A contract nurse at the Fulton County Jail was arrested Monday on a felony charge after investigators say she slipped an inmate she was secretly dating unprescribed medication during her rounds. Shakimia G. Johnson, 36, was arrested and released on a $10,000 bond following an internal investigation that uncovered an undisclosed romantic relationship between her and inmate Caleb Sims.
According to CBS News Atlanta, Johnson was charged with a felony count of providing a prohibited drug to an inmate without authorization, and investigators allege she gave Sims medication on September 10. The station reports Johnson admitted during an interview to bringing him the medication. Surveillance video reportedly showed her entering Sims's housing unit under the pretense of delivering medication to patients, then handing items directly to him.
Investigators identified roughly 144 recorded phone calls and social media communications between Johnson and Sims, according to the Fulton County Sheriff's Office, which is separately reported by The Georgia Sun as the discovery that ultimately triggered her arrest on September 14. Medical contractor supervisors confirmed Sims had no active prescription or medication order for the drug at the time, and it was not documented as administered, per the CBS News Atlanta report. The Sheriff's Office has not identified which medication was involved.
Sheriff Vows Zero Tolerance as Statute Carries Prison Time
Sheriff Patrick “Pat” Labat said the conduct undermines facility safety and security and that violators will be held accountable, adding that the jail maintains a zero-tolerance policy for staff members or contractors who compromise facility security. Johnson was charged under O.C.G.A. § 42-5-18, a Georgia statute that makes introducing or providing unauthorized items to an inmate a felony punishable by one to five years in prison, according to the Fulton County Sheriff's Office. A related state law, O.C.G.A. § 42-5-15, separately criminalizes “crossing the guard line” to bring unauthorized prescription medications, drugs, or weapons into a county correctional facility, carrying a penalty of one to four years, as outlined by Justia Law.
This is not the first time a contract nurse has been accused of crossing that line at the Rice Street facility. In August 2024, the Sheriff's Office arrested Juanita Calloway, a former nurse contractor for NaphCare who had been dismissed over an unauthorized relationship, on felony charges tied to a scheme to smuggle cell phones and other contraband into the jail alongside a detention officer sergeant — a case Hoodline previously covered. Hoodline attributed the Calloway investigation to the Sheriff's Office's Jail Investigations Unit.
Federal Oversight Looms Over Jail Healthcare Contract
Healthcare inside the jail is run under a third-party contract with Alabama-based NaphCare, which secured reaccreditation from the National Commission on Correctional Health Care in September 2025, according to NaphCare. Fulton County has kept that contract in place even as scrutiny of the jail's conditions has intensified. In January 2025, county officials and the Sheriff's Office entered a binding federal consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice to fix unconstitutional conditions, staffing shortages, and security failures, following a civil rights investigation that began in mid-2023.
A DOJ civil rights investigation documented deteriorating conditions inside the main jail. That backdrop of documented dysfunction has pushed county leaders toward major capital spending: commissioners approved a $1.1 billion detention facility plan in August 2025, including $536 million for a dedicated medical, mental health, and substance abuse treatment building and a $552 million overhaul of the Rice Street Jail, with construction expected to take four to five years, according to ConstructConnect News.
Fulton County's 2026 General Fund budget includes jail-related operations and Sheriff's Office funding. Johnson's arrest adds to the jail's recent history, including a staffer's guilty plea in a bed bug death case, previously reported by Hoodline. It remains unknown what medication was involved in Johnson's case or whether Sims will face additional charges.
