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Wiley, Flemister E
Status: active
Profile written July 19, 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
Flemister E. Wiley spent nearly a decade as a public-safety trainer for the Georgia Department of Corrections before being appointed Deputy Warden of the Special Management Unit (SMU) — Georgia’s supermax prison in Jackson — in 2024. GPS records show that during this leadership role, five incarcerated men died inside the SMU. The facility was simultaneously operating under a federal contempt order for falsifying records and violating a 2019 settlement meant to reform solitary-confinement conditions, and was the target of a scathing U.S. Department of Justice investigation that described Georgia’s prisons as inhumane. Wiley was also a named defendant in a 2015 class-action lawsuit — Gumm v. Jacobs — that led to that settlement, though he held only a training position at the time.What happened on their watch
Wiley’s tenure as Deputy Warden at the SMU began in January 2024 and continued into 2025. Per GPS records, five deaths are attributed to the facility while he held that post, all classified under cause category 6. The decedents are Ricardo Castavio Daughtry (June 10, 2024), Emilio Christopher Canales (October 17, 2024), Lashon Boddie (September 2, 2025), Michael Ogletree (October 31, 2025), and Antony Ramon Penick (May 30, 2026).The SMU was already under an extraordinary legal and investigative shadow when Wiley became deputy warden. In April 2024, U.S. District Judge Marc T. Treadwell held the GDC in contempt, ruling that officials had “thumbing their noses” at a 2019 settlement that required sweeping changes to solitary-confinement policies, and had fabricated documentation — including backdated prisoner review forms — to create a false appearance of compliance. Months later, the Department of Justice released a report finding that people inside Georgia prisons were “assaulted, stabbed, raped, and killed” in dangerously understaffed facilities, and that the GDC obstructed federal investigators by restricting access, hurriedly repairing buildings before visits, and refusing to release records.
Two deaths occurred in the immediate wake of the contempt order, while Wiley was a deputy at the SMU. Ricardo Daughtry — the lead plaintiff in the very lawsuit that produced the 2019 settlement — was found dead in his cell. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, prison logs later showed that no one had checked on him for nearly seven hours, even though GDC policy required welfare checks every 30 minutes, and records were fabricated to indicate he had attended “table time” and the book cart after he was pronounced dead. The other four deaths during Wiley’s deputy-warden tenure have not yet been tied to specific circumstances in public reporting, but they add to the count of fatalities inside a facility that a federal judge described as a place where the GDC and its officials were operating with “no desire or intention” to comply with court-ordered reforms.
Meanwhile, the SMU continued to struggle with contraband cellphones. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that inmate Arthur Lee Cofield Jr. — housed at the SMU — used a contraband phone to steal $11 million from a billionaire’s brokerage account, and that the GDC had known about his financial crimes as early as 2018 but did not charge him until 2020. The seizure of Cofield’s cellphone in summer 2020 ultimately triggered a federal investigation that led to his 135-month federal prison sentence in 2024.
Litigation
- Gumm v. Jacobs, No. 5:15-cv-00041 (GAMD, filed Feb. 12, 2015, terminated May 7, 2019). Wiley was a named defendant. The case challenged solitary-confinement conditions at the SMU and was settled in 2019, mandating major reforms. The GDC was later held in contempt for failing to comply.
Sources
- GPS personnel and mortality records — Wiley’s role as Deputy Warden at SMU, the five deaths attributed during his tenure, and the Gumm lawsuit defendant record.
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution — multiple investigative reports on falsified records, the death of Ricardo Daughtry, contraband cellphones and the Cofield fraud, the DOJ investigation, and the contempt order against GDC (2024–2025).
- U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia — contempt order and Gumm v. Jacobs settlement enforcement (2024).
- U.S. Department of Justice — findings on conditions in Georgia prisons (October 2024).
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| DEPUTY WARDEN | SPECIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT | 2024-01-01 → present |
| PUBLIC SAFETY, TRAINER 3 | 2016-01-01 → 2023-12-31 | |
| PUBLIC SAFETY TRN (AL) | 2015-01-01 → 2015-12-31 |
Lawsuits as defendant
| Case # | Court | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5:15-cv-00041 | GAMD | 2015-02-12 | terminated |
Deaths attributed during tenure
5 people died at facilities under Wiley, Flemister E's leadership.
| Date | Decedent | Age | Facility | Role at time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-30 | ANTONY RAMON PENICK | 32 | SPECIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2025-10-31 | MICHAEL OGLETREE | 33 | SPECIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2025-09-02 | LASHON BODDIE | 30 | SPECIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2024-10-17 | EMILIO CHRISTOPHER CANALES | 40 | SPECIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT | DEPUTY WARDEN |
| 2024-06-10 | RICARDO CASTAVIO DAUGHTRY | 41 | SPECIAL MANAGEMENT UNIT | DEPUTY WARDEN |
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