Williams, JOE

Tenure Summary

Joe Williams entered the Georgia Department of Corrections as a correctional officer at Hancock State Prison in 2015, was promoted to correctional sergeant there in 2016, and then held a run of unit-supervisor and food-service posts recorded without an attached facility — lieutenant, captain, unit manager, and deputy warden — from 2017 through 2022. He was named Warden of the Special Management Unit on May 1, 2023 and served there through the end of 2024, with WARDEN 1 and WARDEN 2 salary records for 2023 and 2024 carrying no facility. He returned to Hancock State Prison as WARDEN 2 for 2025, appears in a single-day deputy warden record there on August 27, 2026, and took the Hancock warden's post on October 16, 2026.

Nine deaths are attributed to his leadership tenures: seven at Hancock State Prison and two at the Special Management Unit. Two lawsuits naming him as a defendant were both terminated with no outcome amount recorded.

What happened on their watch

Hancock State Prison — correctional officer (2015), correctional sergeant (2016). No leadership-tier deaths are attributed to these years; the records list only the roles and dates.

Posts without a recorded facility — food service supervisor, lieutenant, captain, unit manager (2017–2020), food service supervisor and deputy warden (2021–2022). No facility is recorded for these positions.

Special Management Unit — Warden (May 1, 2023 – December 31, 2024). Two deaths are attributed to this tenure. Ricardo Castavio Daughtry died June 10, 2024, at the Special Management Unit; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 41. Reporting tied to the facility's records describes Daughtry as the lead plaintiff in the Special Management Unit lawsuit and states he was not checked for nearly seven hours before his body was discovered, despite a policy requiring 30-minute checks. Emilio Christopher Canales died October 22, 2024, at the Special Management Unit; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 40. In April 2024, during this tenure, Federal Judge Marc T. Treadwell issued a contempt order against GDC for failing to comply with a 2019 settlement agreement governing conditions at the Special Management Unit, with fabricated reports documented in the order. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Arthur Lee Cofield Jr., held at the unit, at one point had amassed $31 million in a bank account, as revealed by a contraband cellphone seized from him at the state's top security prison; the AJC reported he stole $11 million from Sidney Kimmel's Charles Schwab account, was sentenced in January 2024 to 135 months and over $12.5 million in restitution, and that GDC learned as early as 2018 of his financial crimes but did not charge him until 2020. Fulton County prosecutors alleged Cofield ordered a 2018 shooting outside an Atlanta recording studio.

Hancock State Prison — WARDEN 2 (2025). Six deaths are attributed to this tenure:

• William Holeman died January 30, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide.
• Prince Porter died January 30, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide. Per the AJC, the two were found dead in the same dorm 15–20 feet apart after gang-related violence; Porter had a single puncture wound in his upper back, and a third prisoner was hospitalized.
• John T Childree died April 9, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 60.
• Corey Jose July died June 17, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide and his age as 33. Per GDC, he was stabbed multiple times in the yard during an altercation; prosecutors said surveillance video showed Vershaun Smith chasing July, cornering him at a locked gate and stabbing him.
• Brian Smith died July 24, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending and his age as 30.
• Andre Rashad Weems died September 9, 2025, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Homicide and his age as 36.

AJC reporting during this tenure stated that 73.5% of correctional officer positions at Hancock were vacant as of October 2024, leaving 49 officers for over 1,100 prisoners, and that consultants found vacancies at 20 of Georgia's 34 prisons at "emergency levels," with broken cell locks; a DOJ report described violence and rampant sexual assault in the state's prisons. Reporting dated within this tenure also documented earlier Hancock deaths, including Roland Phillips (June 2023, multiple sharp-force injuries; a murder warrant was served on his cellmate) and Francisco Melgar-Saldivar (strangled August 2023, per death certificate data), a September 2024 gang assault in which seven prisoners were disciplined, and a claim that Melgar-Saldivar was not given appropriate medical care after being attacked. A lawsuit alleges Charles "Tristen" James McKee was placed in a dorm with known gang members hostile to LGBTQ inmates and that staff failed to act on his requests to move; the DOJ investigation found he tried to escape his attackers by jumping through stair railings. Another claim alleges Amanuel Selassie Geberyesus was placed in a regular cell contrary to a counselor's advice after expressing suicidal thoughts.

Hancock State Prison — Warden (October 16, 2026 – present). Devin Cole Edwards died October 30, 2026, at Hancock State Prison; the registry lists the cause as Unknown/Pending. Incident records state he was found in his cell after a recent fight and that GBI investigated.

Litigation

• Hall v. Shepard, No. 5:23-cv-00205, GAMD — filed June 8, 2023; terminated June 11, 2024; no outcome amount recorded.
• Gumm v. Jacobs, No. 5:15-cv-00041, GAMD — filed February 12, 2015; terminated May 7, 2019; no outcome amount recorded.

Sources

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Hancock vacancy rates, gang violence deaths, McKee and Melgar-Saldivar reporting, SMU/Cofield reporting
• U.S. Department of Justice report (as reported by the AJC)
• Contempt order by Federal Judge Marc T. Treadwell (April 2024, Special Management Unit)
• Court records via CourtListener dockets (Hall v. Shepard; Gumm v. Jacobs)
• GPS death registry — causes and dates for the nine deaths listed above

Synthesized by GPS Intelligence System on Nov 8, 2026 from positions, attributed deaths, lawsuits, intel reports, and news mentions in the public corpus. The supporting data tables follow below.