FBI Arrests Fulton County Jail Workers

ATLANTA -- A source has told GA Daily News investigative reporter Mark Winne that several Fulton County Jail workers have been arrested by the FBI.

The workers were arrested at the Fulton County Jail on Thursday moing. Two sources told Winne three of the workers were detention officers. The other was a sheriff's deputy. The sources said one of the workers was caught with a cellphone, which are prohibited at the jail. One source said the FBI also arrested a civilian jail medical employee.

Chief jailer Dennis Nelson confirmed to Channel 2 that the FBI opened an investigation into relationships between certain jail officers or deputies and inmates in the jail before he left the jail in October. Nelson said employees were suspected in contraband smuggling. He said he had undertaken an aggressive shakedown policy and other steps to curb it.

Contraband issues also came to light after, police said, an inmate was shot by another inmate at the jail June 21. Investigators said it happened on the seventh floor maximum security wing of the jail, where physical contact is not allowed between inmates and visitors.

After the shooting, corrections officers found a five-shot Derringer pistol stuffed inside a toilet paper roll and hidden behind a ceiling panel. They also found nearly 20 illegal cellphones, charging devices and zippered plastic bags full of marijuana.