A Lowndes County correctional officer spent just two months on the job before landing on the other side of the bars.
Jerry Lewis, 19, is charged with furnishing contraband to inmates, possession of a controlled substance and felony conspiracy to commit a crime.
Sheriff Eddie Hawkins told The Dispatch that Lewis was allegedly selling marijuana pills, cigarettes and lighters to Lowndes County Adult Detention Center inmates. Lewis began working at the jail Feb. 12.
Sheriff’s deputies arrested Lewis on Wednesday after some inmates implicated the jailer. Lewis admitted to detectives he had brought the items into the jail and sold them to inmates on several occasions, according to a sheriff’s office press release.
Lewis is being held in Oktibbeha County Jail, so as not to be housed with inmates he had previously supervised, Hawkins said.
“As a correctional officer, you are held to a higher standard than the rest of the community,” Hawkins said in the press release. “Lewis has lost my trust and faith, as well as that of the community. He can no longer serve as a correctional officer as a result of his conduct. Lewis knew better. Now he has to experience the other side of lock-up.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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