FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Jim Shuler, Director
March 14, 2013
DJJ Communications
(404) 508-7238
[email protected]
CORRECTIONS CADET JAILED ON CONTRABAND CHARGES
ACCUSED OF SMUGGLING CELLPHONE INTO YOUTH AT DETENTION CENTER
(CLAXTON - GA)
Commissioner Avery D. Niles of the Georgia Department of Juvenile
Justice announced today that Evans County Sheriff’s Deputies have made the agency’s first
arrest of a juvenile corrections cadet under provisions of the state’s new felony contraband law.
The felony arrest in Claxton, Georgia could now trigger criminal prosecution resulting in a four-
year prison sentence upon conviction.
DJJ Internal Investigators took out the felony warrant today for 29-year-old Jonathan Wilkerson
of Claxton, Georgia for allegedly smuggling an illegal cellphone into the Claxton Regional Youth
Detention Center (RYDC).
Investigators charged Wilkerson with concealing the illegal
cellphone inside his clothing in order to smuggle it inside the facility.
The cell phone was found in the possession of a youth during a routine shakedown at the
Claxton RYDC over the weekend.
DJJ Commissioner Niles said the investigation subsequently
established a connection between Cadet Wilkerson and the contraband phone.
Wilkerson, who
started in January, had been employed with the Department of Juvenile Justice less than three
months and was not yet rated as a Juvenile Corrections Officer. Commissioner Niles said
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