PHENIX CITY, Ala. (WRBL) – Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor announced they have arrested 39-year-old corrections officer, Alicia Laury for promoting prison contraband in the second degree, which is a class C felony.

Sheriff Taylor said the Sheriff’s office received information in the late afternoon on April 16, that one of their corrections officers was having an inappropriate relationship with one of the inmates which was potentially leading her to smuggling in contraband for this inmate.

After investigating the information and speaking with Laury, she was arrested late Friday night, April 16.

Laury has been a corrections officer since January 2019, Sheriff Taylor said they believe the relationship started around November of 2019.

Sheriff Taylor said Laury brought contraband into the jail on two separate occasions. On one occasion she brought a couple of cellphones and on the other occasion was suspected marijuana and tobacco with rolling papers.

Sheriff Taylor said marijuana being an illegal narcotic it brought her charge to a felony status.

“We’ve done everything that we can in the facility over the last several years to stop contraband from coming into the facility,” said Sheriff Taylor. “Employees is one of your bigger issues. I mean if you’ve cut down the ways the public can get it in, then it only leaves trustees coming back into the facilities or employees coming into the facility.”

Laury was booked at the Russell County jail and then transported to the Lee County jail where she is currently being held without bond at this time. Sheriff Taylor said he believes she’ll probably receive a bond on Monday.

“It’s early in this investigation. There could be other information, but once we spoke with her last night, she did cooperate with us, in the sense of telling us what she had done over the last couple of years. We have to continue looking into some of the allegations that were there.”

WRBL News 3 will continue to update this story as new information becomes available.