Grace McAlister
Reporter1@riverbendnews.org
According to a Florida Department of Corrections Office of Inspector General report, a Hamilton Correctional Institution (HCI) employee, thirty-nine-year-old Jamie Lynn Smith of Lake Park, Ga., was arrested Friday, Dec. 23, for bringing narcotics into the prison. The report states that Smith, while supervising inmates and working in the kitchen at HCI, schemed with an inmate to bring cigarettes, synthetic cannabinoids (K-2) and molly into the prison with compensation.
Smith was being compensated for the contraband through Cash App transactions, according to the report. She accepted payments 32 times from eight different inmates’ family members between November 2021 and April 2022 through Cash App to bring in the contraband. Smith accumulated a grand total of $9,550 through these transactions. Some of the transactions included a transaction note that it was being sent for “BG,” “Cuba” and “Slim,” which are aliases for inmates housed at HCI. Upon accepting the payment, Smith would alert an inmate where the illicit items were located, usually in a food cart, the storage room or in the freezer.
Smith is currently being held at HCI and facing 32 counts of bribery as well as one count of conspiracy to introduce contraband into the prison.