Questions abound about handling of inmates at Lee Arrendale prison

   Savannah Williams could not breathe, and she tried her best to tell the officers who were twice her size.

   She was well overmatched in a May 31 incident at Lee Arrendale State Prison in Alto, when she claims guards roughed her up.

   It was another weave in the 2020 tapestry of controversy at the facility, which has included four arrests of staff members or guards for sexual assaults.

   Williams, who has a history of violence and is incarcerated for her role in a non-fatal shooting, was upset that an officer had taken an object that belonged to her and destroyed it. She voiced her concerns, only to have the guards come into her cell and restrain the 120-pound inmate.

   “I’m on the ground, my hands are already cuffed, they slammed me on the ground,” Williams said. “They started sitting on my legs, and they said they were going to go find some shackles. … I told them I am not resisting. How am I resisting if I am already in handcuffs? I am face down in toilet water, hands behind my back … they twisted my ankle when they put the shackles on.”

   Williams screamed that her leg was being crushed, and she yelled to the officers that her handcuffs were cutting her wrists. She just wanted to officer to get off her leg, and he later put pressure on her back, limiting her ability to breathe.

   “They went and got a shield because I kept coughing, and I am still face down on the ground with handcuffs on and my legs criss-crossed with shackles on them,” she said. “They didn’t give me the option to walk, they just picked me up and threw me in the room. … I fell, they put me on the bed. Instead of taking the cuffs off, they started banging me with the shield. Nobody had a body cam in the room. … They slammed the shield on the back of my head twice. I am squirming just trying to get air.”

   Williams said the officers busted her lip on the edge of the bed as well while they were trying to free her from the handcuffs and shackles. She said when she was taken down to the medical area, she was not allowed to take pictures of the cuts or call her family.

   She eventually relayed the story to her sister, who contacted her mother, who passed the message on to attorney John Hafemann. In a two-hour interview with Hafemann, Williams’ story matched up with what she told her sister on a recorded phone call.

   Williams’ mother Brandi said Thursday she filed grievances and has heard nothing. Brandi added that her daughter has a separated shoulder and has not been given proper medical attention, now nearly four weeks from the incident.

   Hafemann said Thursday that he has decided to decline Williams’ case.

   Even if they are able to secure legal services, inmates who feel they have been treated unfairly cannot file civil lawsuits until they have exhausted the grievance process, which some feel is not a workable system.

LEFT IN DANGER

   Jackie Dean, a Jesup native, pleaded guilty in the spring of 2019 to theft by conversion after taking money from Wayne County High School students for their senior cruise and gambling with it.

   Part of her plea deal was agreeing to serve the time in a probation detention center in Claxton, which is more like a halfway house than a prison, meant for minor offenders. Dean was a non-violent, first-time offender who was expecting to be treated as such.

   But when Dean arrived in Claxton, the staff there said they did not have medical personnel to care for her due to suffering from diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Dean was supposed to be sent to Lee Arrendale State Prison for a medical evaluation to see where she would be placed, but she never left there for the duration of her six-month sentence.

   “They told me they would work on getting me out early, and I questioned them about why they were sending me to Arrendale,” Dean said. “When I got there, they put me in isolation, which they said was just until they got the paperwork in order. They left me there for 2 ½ days. I kept asking why I was in there, and they told me that if I didn’t shut my mouth, it would be forgotten that I was there at all.”

   They refused her a chance to talk with her attorney, and she passed out from an anxiety attack. She said it took her a month to get the true medical evaluation that she was allegedly sent there for in the first place. She was given one uniform only and no other clothes, and none of her questions were answered throughout the process. She filed a grievance with the prison that she said went nowhere.

   “It was like throwing paper in the trash,” Dean said. “They were supposed to provide proper snacks for people with diabetes, but the guards would just give them out to whoever. The guards were verbally abusive to us all the time, but no one listened.”

   She finally was able to get word to her husband to contact an attorney, and her husband was good about making sure she had money to buy things she needed while incarcerated. But this later caused her problems, as another inmate grew jealous and turned on her after they had been friends.

   Dean said her fellow inmate was a mental patient who was not being given her medications, and she frequently quarreled with guards and other inmates. Dean tried to eat with her, play cards with her and be her friend, which worked for a while.

   “She got jealous about my husband always giving me money, and she confronted me in my cell,” Dean said. “She started beating me about the face with a hair dryer. I was beaten really bad, and the guards just ignored it and let it happen for a while before they finally came in. I was given no pain medication for treatment, and I had to beg for an ice pack.”

   Dean said she paid a fee to be able to send out pictures of what happened to her, but prison officials were blocking them.

   Later, the inmate who beat her was right back in the same common area.

   “You get attacked, and they just put you right back with the person who attacked you,” she said. “The guards basically had the mentality that if you get beat up, that’s on you.”

   Throughout the six months at Arrendale, Dean was never actually told why she was held there in violation of her plea agreement. She also had no success with her grievances.

SEX ASSAULTS

   There has been a notable pattern of sex between prison employees and inmates, with four such employees arrested and fired in the first five months of the year.

   Tyler Sterling Hall, 24, of Cleveland was arrested on three counts of sexual assault against a person in custody. He was employed as a food service supervisor at the all-women’s prison in Alto, and was terminated on the day of his arrest, the Georgia Department of Corrections said in a press release.

   The warrants for Hall’s arrest allege that he had sexual contact with three different inmates during the month of May.

   “The GDC has a zero tolerance policy against sexual assault of offenders in our custody, and we seek prosecution to the fullest extent of the law on individuals who chose to violate their oath,” GDC spokesperson Lori Benoit said in May.

   Destiny Paige Wilhite, 24, of Toccoa was arrested April 6 after accusations that she “engaged in sexual contact with a “resident under her supervision,” according to the arrest warrant.

   In January, food service worker Christopher Paul Wood, 46, of Hiawassee was arrested on charges that he allegedly sexually assaulted an inmate. Wood was arrested on a charge of sex assault against a person in custody in the B-Unit kitchen.

RESPONSE

   The Georgia Department of Corrections has been curt in its responses to the incidents this year, providing no details of the sex assaults and how they were allowed to happen in a “zero tolerance” environment beyond providing the arrest warrants and confirming the dismissal of the employees.

   Regarding the Williams incident, GDC spokesperson Joan Heath said the incident was being reviewed.

   “The GDC is aware, and has spoken to the family regarding their concerns. Any incident such as the one they are describing, will be reviewed by the agency, as standard protocol,” Heath said.

   Heath said Monday that the investigation had not been completed.

   Warden Murray Tatum did not return a phone message and deferred questions to GDC spokespeople.

   For the inmates, they just want to feel safe during their incarceration.

   “It’s a nightmare in there,” Dean said. “Someone needs to go in there and investigate.”