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VERIFY: Are guards armed with work detail?

We spoke with Captain Ted Jones from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office to find out their policy on work details.

This summer, there have been five Georgia inmates that walked or ran away from custody this summer. John Leonardi escaped from a work detail in west Georgia in July.

According to The Department of Corrections Public Affairs Director, Joan Heath, their outside officers are not armed when they go out with detail.

We spoke with Captain Ted Jones from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office to find out their policy on details.

“These people are not armed. These people are basically just workers for these departments, but they're in charge of those inmates for that day,” says Jones.

Jones says county departments choose someone to watch the inmates assigned to their work details, but their supervisor is never armed.

“Mostly, it’s violation probation things of this nature,” says Jones.

Jones says they do have safety protocols in place. He says they do not send just any inmates out to work.

“Aggravated battery, drugs, parole, robbery, felony escape things of this nature. If they have this in their background or are charged with it now, they're not allowed,” says Jones.

Jones says they do weekly spot checks to make sure everything is running smoothly.

“If this person says that they're going to be at a certain are using these inmates we will go out periodically to make sure those inmates are in that area doing that job,” says Jones.

He says they do behavior checks before any inmate walks out the door to make sure that nothing out of the ordinary happens.

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