Steedley, William J

Tenure Summary

William J. Steedley rose through the Georgia Department of Corrections ranks over roughly eight years, beginning as a corrections officer in 2015 at $38,598 and moving through correctional lieutenant (2016), correctional unit manager (2017–2019), and deputy warden (2020). In October 2020 he was appointed Warden of Calhoun State Prison, a facility-lead post he held until December 31, 2022.

Six deaths are attributed to that warden tenure — all six at Calhoun State Prison, the only facility where he held a leadership role, per GDC records compiled by GPS. The decedents ranged in age from 21 to 64. One, 21-year-old DaQuavious Cachone Lackey, was killed in May 2022, and a Department of Justice review later found staff failures preceded the attack. A federal lawsuit naming Steedley as a defendant, Clayton v. Ward, was filed in January 2021 and terminated in February 2022 without a recorded payout.

What happened on their watch

Calhoun State Prison — Warden (October 1, 2020 – December 31, 2022)

Six deaths are attributed to Steedley's time as warden. Records list them chronologically: Christopher Iles, 48, on March 10, 2021; James Stanley Powell, 63, on April 2, 2022; Christopher Edward Oliva, 43, on April 9, 2022; DaQuavious Cachone Lackey, 21, on May 16, 2022; James Thomas Ennis, 63, on September 30, 2022; and Timothy Edwin Bryant, 64, on October 11, 2022. Two deaths occurred within a week of each other in April 2022, and two more within twelve days in September–October 2022.

The most documented of these is Lackey's. According to a DOJ report referenced in the record of his death, Lackey died on May 16, 2022 from a stab wound to the neck and multiple blunt force injuries. The DOJ report found he was killed after staff failed to follow procedures when moving his assailant, which resulted in Lackey being beaten by his cellmate with a fan motor in a net bag. A separate intel event dated 2022 records another Calhoun homicide in which, per the same DOJ findings, staff moved an assailant through segregation and general population without following classification procedures and the victim died from blunt force trauma and a stab wound to the neck. The record does not name the victim in that entry, and the input does not establish whether it describes Lackey's death or a distinct one.

No intel reports at the facility list Steedley by name, and no news reports in the input name him directly. The two intel events at Calhoun are recorded with him in the Warden role.

Steedley's earlier GDC service — corrections officer (2015), correctional lieutenant (2016), correctional unit manager (2017–2019), and deputy warden (2020) — falls below the facility-lead tier. Those positions and dates are documented in the record; the input does not carry incident, report, or event data for those periods.

Litigation

• Clayton v. Ward, No. 1:21-cv-00025, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia — filed January 29, 2021; terminated February 11, 2022. Court records list Steedley as a defendant. No outcome amount is recorded on the docket.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Justice — findings cited in the Calhoun State Prison death record for DaQuavious Cachone Lackey (May 16, 2022)
• U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, via CourtListener docket — Clayton v. Ward, 1:21-cv-00025
• GDC personnel and custody records compiled by Georgia Prisoners' Speak — six deaths attributed to Steedley's warden tenure at Calhoun State Prison, 2020–2022

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 23, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.