Home › Intelligence › Personnel Accountability › Thompson, Melissa
Thompson, Melissa
Status: active
Profile written August 23, 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
Melissa Thompson’s GPS personnel record shows a progression from Correction Administration in 2015, to Correctional Assistant Superintendent from 2016 through 2018, and then to Correctional Superintendent beginning in 2019. Only the final listed posting carries a facility assignment: Whitworth Women’s Facility, from January 1, 2025 through January 15, 2026. Across the facility-leadership tenure recorded for Thompson, GPS attributes one death: at Whitworth Women’s Facility. The database lists no lawsuits naming Thompson as a defendant, no intel reports tied to the facilities she led, and no news mentions.
What happened on their watch
Whitworth Women’s Facility (2025–2026)
The GPS database attributes one death to this facility during Thompson’s listed tenure as Correctional Superintendent. The decedent is Rhianna Woods, with an incident date of January 10, 2025. According to Georgia Department of Corrections January 2025 mortality data, the entry reads “Acute Respiratory Failure/ Possible Drug Overdose.” The DeKalb County Medical Examiner case 25-0059 lists the manner as accident (overdose) and the cause as acute drug (benzodiazepine) intoxication. The GPS record notes state that Woods reportedly swallowed something the evening of January 8, 2025, then had seizures; admission bloodwork was positive for benzodiazepine, and she developed respiratory failure.
A facility discrepancy appears in the record: the DeKalb County Medical Examiner places Woods at Metro Reentry Facility in DeKalb County, while the GPS facility of record is Whitworth Women’s Facility. GPS has left the facility attribution unchanged pending administrative review. Thompson’s earlier postings from 2015 through 2024 do not list a facility assignment, and the structured data do not attribute any deaths to those specific roles.
Sources
- Georgia Department of Corrections, January 2025 mortality data — publicly released PDF, cited in the GPS record for Rhianna Woods.
- DeKalb County Medical Examiner case 25-0059 — cause and manner for Rhianna Woods.
- GPS personnel and mortality records — Melissa Thompson profile, positions, and death attribution counts.
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Submit a correction
If you are the named individual or an authorized representative and dispute information on this page, submit details below. Substantiated corrections are applied promptly. Disputes that remain unresolved are flagged on the profile.