Ward, Alicia Necole

Tenure Summary

Alicia Necole Ward entered the Georgia Department of Corrections as a correctional officer at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in 2014, according to GPS records. She later held a field training officer post at Wilcox State Prison in 2016, correctional sergeant at Georgia Diagnostic from 2017 through 2019, correctional lieutenant from 2020 through 2022, and correctional unit manager in 2023–2024, including a one-day Wilcox posting on Nov. 22, 2023. GPS records place her at Dodge State Prison as Deputy Warden of Administration beginning Dec. 1, 2024, and as Deputy Warden for the 2025 reporting year and a 2026 entry.

GPS records attribute three deaths to Ward’s leadership tenure, all at Dodge State Prison. No lawsuits naming her as a defendant appear in the file.

What happened on their watch

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (2014; 2017–2019)

Wilcox State Prison (2016; Nov. 22, 2023)

Dodge State Prison (Dec. 1, 2024–present)

• Sotero Uriquiza-Hernandez, 51, died after collapsing on May 20, 2025. According to a Dodge County Coroner open-records entry dated June 30, 2026, he had been agitated, reported low back pain after working out, and collapsed; he was pronounced dead at 11:03 p.m. The record notes he took multiple antihypertensives and that an autopsy was performed.
• Joseph Chatfield, 62, was pronounced dead at 9:20 a.m. on June 13, 2025. The coroner’s record states he was last known alive at 6:45 a.m.; only an external exam was performed, toxicology was ordered, and the coroner left the cause blank. GPS records keep this as unknown pending a final cause.
• Warren Peacock, 70, was pronounced dead at 10:43 p.m. on April 28, 2026, after a witnessed death, according to the coroner’s record. The record lists chronic hypertension, kidney disease, COPD, and diabetes and states the body was released to the GBI with autopsy and toxicology pending. GPS records note a conflict: a GBI Open Records response on Aug. 1, 2026, said no responsive records could be located. The file characterizes this as most likely an intake/backlog timing artifact.

Across the three records, no final cause was confirmed in the provided notes; two had pending toxicology/autopsy or a blank cause, and one included a coroner-GBI records conflict. No allegation intel reports are attached to Dodge State Prison during Ward’s tenure, and no lawsuits name her as a defendant. GPS records also log a separate State of Georgia liability payout of $16,000 tied to a 2025 Dodge State Prison incident, attributed to the GA DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger; the ledger does not indicate Ward was a named defendant.

Sources

• GPS personnel, facility death, and intel records (data extract)
• Dodge County Coroner open-records response, June 30, 2026
• GBI Open Records response R000142-070426, Aug. 1, 2026
• Georgia DOAS Risk Management settlement ledger (open records)
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports referenced in GPS intel files
• Facebook public post referenced in GPS intel files

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Aug 30, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.