Former Shelby County correctional officer Tamillian Young has been sentenced to two years in federal prison after admitting she smuggled drugs and other contraband into the county jail. The judge also ordered two years of supervised release once she serves her time.
Young, 24, received a 24-month prison term and two years of supervised release after prosecutors said she carried a package into the Shelby County Division of Corrections on Oct. 27, 2025 that contained tobacco products, vape devices, roughly 100 grams of marijuana and about 18 oxycodone pills, according to court filings. Federal prosecutors laid out the smuggling scheme during sentencing, as reported by FOX13 Memphis.
How Prosecutors Say the Smuggling Went Down
Members of the Memphis Safe Task Force arrested Young at the Division of Corrections after a search turned up the package, the U.S. Marshals Service said. Local reporting and court documents later detailed that the contraband was wrapped and concealed in a way consistent with getting it inside a jail. The description of the seized items appeared in accounts from the U.S. Marshals Service, WMC Action News 5 and other coverage of the seized stash.
Sentence and the Law
Prosecutors charged Young under federal laws that bar providing contraband to inmates, and the judge followed with a prison sentence plus supervised release. Federal prisoners convicted under current law are generally not eligible for parole, so Young is expected to serve the term imposed unless she earns other credits or relief, according to the Bureau of Prisons and the criminal resource manual on prison offenses from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Local Fallout Inside Shelby County Jails
Officials say staff-smuggling cases like Young's have eroded trust inside Shelby County's detention system and helped fuel a string of federal prosecutions in recent months. Earlier this year, a former Shelby County internal-affairs investigator was sentenced to 18 months after admitting he took cash to sneak drugs into the same system, a case prosecutors used to warn employees about corruption risks.
Young was remanded into federal custody after the hearing and will be processed into the Bureau of Prisons system. Court records list the case as USA v. Tamillian Young, case number 225cr20337, and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee calendar shows a sentencing entry this week (U.S. District Court, W.D. Tenn.).
