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Thompson, Melissa
Status: active
Profile written August 30, 2026
This profile reflects positional accountability — this individual held the leadership roles shown during the dates shown, during which the listed deaths or lawsuits occurred. Inclusion does not constitute a legal finding of personal culpability for any specific incident.
Tenure Summary
GPS records list Melissa Thompson as active and document a GDC career beginning with a correction administration role in 2015, followed by correctional assistant superintendent posts from 2016 through 2018, and correctional superintendent posts from 2019 onward. Her facility-specific postings in the records are limited: a correctional superintendent assignment at Bleckley Probation Substance Abuse Treatment Center dated Nov. 22, 2023, and a correctional superintendent tenure at Whitworth Women’s Facility from Jan. 1, 2025, through Jan. 15, 2026, plus a later Warden 1 listing at Whitworth dated Aug. 27, 2026. Across those leadership-tier postings, GPS records attribute one death: Rhianna Woods at Whitworth Women’s Facility. The same records list no lawsuits naming Thompson as a defendant, no facility intel reports, and no news mentions.What happened on their watch
Bleckley Probation Substance Abuse Treatment Center — 2023. The single-day correctional superintendent listing on Nov. 22, 2023, has no deaths attributed in GPS records.Whitworth Women’s Facility — 2025–2026. GPS records attribute one death to Whitworth during Thompson’s tenure. Rhianna Woods has an incident date of Jan. 10, 2025, and Thompson is listed as correctional superintendent, a facility-lead role, at the time. The GPS death record carries a facility discrepancy: the DeKalb County Medical Examiner case 25-0059 places Woods at Metro Reentry Facility, 1301 Constitution Road SE, while the GPS database of record lists Whitworth Women’s Facility; the record was left unchanged pending an administrative decision. According to the DeKalb County Medical Examiner record cited in the GPS notes, the manner was accident and the cause was acute drug (benzodiazepine) intoxication. A GDC-released January 2025 mortality entry, GDC# 1002958059, describes the death as “Acute Respiratory Failure/ Possible Drug Overdose.” GPS notes record a hypothesis that GDC may perform a technical or administrative transfer to Metro Reentry when an incarcerated person is near death or sent to an Atlanta-area hospital, but the note labels that an admin hypothesis, not an established fact.
Sources
- GPS intelligence personnel file — positions, total deaths attributed, deaths by facility, and death record for Rhianna Woods.
- Georgia Department of Corrections — January 2025 mortality data (GDC# 1002958059).
- DeKalb County Medical Examiner — case 25-0059.
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| Warden 1 | WHITWORTH WOMEN’S FACILITY | 2026-08-27 → present |
| CORRECTIONAL SUPERINTENDENT | WHITWORTH WOMEN’S FACILITY | 2025-01-01 → present |
| CORRECTIONAL SUPERINTENDENT | 2019-01-01 → 2024-12-31 | |
| Correctional Superintendent | BLECKLEY PROBATION SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT CENTER | 2023-11-22 → 2023-11-22 |
| CORRECTIONAL ASST. SUPT | 2016-01-01 → 2018-12-31 | |
| CORRECTION ADMINISTRATION | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
Deaths attributed during tenure
1 people died at facilities under Thompson, Melissa's leadership.
| Date | Decedent | Age | Facility | Role at time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-01-10 | Rhianna Woods | — | WHITWORTH WOMEN’S FACILITY | CORRECTIONAL SUPERINTENDENT |
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