Swinford, Jonathan D

Tenure Summary

Jonathan D. Swinford's career with the Georgia Department of Corrections, per state salary records, runs from correctional officer (2015) through correctional lieutenant (2016–2018), correctional officer 2 (2019–2020), CSM correctional officer 2 (2021) and CSM correctional unit manager (2022–2023) before he became Deputy Warden at Hays State Prison on Nov. 22, 2023. Salary records list $84,075.41 for 2024 and $91,524.07 for 2025 in that post; he is listed as Deputy Warden of Administration at Hays as of July 16, 2026.

GPS attributes 14 deaths to his leadership tenure, all 14 at Hays State Prison. Of those, three are classified in GPS's registry as homicides, three as Natural/Medical, and seven as Unknown/Pending. No lawsuit in the records shows a settlement or monetary outcome; two suits name Swinford as a defendant.

What happened on their watch

Hays State Prison — Deputy Warden (Nov. 22, 2023–2025); Deputy Warden of Administration (July 16, 2026–)

The 14 deaths recorded during Swinford's leadership tenure at Hays:

• Jeremy Edward Price died March 2, 2024, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 36.
• Theron Morrell Hendrix died April 19, 2024, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 31.
• Freddie Lee III Talley died May 6, 2024, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 31.
• Timothy Darmofal died May 22, 2024, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 58.
• Keith Johnson died August 19, 2024, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 57.
• Mackendy Pierrette died September 13, 2024, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 50.
• Lawrence L Williams died October 24, 2024, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 30.
• Thomas Johnson died October 24, 2024, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 82.
• Joey Griffin died December 26, 2024, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 54.
• Ralph Carter died March 5, 2025, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 39.
• Tommy Joe Strickland died June 4, 2025, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 60.
• Raymont Savion Farley died June 15, 2025, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Natural/Medical, age 36.
• James Cannon died October 25, 2025, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide, age 48.
• Barcel Roylee Ward died November 28, 2025, at Hays State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending, age 39.

Aggravating detail appears in incident records for two of the homicides: Price died from stab wounds to the neck and chest, per incident reports and his death certificate; Talley died from a stab wound to the chest, with an incident report describing a murder involving four other prisoners and sharpened weapons measuring 10.5 to 22 inches, and a separate record noting seven weapons recovered ranging from 9 to 22 inches and three prisoners given disciplinary reports but not charged. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Jan. 24, 2025 that Price's mother, Tammy Price, said she still did not know what happened to her child; she is also the source of a Jan. 21, 2025 AJC allegation that GDC omits manner-of-death information from its mortality reports. The AJC reported March 31, 2025 that a former Hays guard smuggled methamphetamine and other contraband for over a month; federal officials announced that former guard's sentencing on Feb. 10, 2025.

Allegations recorded during his Deputy Warden of Administration tenure include two family reports published to a public Georgia prison family group on Sept. 1, 2026 — one that people held in strip cells in the Hays infirmary were barred by policy from phone calls and visitation, including during a 2024 mental-health crisis involving food refusal, and one that a warden personally intervened over months to keep an incarcerated man on strip-cell status alive. Two inmate reports dated Aug. 30, 2026 describe a 2026 incident in which an officer was reportedly taken hostage and a staff member stabbed, allegedly drawing no tactical response, and a disturbance in which a lieutenant was stabbed and another officer restrained, with National Guard presence reported. Policy items indexed to his tenure include Georgia's Jan. 7, 2025 announcement of a $600 million prison spending surge with a $24 million, 126-bed "hardened" module pilot at Hays, and an Oct. 19, 2025 announcement of the same hardened unit.

Litigation

• Mckenzie v. Oliver, No. 4:26-cv-00108 (GAND), filed April 28, 2026 — pending, no recorded outcome. Swinford is listed as a defendant.
• Daker v. Oliver Filing Restriction Per 59 Order, No. 1:25-cv-03191 (GAND), filed June 6, 2025, terminated March 30, 2026 — no recorded outcome. Swinford is listed as a defendant.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — homicide and mortality-reporting coverage at Hays State Prison, Jan. 21 and March 31, 2025
• GPS death registry and incident records — decedent names, dates, causes, weapon counts, disciplinary reports
• Facebook, public comment in a Georgia prison family group, Sept. 1, 2026 — strip-cell policy allegations
• GPS inmate submissions, Aug. 30, 2026 — hostage/stabbing and disturbance reports
• CourtListener dockets 4:26-cv-00108 and 1:25-cv-03191
• State prison-spending announcements — $600 million surge and $24 million Hays hardened unit

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Oct 11, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.