A prison employee pleaded guilty Wednesday to smuggling drugs into a Georgia prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta said.
Charonda Edwards, 29, of College Park, pleaded guilty for her role in smuggling methamphetamine and marijuana into Phillips State Prison in Buford, and for conspiring with inmates to sell the drugs within the prison.
Edwards in 2014 conspired with inmates to smuggle drugs into the prison kitchen where she worked, according to court records.
United States Attorney John Horn said Edwards hid the drugs in the kitchen, where inmates could find and then sell the drugs to inmates. Edwards accepted bribes and took orders from inmates using cell phones that were also smuggled into the prison, Horn said. She also provided valuable information to the inmates, such as when the prison would be on “lockdown” or would be searched by guards, Horn said.
“The security of our prisons depends on correctional employees to perform their jobs honestly and with integrity,” Horn said. “The safety and effectiveness of the prison system is compromised when employees, like Edwards, conspire with inmates to bring contraband into institutions.”
Edwards is the first defendant to plead guilty in a series of prison corruption cases that charged more than 80 other defendants, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is also investigating.
“Ms. Edwards, through her criminal acts, compromised security at the prison in which she was employed and, in doing so, placed her fellow employees in harm’s way,” FBI investigator J. Britt Johnson said. “Ms. Edwards will now face the consequences of those actions.”
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