Former Gwinnett Commissioner Lasseter Reports to Florida Prison

Duluth Patch has confirmed that former Gwinnett County Commissioner Shirley Lasseter, who was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Atlanta to serve 33 months in federal prison for bribery, reported as scheduled on Wednesday, Dec. 12, to her assigned facility in Marianna, FL.

Lasseter was assigned to a minimum security Satellite Prison Camp (SPC) for female offenders located adjacent to the Marianna, FL, Federal Correctional Institute (FCI), a medium security prison for male inmates. The FCI has a population of 1,270 male inmates. The SPC houses 375 female inmates.

A prison spokesman confirmed that Lasseter arrived Wednesday to start serving her prison term.

FCI Marianna is located in the Florida panhandle, five miles north of the town of Marianna and 65 miles west of Tallahassee.

Upon arrival at a new institution, an inmate is interviewed and screened by staff from the case management, medical, and mental health units, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.  Inmates also receive a formal orientation to the programs, services, policies, and procedures of the facility.

Lee English, public information officer for FCI Marianna, said that Lasseter will be provided with the same housing in the SPC as other females inmates, who all are afforded the opportunity to have on site jobs.

Often, inmates at SPCs provide a labor force for the main institution.

For information on the different kinds of facilities operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, including Satellite Prison Camps, click here.

Lasseter pleaded guilty last May to accepting $36,500 in bribes during 2011 from an undercover FBI agent posing as a Florida businessman for her favorable vote on a potential real estate development in her commission district. In September, she was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Charles A. Pannell Jr. to serve 33 months in prison without parole.

Lasseter received a reduced sentence for pleading guilty and for cooperating in an ongoing investigation of government corruption in Gwinnett County.

The order for Lasseter to report to prison was contained in a letter dated Nov. 15 and filed in the federal district court in Atlanta Nov. 19.

At Lasseter’s sentencing hearing, Judge Pannell recommended that she be assigned to a minimum security prison near Atlanta for the convenience of her family. The Marianna facility is apparently the closest suitable facility.

Lasseter resigned from her District 1 post on the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners in May. She had represented Duluth, Suwanee and Sugar Hill on the commission.

Lasseter served for 14 years as mayor of Duluth before taking office as a county commissioner in 2009.

Chattahoochee American Legion Post 251 in Duluth reportedly gave a tearful send-off party for Lasseter Saturday night in recognition of her efforts to honor military veterans.

~ Duluth Patch