Former Georgia prisons chief will serve time in Florida

ATLANTA - Former Georgia prisons chief and parole board member Bobby Whitworth has been ordered by a Fulton County judge to begin a six-month sentence June 12 on a felony conviction for taking illegal payoffs.

Whitworth, convicted in December 2003, had asked Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville that he be allowed to serve the six months in the Gwinnett County jail about two miles from his Lawrenceville home.

Glanville's order, which was signed Tuesday, was made public Friday.

The Department of Corrections, which Whitworth headed from 1990 to 1993, has made arrangements for Whitworth to serve his time in a federal prison in Florida.

Peggy Chapman, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, said state officials will work with federal authorities to place Whitworth in federal custody.

``We do have a contract with the Federal prison system to place high-profile prisoners,'' Chapman said in a statement. ``We will continue work with them to decide placement.''

Whitworth was convicted of taking a $75,000 payoff to influence legislation that could financially benefit a private probation company while he was on the state Board of Pardons and Paroles.

The Georgia Supreme Court declined to hear Whitworth's appeal in the case in March.

Jack Martin, Whitworth's attorney, had argued that Whitworth would not be safe in either the Georgia prison system or a federal prison.

Martin was concerned Whitworth could come into contact with an inmate who might be upset about decisions Whitworth had made either as corrections chief or a parole board member.

Martin also acknowledged that Whitworth wanted to be close to his family while serving his sentence.

Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway had agreed to hold Whitworth in a segregated portion of the jail where inmates spend most of their time in single-person cells.

J. Tom Morgan, the former DeKalb County district attorney who prosecuted Whitworth, argued that Whitworth was seeking ``special treatment'' not given to other inmates.

In addition to the six month sentence, Whitworth must serve the remainder of his five-year sentence on probation and pay a $50,000 fine.

Glanville also denied Whitworth's request that he be granted first offender status, which erases the felony conviction of first-time convicted felons in Georgia after the sentence is served.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)