A search of his car then turned up a package with 17.5 grams of methamphetamine strips, 21.4 grams of marijuana and 10 Suboxone strips. Drugs, Pop Rocks, tobaccoĪccording to arrest warrant affidavits, officers checked Melvin’s bag at the prison entrance on the morning of April 28 and found the greeting cards. He still didn’t have a teaching credential but got one on a provisional basis six months later. Initially hired as a part-time employee, he was promoted to full time in March 2021 with an annual salary of $36,268. She wrote that the prison had no-full-time instructors and, as a result, the number of inmates obtaining high school equivalency degrees had dropped “drastically.”Īt the time, Melvin was a detention officer in Bleckley County and didn’t have a teaching credential. In Melvin’s case, he was hired in October 2020 in response to a “critical need” request from Pulaski Warden Meosha McMillan. “If you can get an additional $4,000 a month times 12, who wouldn’t do it?” “Correctional officers or other prison employees have essentially become drug mules for the gangs,” she said. The influx of those products, coupled with the willingness of prison personnel to bring them in or look the other way, has dramatically increased the presence of drugs in prisons, said Nicole Wiesen, an advocate for Georgia prison inmates who was formerly incarcerated herself. Once in the prison, the paper is torn into strips and smoked or dissolved under the tongue. It’s then dried, making it appear to be a legitimate book, letter or greeting card. The paper is typically soaked with K2, a synthetic cannabinoid, or Suboxone, a treatment for opioid addiction that can be addictive in its own right. A lawyer who represented him at the Fulton County hearing, Larry Fouche of Macon, declined to comment for this story because he said Melvin did not actually retain him.Īcross the country, prisons have been forced to deal with employees, historically poorly paid, bringing in drugs for inmates and using paper products to do it. Melvin did not respond to multiple messages from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Joan Heath, the chief spokesperson for the GDC, said in an emailed statement that the department fired Melvin after his arrest and turned the matter over to the local district attorney. Holmes’ arrest drew the attention of Fulton prosecutors because she is serving a 15-year sentence for her role in a 2018 gang-related shooting in Atlanta that left the victim paralyzed from the waist down. The gang charge apparently stems from her role with the Bloods, the gang most often cited for the mayhem that has upended life at the Hawkinsville facility this year. Those charges include conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with intent as well as conspiracy to participate in criminal gang activity. Holmes has been charged in Pulaski County with multiple offenses for her alleged role in the smuggling. His testimony in Fulton County added significant details about his alleged misconduct, but his statements can’t be used against him because he testified under a grant of immunity from Judge Melynee Leftridge at a June hearing in which prosecutors sought to revoke Holmes’ status as a first offender. Melvin has since been charged with four offenses in Pulaski County, including crossing the prison’s guard line with weapons, intoxicants or drugs. Confronted by authorities, he immediately said the cards and other items were for Holmes. Melvin, 25, was fired April 29, a day after he was discovered trying to enter the prison with 10 blank greeting cards and other types of contraband. That job gave him unsupervised access to prisoners, and he testified that he had sexual contact with the inmate who allegedly received the contraband, 23-year-old Selena Holmes, as well as with at least six others.
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