Ex-jailer accused of planning assault on inmate

Sean William Hollinshead being held without bond.

The Clayton County sheriff arrested a now former jailer for allegedly planning an attack on an inmate.

Correctional Officer Sean William Hollinshead was arrested late Thursday and charged with criminal negligence and violation of oath of office. Hollinshead, 34, of Lithonia was being held Friday without bond at the Clayton County jail, booking records showed. He has been fired, Sheriff Levon Allen said.

Allen said Hollinshead “knowingly, recklessly, and without disregard for the safety of the inmate placed him in a highrisk housing unit, causing the inmate to receive life-threatening injuries and did not render aid as the beating and stabbing was taken place.”

Four other inmates, whose names were not released, were also charged in the assault, Allen said. The name of the injured inmate was also not released.

“Let me be crystal clear, I locked up one of my own tonight and will continue to surgically remove any officers or deputies from my rank and file that place citizens, inmates or employees at risk,” Allen said in a statement.

The Clayton County jailer is the latest in a string of law enforcement officers arrested in metro Atlanta.

In March, a Fulton County detention officer allegedly was recorded having “inappropriate behavior” with an inmate twice, investigators said.

Kawana Jenkins, 36, was arrested after she was videotaped by a contraband cellphone seized during a recent shakedown at the jail, Fulton Sheriff Pat Labat said in a news release. Jenkins had been an employee of the sheriff ’s office since December 2019. She was fired after authorities confirmed she was the person on the video, Labat said.

In a separate incident, another former Fulton County jail detention officer was arrested after allegedly not stepping in when an inmate was being stabbed and repeatedly beaten by other inmates.

Gloria Franklin, 30, is accused of not intervening and not seeking medical help when an inmate was attacked in the early morning hours of Feb. 7 and then cleaning blood off the jailhouse floor to hide the assault. The roughly 10-minute episode was captured on the jail’s security cameras and detailed in the warrant for Franklin’s arrest.

In February, a deputy recruit for the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office was fired and arrested after he attacked an inmate, Sheriff Craig Owens said.

In March, Jacqun Mellian Brown was indicted on two counts of violation of oath by a public officer and one count of battery.