Williams, JOE

Tenure Summary

Joe Williams’s GDC personnel history, per GPS records, begins with staff roles at Hancock State Prison: Correctional Officer in 2015 and CSM Correctional Sergeant in 2016. He later appears in food-service and custody-rank postings — lieutenant in 2017, captain in 2018, and unit manager in 2019–2020 — before deputy warden postings in 2021–2022. His facility-lead roles include Warden 1 in 2023, Warden at the Special Management Unit from May 2023 through December 2024, Warden 2 in 2024, and Warden 2 at Hancock State Prison from January 2025 through December 2025 in the salary record; death records also list him as Warden 2 at Hancock into 2026.

GPS attributes 12 deaths to Williams’s facility-leader tenures: 10 at Hancock State Prison and 2 at the Special Management Unit. The GPS court-record index lists two lawsuits naming Williams as a defendant; both were terminated.

What happened on their watch

Special Management Unit — Warden, May 2023–Dec 2024

GPS attributes two deaths to this posting: Ricardo Castavio Daughtry, 41, died June 10, 2024, and Emilio Christopher Canales, 40, died Oct. 22, 2024. GPS records note the Canales date was corrected against the GDC CY2024 Mortality Report. For both deaths, the structured record’s cause-category field is 6 and no narrative cause is provided.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that prison records showed Daughtry attending “table time,” recreation, and the book cart after he had already been pronounced dead, and that no one checked on him for nearly seven hours despite a policy requiring checks every 30 minutes. The AJC also reported allegations that GDC falsified and backdated prisoner review forms at the SMU and that officials presented false or misleading information. In October 2024, according to the AJC, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a report describing Georgia prison conditions as inhumane and detailing obstruction of federal investigators; that report overlaps Williams’s SMU tenure.

Hancock State Prison — Warden 2, Jan 2025 onward

GPS attributes 10 deaths to this posting. Among the decedents listed:

• William Holeman and Prince Porter, both Jan. 30, 2025, were found dead in the same dorm after gang-related violence. The GDC-released January 2025 mortality report listed “Homocide, Undetermined/Awaiting Autopsy Report” for both entries; GPS records note the spelling “Homocide” is a spreadsheet transcription artifact of the official GDC release. GPS event records describe the two as found about 15–20 feet apart; Porter had a puncture wound in his upper back, while Holeman had no visible marks.
• John T. Childree, 60, died April 9, 2025; GPS records do not provide a narrative cause.
• Corey Jose July, listed in GPS with conflicting ages — contemporaneous reporting cited by GPS gave his age as 34 — died June 17, 2025. According to 41NBC/WMGT, a Hancock County jury convicted Vershaun Smith of malice murder on Aug. 12, 2026; 41NBC reported prosecutors said surveillance video showed Smith chase July, corner him at a locked gate, and stab him multiple times.
• Brian Smith, 30, died July 24, 2025; no narrative cause is provided in GPS records.
• Andre Rashad Weems, 36, died Sept. 9, 2025; GPS research notes citing 13WMAZ, Union-Recorder, 41NBC, and FOX 5 describe a fatal stabbing.
• Jerrod Johnson died Feb. 18, 2026; a GPS record describes him as fatally stabbed around 4:45 p.m., though age is given as 27 in a user report and 34 in GDC data.
• Jaylin Bell, 32, died Feb. 6, 2026; 41NBC reported he died after an altercation with his roommate at Hancock. A Telegram-sourced prisoner report said the killing occurred in the hole/G1, but that remains an allegation.
• Steven Monroe Wood, 54, died Jan. 25, 2026; GPS records and the Union-Recorder describe him as beaten in his cell and transported to hospitals. The GDC Office of Professional Standards opened an investigation.
• Jacorey Derrelle Pearson, 36, died April 7, 2026; GPS event records state the body was sent to the GBI crime lab and the GDC Office of Professional Standards opened an investigation.

GPS event records also document larger incidents at Hancock: on Jan. 12, 2026, five inmates were stabbed with shanks and two were airlifted; a fight injured at least two more on Jan. 13, 2026.

Litigation

• Hall v. Shepard, No. 5:23-cv-00205 (U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia), filed June 8, 2023, terminated June 11, 2024. No outcome amount is recorded.
• Gumm v. Jacobs, No. 5:15-cv-00041 (M.D. Ga.), filed Feb. 12, 2015, terminated May 7, 2019. No outcome amount is recorded.

Sources

• GPS personnel, mortality, and event records for Joe Williams.
• GDC January 2025 mortality data, official release — cause entries for William Holeman and Prince Porter.
• GDC CY2024 Mortality Report — date verification for Emilio Christopher Canales.
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — reporting on SMU record-falsification allegations, Daughtry welfare-check gap, and DOJ findings.
• 41NBC/WMGT — Vershaun Smith conviction and Corey July prosecution; Jaylin Bell death.
• Union-Recorder — Steven Monroe Wood beating-death coverage.
• 13WMAZ, FOX 5, WGXA — Hancock State Prison death reports.
• CourtListener dockets — Hall v. Shepard and Gumm v. Jacobs.

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Aug 16, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.