SPOTLIGHT: INMATES' PENALTY FOR DRUGS NEXT TO NIL

Most Georgia Prisoners Caught By Officials Never Answer To Criminal Charges.

Hundreds of inmates who have been caught with drugs in Georgia prisons face
no criminal charges.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution examination of Georgia Department of
Corrections reports covering the period from Jan. 1, 2001, to the end of
May 2002 shows only about 10 percent of inmates caught with drugs faced
criminal charges.

In all, about 365 state inmates were caught with marijuana in varying
amounts. Another nine were caught with cocaine or other drugs. Two
prisoners had drug pipes.

The prison system sought arrest warrants against 37 inmates allegedly
caught with marijuana, according to the records.

State law makes it a felony, with a five-year prison sentence, to bring any
amount of drugs onto prison property.

Prisoners who were not prosecuted didn't get away completely unscathed.
They were given citations for violating rules that led to segregation from
other prisoners or a loss of privileges, such as permisson to use the
telephone or go to the prison store.

But aside from losing good behavior points, they didn't see their sentences
extended by new convictions.

"Why should you be able to get away with something that you can't on the
street?" asked Tom Durden, the district attorney in southeast Georgia's
Tattnall County, where the state operates three prisons.

Not prosecuting also sends a message that there's a double standard, Durden
said. What's a serious violation of the law outside prison --- serious
enough to result in a prison sentence --- seems to carry less weight
inside, he said.

Tamara Serwer, who monitors prison conditions for the Atlanta-based
Southern Center for Human Rights, said drugs in prisons create security
problems --- fights between inmates and a breakdown of control.

"Any time some inmates have a hot commodity like drugs, people are going to
do all kinds of dangerous things," Serwer said.

Scott Stallings, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections, said
drugs always have been a problem in prisons. But he said the amounts found
on Georgia inmates are usually small.

"Most of these, 99 percent, are misdemeanor amounts of marijuana,"
Stallings said.

Prison officials also said they don't always seek prosecution because it
can be difficult to determine who actually had the drugs.

Hugh Smith, warden at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, said he decides
to seek criminal charges on a "case-by-case basis." The warden, finishing
his first year at the prison, said it's hard to develop cases for
prosecutors that directly connect inmates to drugs beyond a reasonable
doubt, even though officers feel certain they know who had the contraband.

According to the records, criminal charges were sought --- and are pending
against one of 13 inmates caught with drugs at the Reidsville prison
since Jan. 1, 2001. In that case, James Dennis, serving life for armed
robbery, was caught putting an unspecified amount of marijuana into plastic
bags. Yet, Allen Rufus, a convicted rapist, has been caught at least three
times with marijuana and faces no criminal charges.

In August, as Rufus was leaving the prison's visitation area, officers
found him carrying in his mouth a plastic bag containing marijuana,
according to prison reports. He was already in disciplinary segregation,
but instead of prosecuting him, prison officials extended his segregation
time. He was caught a third time in April, at Phillips State Prison near
Buford, with an eighth of an ounce of marijuana in his pocket, reports
said. He was given 21 days in isolation.

A phone message left for the warden at Phillips was not returned.

The Department of Corrections does have a firm policy regarding those who
provide drugs to inmates. Stallings said visitors caught with drugs are, at
minimum, banned from prison property, and guards who have drugs are fired.
They also may be prosecuted.

Eleven visitors at eight of 39 state prisons and three private prisons have
been charged with bringing drugs to inmates since May 2001, Stallings said.
Also, nine officers at six prisons have been charged in the past year with
bringing drugs to inmates.

Stallings said it is up to the district attorneys in the counties where
prisons are located to decide whether drug cases involving prisoners will
be prosecuted.

Prosecutors such as Durden and Denise Fachini, whose South Georgia
territory of Dooly and Wilcox counties contains two state prisons, say they
will prosecute every case they know about.

To do otherwise would only send the wrong message, Durden said. "They'll
[inmates] take advantage of it."

Fachini said the differing treatment of drug cases seems unfair to her.

"This is a very select few inmates who choose to continue this type of
conduct," Fachini said. "Most of them go to prison and take their
punishment, and they follow the rules. It's not fair to them that they
follow the rules and those who don't, don't get punished for it."