Georgia Inmate Takes Cellphone Pic Of Prisoner In A Leash

Georgia Inmate Takes Cellphone Pic Of Prisoner In A Leash

What are a million reasons why you should never find yourself locked up in prison for $1000, Alex??

Via WSBTV reports:

A degrading image smuggled out of the Burruss Correctional Training Center in Forsyth, Georgia., of an 18-year-old prisoner. In one disturbing frame, the horrors of prison life are exposed, while also revealing the prison system’s ongoing struggle to keep facilities free of cellphones and other contraband.

It looks like a scene from the television show “Oz.”

Or something done by ISIS.

Cortez Berry is seen passively kneeling before the camera.

His left eye is shut from an obvious beating.

A makeshift leash is around his neck.

A man with a white hat on holds the leash. It is wrapped around his left hand, as one would do to hold a dog tight. Another man points at the camera as if holding a gun.

Gwendolyn Hogan, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Corrections, confirmed that it was Berry in the photograph. She wouldn’t comment on when the photo was taken, who took it or who the other men in the photo were, as all of that information is part of an ongoing investigation.

“We are fully aware of that photo and currently investigating,” Hogan said Monday afternoon.

The photo has been circulating on social media since at least Friday. Austin Rhodes, a radio talk show host in Augusta, said that on Sunday night, he received the photograph from “friends and family” of Berry, who had tried unsuccessfully to share it with television news outlets in Augusta. Rhodes posted it on The Austin Rhodes Show’s Facebook page and it exploded.

Wright said Berry told her that he was jumped by about 10 others after he refused to join their gang.

“What I don’t understand is why they put the leash around his neck,” Wright said, adding that her nephew is now in protective custody.

A senior attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights says mobile phones are regularly confiscated, “Cellphones are often used to commit and plan crimes outside of prison, but also to incite violence and to extort family members who are incarcerated.”

Stop taking selfies with your pet prisoner!