A now-former Lee Arrendale State Prison guard is out of jail on bond after being arrested and charged with violating her oath of office.
Sergeant Venmekya Mills, 25, of Athens, is accused of engaging in an unlawful sexual relationship with an inmate at the Lee Arrendale Transitional Center. Prison officials also charged her with carrying marijuana into the women’s prison which is located in Alto.
Habersham County deputies arrested Mills on warrants from the Georgia Department of Corrections on Friday, April 8. She was released from the Habersham County Detention Center Sunday on a $6,900 bond.
Mills was hired by the GDC in September 2018. The state agency terminated her employment the day after her arrest.
“The GDC maintains a zero-tolerance policy for individuals who choose to ignore their oath and jeopardize our non-negotiable mission of public safety,” the agency’s director of public affairs Joan Heath tells Now Habersham. “The actions of this individual do not reflect the hundreds of officers who are committed each and every day to ensuring the safety of the public and the safe operations of our facilities.”
In 2020, at least four Lee Arrendale State Prison employees were arrested on similar charges of sexual misconduct and taking contraband into the prison.
Heath says the state’s prison system “uses all resources available in stopping contraband from entering our prisons, to include both front line and technological efforts.” She declined to comment on specific measures taken, citing “security reasons.”
