By DAVE WILLIAMS, Capitol Beat News Service

ATLANTA – Staff shortages and aging infrastructure are contributing to an influx of contraband that is leading to an increase in crime in Georgia state prisons, the head of the Department of Corrections said Wednesday.

Correctional officials seized 14,497 cell phones in state prisons last year, double the number of 7,224 in 2019, Corrections Director Tyrone Oliver told a Georgia Senate investigative committee investigating security issues in the state’s prisons.

Many of these cell phones are smuggled into prisons on drones, some of which carry a payload of up to 200 pounds, Oliver said.

“We see huge drones here,” he said. “We are in a constant battle.”

Prison inmates are using smuggled cell phones to coordinate the distribution of illegal drugs inside and outside prison walls. Last week, 23 current or former inmates and outside conspirators were indicted in federal court for using drones to deliver large quantities of methamphetamine and marijuana, as well as cell phones, to Smith State Prison in Glennville, Telfair State Prison in McRae and several other state prisons.

Contraband cell phones are also used in connection with violent crimes, said Randy Robertson (R-Cataula), chairman of the investigative committee and Senate Majority Leader.

“There were murders outside the prisons that were staged inside the prisons,” Robertson said.

Oliver said the cuts are thinning the agency’s workforce. The Department of Corrections lost more than 2,000 employees during the COVID pandemic but has since recovered its numbers by 500 to 700, he said.

“This is by far the toughest public safety mission you’ll have when you walk into a prison,” he said. “(And) there are plenty of jobs there that pay better.”

Oliver said the state of prison infrastructure contributes to the drone problem. Inmates may climb onto the roofs of dilapidated prison buildings to receive drone deliveries, he said.

The number of inmate deaths within prison walls from murder, suicide, accidents and natural causes has not increased dramatically in recent years, and the number of violent incidents is actually declining, Oliver said. However, the nature of today’s prison population means that the violent incidents that do occur cause more harm to victims, he said.

Criminal justice reform has resulted in fewer nonviolent offenders being sent to prison, Oliver said. As a result, 75% of the inmates in Georgia’s prisons today are violent offenders, he said.

“They are no longer fighting,” he said. “They are using homemade weapons and other things to cause more damage.”

Octavious Holiday, a former inmate who served 16 years behind bars in Georgia for a series of armed robberies, praised the Department of Corrections for increasing the number of programs designed to help inmates get their lives back on track since he entered the system in 2004.

For example, 25 percent of the high school diplomas awarded each year in Georgia go to inmates in state prisons, says Jay Sanders, deputy director of the Department of Inmate Services.

Oliver said recent pay increases for the state’s public safety employees have increased the starting salary for correctional officers to $44,000 a year, which is comparable to salaries in neighboring states.

But more needs to be done, said Senator Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta), a member of the investigative committee.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us to get you the resources you need,” Beach told Oliver and several colleagues who attended Wednesday’s meeting.

Robertson said the committee will hold several more meetings before it can make recommendations to the full Senate by Dec. 1.