Ward, Alicia Necole

Tenure Summary

Alicia Necole Ward's GDC career runs from 2014 to the present, moving up the custody and administrative ladder. She began as a Correctional Officer at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in 2014, served as a Field Training Officer at Wilcox State Prison in 2016, then returned to Georgia Diagnostic as a Correctional Sergeant from 2017 through 2019. From 2020 through 2022 she is listed as a Correctional Lieutenant, and from 2023 to November 2024 as a Correctional Unit Manager; those records carry no facility assignment. On December 1, 2024, she was named Deputy Warden of Administration at Dodge State Prison, and she is recorded as Deputy Warden at Dodge through 2025, with a further Dodge deputy warden entry dated 2026.

Three deaths are attributed to her facility-leadership tenure — all of them at Dodge State Prison, all while she held a deputy warden role there. No lawsuit naming Ward as a defendant appears in the provided records, and no news report naming her directly appears in them.

What happened on their watch

Correctional Lieutenant and Correctional Unit Manager (2020–November 2024). Records list Ward as a Correctional Lieutenant for 2020, 2021, and 2022, and as a Correctional Unit Manager for 2023 and through November 30, 2024, with no facility attached to any of those entries. A single dated record places her as Correctional Unit Manager at Wilcox State Prison on November 22, 2023. No deaths are attributed to her during these postings.

Dodge State Prison — Deputy Warden of Administration (from December 1, 2024) and Deputy Warden (2025–2026). All three deaths attributed to Ward's leadership tenure occurred here, while she was recorded in a deputy warden role at the facility:

• Sotero Uriquiza-Hernandez, 51, died May 20, 2025.
• Joseph Chatfield, 62, died June 13, 2025.
• Warren Peacock, 70, died April 28, 2026.

Per Georgia Prisoners' Speak's personnel compilation, the three decedents ranged in age from 51 to 70 and all three deaths are logged to Dodge State Prison. The records do not include a public narrative, cause-of-death statement, or family account for any of the three, so nothing further about the circumstances of these deaths can be stated from the available material.

Separately, a State of Georgia liability payout of $16,000 tied to Dodge State Prison and a 2025 incident is recorded — a settlement dated May 26, 2025, naming Kimyania Smith, per the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management settlement ledger obtained through an open-records request. Ward's recorded role at the facility on that date was Deputy Warden. The records do not describe the underlying incident, do not state whether the settlement related to a death, and do not name Ward as a party to it.

No intelligence reports and no facility events other than the settlement above are recorded against Dodge State Prison for the period of Ward's deputy warden tenure, and no news coverage naming her appears in the provided records.

Sources

• Georgia Prisoners' Speak personnel file for Alicia Necole Ward — position history, salary records, and facility-level death attributions at Dodge State Prison (2025–2026); profile: https://gps.press/intelligence/personnel/ward-alicia-necole/
• Georgia Department of Administrative Services, Risk Management settlement ledger (obtained via open records) — $16,000 Dodge State Prison settlement, May 26, 2025
• GDC/state position and salary records for Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (2014, 2017–2019) and Wilcox State Prison (2016, 2023) — career history only; no deaths attributed to Ward at those facilities in these records

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Sep 23, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.