Micheal Eaddy, Bribery, GA 2024

Micheal Eaddy, 25, of Blackshear, Ga., is headed to federal prison after admitting he sold out his badge for $246.25. The former correctional officer at D. Ray James Correctional Facility in Folkston, Ga., pleaded guilty to one count of Bribery and was sentenced to six months behind bars — the same walls he compromised by smuggling contraband to an inmate.

Eaddy accepted the cash from Jean Civil, 25, of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in exchange for smuggling cigarettes into the private prison, which operates under federal contract. His betrayal was uncovered when investigators seized a contraband cellphone from Civil and uncovered electronic messages detailing the illicit exchange. The conversations revealed a calculated breach of trust, one that endangered staff and inmates alike.

“Michael Eaddy sold out his fellow corrections staff and forfeited his own freedom when he accepted money in return for smuggling contraband into the prison,” said U.S. Attorney Bobby L. Christine for the Southern District of Georgia. “His crime endangered other prison guards and the security of the entire facility, and as a result he’ll now spend time on the wrong side of the prison bars.”

Special Agent in Charge James F. Boyersmith of the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Miami Field Office, didn’t mince words: “Eaddy put his own interests above his duties when he accepted bribes from an inmate and smuggled contraband into the prison he was supposed to secure. He will rightly serve time for his actions, which put his fellow correctional officers, prison staff, and the entire institution at risk.”

Civil, already serving 78 months for Conspiracy to Distribute 500 Grams or More of Cocaine, received an additional month behind bars after pleading guilty to Possession of Contraband. The added time is a small price compared to the ripple effect of corruption Eaddy enabled — a breakdown in prison integrity that can fuel violence and organized trafficking from within.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcela C. Mateo. After completing his sentence, Eaddy must serve three years of supervised release — a period during which any misstep could land him back in the very cellblock he once patrolled.