A former Fulton County jailer on Wednesday was sentenced to six months in federal prison for accepting a bribe to smuggle cellphones and cigarettes to inmates inside the county jail.
Derick Deshun Frazier, 32, of Stockbridge, also was ordered to spend three months in home confinement after his release from custody. Frazier, who pleaded guilty in October, took $400 from an individual working undercover for the FBI last February to smuggle two cellphones and two packs of cigarettes to an inmate and then delivered them as planned, federal prosecutors said.
"Cellphones in the hands of inmates pose a very grave risk to security of the jail, and can provide an avenue for inmates to commit more crimes, both inside and outside the jail," U.S. Attorney Sally Yates said. "This detention officer endangered honest law enforcement officers who worked in the jail, other inmate and even the citizens of our community, when he chose to take a bribe instead of conducting himself as a law enforcement officer.”
Fulton Sheriff Ted Jackson said his office will continue to aggressively investigate and assist with FBI investigations involving allegations of criminal conduct by any of his employees.
“The shame and dishonor that Mr. Derick Deshun Frazier brought upon himself should in no way reflect upon the majority of hard working members of the Fulton County Sheriff's Office who perform their duties with integrity," Jackson added.
Frazier was one of three former Fulton jailers recently convicted of corruption in federal court in Atlanta.
On Nov. 8, former Deputy Sheriff Marvie Trevino Dingle, Jr., 34, of Lithonia, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted possession with the intent to distribute cocaine inside and outside the county jail and two counts of extortion for accepting more than $2,000 to smuggle drugs into the jail and to protect a drug transaction outside of the jail.
On Oct. 24, Akil Scott, 31, of Lithonia, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine and two counts of extortion for accepting $650 to smuggle drugs into the jail.
Illegal cellphone possession is not only a problem inside the Fulton jail. In a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens said that over a one-year period, state corrections officials confiscated more than 8,700 illegal cellphones. Last year, 312 civilians and 59 prison staff members were charged with trying to smuggle contraband inside state prisons, and most of those cases involved cellphones, Owens said.
Gov. Nathan Deal recently wrote the Federal Communications Commission, asking it to reconsider its position on the use of jamming devices to disrupt cellphone calls inside prisons. Deal noted that two recent disturbances at state prisons "only continue to underscore the nationwide epidemic of illegal cellphone usage in prison facilities across the United States."
The incidents -- one at Telfair State Prison, the other at Hancock State Prison -- left 15 inmates hospitalized and a guard with a leg injury, Deal wrote. Illegal cellphones were found to be the catalysts behind the two fights, the governor wrote.
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