FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Col. Mark Adger held a plastic bag with a half dozen cellphones in it, then lifted a long piece of dull silver metal with one end filed to a point, and shreds of navy blue fabric wrapped around the other end.
"This is a jail-made shank, or knife," he said. "It has a nice handle on it, so they've had some time to work on it."
Cellphones and shanks comprise routine hazards in jails and prisons. These particular phones veered from the routine because of where they turned up: on 7North, one of the highest security sections in the Fulton County Jail.
"We talking gang bangers in here?" I asked Adger, the jail commander, after we got up to 7 north and inside zone 500, where double-decked rows of numbered gray heavy-duty doors faced us, a narrow meal slot agape in each.
"Oh, definitely," he replied.
"High-profile murder suspects often kept in this unit?"
"That is correct."
Adger says an internal investigation focuses on the phones, because he believes the most likely route they took to the seventh floor was through somebody who works at the jail.
"It's scary," he said. "It tells us we have staff that has been corrupted."
He added: "We're actively investigating."
The jail commander showed us a photo of what he indicated was a staff meal found in a cell, which he said underscored his corruption concerns.
Cell phones in jails and prisons pose a number of problems, offering some inmates a means of continuing to run criminal organizations from inside, or to intimidate witnesses.
Adger showed off high-tech equipment he suggested was meant to find cellphones, but he told us smart officers sniffed out the six phones and three shanks recovered on the shakedown of just one of the 12 zones on the seventh floor last week.
On 7North we met Detention Officer James Gatling. He demonstrated his knowledge of the hiding habits of max-security inmates.
"You got to lay down on your back and actually reach and feel along the groove in the bed," he told us. "You’ll find shanks, knives, and phones, whatever they got."
We pushed to find out how he felt, knowing the people he watched over had such knives.
"Makes your heart race and it reminds you to be careful when you walk in there," he said. "'cause none of them are your friends"
WSBTV
