present

In the first ten days of Spann’s tenure, GPS records show two deaths attributed to Ware State Prison. Reberto Baez, 69, was recorded on July 9, 2026; David Miller Newman, 60, was recorded on July 15, 2026. Both decedents were older men, and both cases are listed under cause category 6 in the data, with no narrative notes explaining the circumstances. These two deaths make up the authoritative total of deaths attributed to Spann’s facility-leadership tenure.

The GPS intel file for Ware State Prison contains allegations and incidents that predate Spann’s tenure. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that ten inmates were killed at Ware State Prison between July 2020 and August 2024, with multiple inmates involved in several of the homicides according to GDC incident reports. Georgia Public Broadcasting reported Narissa Wright’s allegation that no counts or welfare checks were conducted at Ware State Prison, allowing her son’s body to go undiscovered for days. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also reported that GDC publicly described the August 1, 2020, Ware State Prison incident as a “disturbance,” while internal records describe hostage-taking, escape attempts, assaults, and use of force. GPS intake records from 2026 also contain unverified Telegram relay allegations of stabbings and gang-related violence at Ware State Prison, though exact dates are unclear. None of those older dated deaths or incidents are included in the two deaths attributed to Spann’s tenure.

Sources

• GPS structured personnel and facility records — Spann employment history, attributed deaths, and Ware State Prison intel entries
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — “Ga prison homicides: a list of those killed in Georgia’s prison system”
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — prisons transparency investigation
• Georgia Public Broadcasting — “The federal Department of Justice: deliberate indifference, violence in Georgia”

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Aug 30, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.