PERSON JAIL INMATE SAYS GUARD SOLD MARIJUANA

ROXBORO -- A prisoner charged in a sex scandal at the Person County
Jail claims one of the guards supplied the marijuana that male inmates
used to barter for strip shows and sex with female inmates.

The male inmates broke through a steel-curtained window, entered a
canteen area and broke through another window to reach the women's pod
Sept. 6. Over the next two nights, female inmates allegedly performed
strip shows. Then, on the evening of Sept. 9 and into the early
morning Sept. 10, four men and four women allegedly had sex.

Inmate Donald Reaves, who has been charged with breaking and entering
and soliciting for prostitution in the incident, called G-105, a
Triangle radio station, from the jail Thursday morning. His fiancee
set up the interview through three-way calling.

"The females came over to the males' pod," Reaves started to tell
hosts Bob Dumas and Madison Lane of the popular "Morning Showgram."
But his call abruptly ended seconds later.

In a letter obtained by The Herald-Sun, Reaves wrote of the incident:
"I made a statement about the guard bringing in pot.

"I was talking to G-105 this morning and all of the sudden the phone
went dead," he continued. "I told the guys on the block what happened
and in less than a minute, they sent four big [expletive deleted] and
a [expletive deleted] female guard down there to get me and brought me
straight to isolation."

Reaves, in jail on a charge of violating probation for a felony
larceny conviction, wrote that he told A.K. Pruitt, the jail's
administrator, about a guard allegedly selling $15 joints.

"I told [Pruitt] that I had something he wanted and he had what I
wanted," Reaves wrote. "If he wanted [the information], then he had to
let me go home."

Pruitt and Capt. Calvin Clayton are investigating the allegations of
sex and drugs at the jail.

Pruitt revealed no new developments in the investigation and denied a
reporter's request to interview Reaves, saying, "This inmate is part
of the investigation."

Sheriff Dennis Oakley said investigators would not rule out a jailer's
supplying pot to the inmates. If an officer was involved, the officer
could be fired and face criminal charges, he said.

Despite the allegations, Oakley remains confident that "this is an
isolated incident.

"No, there's not a problem with contraband here," he said. "Of course
people are going to make those allegations. But people don't go to
jail to get drugs."

Staffing and budget shortages were to blame for the incident, Oakley
said in an interview last week.

The state's Division of Facilities Services sends inspectors twice a
year to each of the state's 114 county jails and four municipal
lockups. The inspectors have recommended hiring more guards at the
Person County Jail, but the jail has met all of the state's minimum
standards, said Bob Lewis, chief of the agency's jail inspection department.

Lewis said inspectors ensure each jail meets operational and physical
standards, including fire safety, food preparation, sanitation and
structural standards. Lewis' department does not have jurisdiction to
investigate Reaves' allegations at the county jail, though.

Instead, the State Bureau of Investigation would intervene at Oakley's
request or if the state's attorney general's office requested an
investigation.

A spokesman with the SBI could not confirm whether the state is
involved in an investigation in Person County.

Lewis would not comment specifically on contraband at the Person
County Jail. But "I guarantee that if you went into any jail in the
state and shut it down immediately, there would be contraband in 95
percent [of them]," he said. "It's the nature of the beast.

"The only way you can control [contraband] is certainly having routine
procedures of unannounced or periodic shakedowns. Walk in with a react
team. Out of the blue, take out the inmate, and that cell is gone over
with a fine-toothed comb."