Two high-ranking state prison staff members, including a deputy warden, have been arrested following separate incidents in which they are accused of having sexual contact with female prisoners.
Alonzo L. McMillian, the deputy warden for administration at Pulaski State Prison, and Russell Edwin Clark, a lieutenant at Lee Arrendale State Prison, were arrested within 24 hours of each other earlier this month on charges that they engaged in sexual contact with individuals in custody and violated their oaths as officers.
The arrests of two men in key supervisory positions at Pulaski and Lee Arrendale, the largest of Georgia’s four prisons for women, raise yet another troubling issue for the Department of Corrections, already dealing with mounting numbers of officers caught smuggling drugs and other forms of contraband.
In an email, GDC spokesperson Joan Heath said both men were terminated May 2. She added: “The vast majority of our staff are dedicated to their oath of protecting the public, and any who do not live up to this oath — regardless of rank — are immediately terminated and prosecuted, as evidenced by these two terminations.”
Arrest warrants obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contain affidavits signed by investigators from the GDC’s Office of Professional Standards that give limited details in both cases.
The warrants in McMillian’s case state that the deputy warden had a “sexual relationship” with a prisoner and specifically engaged in improper sexual contact with her on Feb. 24 and 25.
McMillian, 44, was arrested at the Hawkinsville prison and booked into the Pulaski County jail on May 2, according to jail records. He was released the next day on a $10,000 bond.
According to the warrants in Clark’s case, the lieutenant allegedly fondled a prisoner’s breast and kissed her under a dormitory stairwell, an area that’s out of camera view at the Alto prison. The alleged incident took place between Feb. 13 and 14, the warrants say.
Clark, 62, was arrested on May 1 and booked into the Habersham County jail early the next day, according to a Habersham County news release. His bond was set at $5,600.
Any sexual contact between staff and prisoners is a criminal act under state and federal laws, regardless of consent. The laws are similar to those that protect children, people with disabilities or medical patients. The laws recognize the reality that correctional officers and other prison staff have total control over those who are incarcerated, creating an imbalance of power in any relationship.
Michele Deitch, an attorney and a distinguished senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs who directs the school’s Prison and Jail Innovation Lab, said the alleged sexual misconduct of two prison supervisors could signal a larger problem within the GDC.
“There’s never an excuse for sexual assault in prisons — ever,” she said. “But when you’ve got people at that level, who are ultimately responsible for the safety of the facility, and who are well aware of the (laws), that’s beyond unacceptable.”
The arrests come as the prison system faces a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, a blistering contempt order from the judge in a long-running federal case dealing with the state’s “supermax” facility and a state Senate study committee poised to recommend substantial changes in how the system operates.
McMillian didn’t respond to voice and text messages from the AJC. Efforts to contact Clark were unsuccessful.
McMillian’s arrest raises particular questions because he had a key place in Pulaski’s hierarchy. As deputy warden for administration, he was responsible for oversight of the prison’s business office, property and supply operations and food service.
McMillian was promoted to the position at Pulaski last August after previously working as recreation director at Telfair State Prison, Heath said. Neither position required that he be certified by the state as a GDC correctional officer, she added.
State peace officer certification records show that McMillian was a correctional officer for the Department of Juvenile Justice for nine years. He started that job in 2003 and voluntarily resigned in 2012, the records show.
According to peace officer certification records, Clark began working as a correctional officer at Lee Arrendale in 1995 and attained the rank of lieutenant in 2016.
AJC reporter Carrie Teegardin contributed to this story.
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