Tillman, Alexander

Tenure Summary

Alexander Tillman’s career in the Georgia Department of Corrections spans two decades, beginning as a Behavioral Health Counselor in 2005 and progressing through social-services and program-consultant roles before assuming positions with facility-level accountability. By 2023, he had become a Correctional Unit Manager at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (GDCP), and on July 16, 2024, he was appointed Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment — a facility-deputy role in which he served through the end of the data period. GPS records attribute 15 deaths to leadership tenures held by Tillman, all of which occurred at GDCP during his time as Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment. Tillman is a defendant in one pending federal civil rights lawsuit, Miller v. Holt, while three other cases that name him as a defendant have been terminated. His tenure unfolded in a facility that operates at roughly 568 percent of its original design capacity, amid persistent reports of systemic neglect and violence.

What happened on their watch

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (Unit Manager 2023–2024, Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment 2024–2025)

Tillman arrived at GDCP in a supervisory role in 2023 as a CSM Correctional Unit Manager, and on July 16, 2024, he became Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment. Over the next thirteen months — from September 6, 2024, through August 5, 2025 — GPS records attribute 15 deaths to the facility, all occurring while Tillman held the deputy warden position. The decedents ranged in age from 27 to 76. Two deaths are classified under cause category 3, which includes homicides: Jacob Scott Wilcox, 27, and William Rhodes, 38; a GPS research note for Rhodes explicitly states “Homocide.” The remaining thirteen deaths fall under category 6; among them are Christopher Wayne Crook, 49; Daniel Claude Callahan, 72; Woodrow Wilson Hodges, 68; Mark Smith, 53; David Octavious Robbs, 37; Michael Scott West, 46; Willie Henry Ponder, 47; Thomas Williams Jr., 62; Stephen Allen Hester, 41; Joshua Mark Holliday, 43; Albert Stinson, 76; and Rodriquez Demorris Garrett, 30.

The Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison was the subject of repeated investigative and oversight reports during Tillman’s tenure. By January 2025, the facility was documented as housing 4,540 incarcerated people — 568 percent of its original 1968 design capacity of 800. Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the same facility saw an incident in June 2024 where newly convicted inmate Shane Tassi was photographed within days of arrival holding a homemade shank and making gang gestures, which a district attorney cited as an indicator of serious security failures. The AJC also reported that almost every part of GDCP had been vandalized by prisoners, pointing to widespread infrastructure breakdown.

Specific deaths on Tillman’s deputy warden watch drew outside scrutiny. On June 7, 2025, Mark Smith — a 53-year-old diagnosed with advanced Parkinson’s disease — was found dead in his cell; GPS event records, citing neglect allegations, note that Smith had been denied a transfer to the medical unit and that security rounds had lapsed for hours. An April 2025 incident at GDCP involved a prisoner fatally stabbed in the chest while multiple inmates witnessed the attack; according to GPS records, there was a 30-minute delay before officers responded. Systemic failures in death reporting were flagged by GPS in October 2025, when a death was allegedly deleted from the inmate database, no autopsy was ordered, and witness statements disappeared. During Tillman’s unit-manager period, the facility also recorded the January 2024 death of Brandon Trace Burrell, who according to the AJC was assaulted by another inmate while under the influence of methamphetamine and suffered numerous stab wounds.

Litigation

• Miller v. Holt, No. 5:25-cv-00356 (GAMD, filed Aug. 25, 2025) — pending.
• Curling v. Raffensperger, No. 1:17-cv-02989 (GAND, filed Aug. 8, 2017) — terminated Mar. 31, 2025.
• Cunningham v. Fulton County Georgia, No. 1:16-cv-00533 (GAND, filed Feb. 19, 2016) — terminated Mar. 29, 2019.
• Lewis v. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, No. 1:14-cv-03838 (GAND, filed Dec. 2, 2014) — terminated Aug. 11, 2015.

Sources

• GPS death records and position history for Alexander Tillman
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — reporting on GDCP overcrowding, contraband, assaults, and infrastructure failures
• CourtListener docket for Miller v. Holt and other federal cases naming Tillman as a defendant

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on May 31, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.