FROM: Jody Pickens, District Attorney General, 26th Judicial District
On January 12, 2025, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) Contraband Interdiction Unit discovered that Dominique Annita Bailey, a staff member at Whiteville Correctional Facility, had been introducing illegal contraband into the facility for delivery to an inmate. Ms. Bailey was found to have approximately twenty-six (26) grams of fentanyl, twenty (20) Suboxone strips, five (5) orange Suboxone pills, fifteen (15) blue alprazolam pills, and four (4) cigarettes on her person during a search of her person as she attempted to enter the facility.
While being interviewed by Special Agents Ethan Howell and David Nabors, Ms. Bailey admitted to having additional narcotics at her residence in Chester County, Tennessee, that she intended to deliver to inmates at the Whiteville Correctional Facility. TDOC special agents, along with members of the Henderson Police Department, searched Ms. Bailey’s residence and discovered an additional approximately 25.02 grams of fentanyl, 85.54 grams of methamphetamine, 857 Suboxone strips, and 27.43 grams of a purple, rock-like substance that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab determined was a mixture of heroin and fentanyl.
On August 18, 2026, in Chester County, Tennessee Circuit Court before Judge Donald H. Allen, Dominique Annita Bailey pled guilty to Possession of Heroin with Intent to Deliver, Possession of Fentanyl with Intent to Deliver, Possession of Methamphetamine with Intent to Deliver, and Possession of Suboxone with Intent to Deliver. She was sentenced to serve eight (8) years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. The case was handled directly by Assistant District Attormey General Eric Wood.
“The existence of illegal drugs in penal institutions is a tremendous problem not only in Tennessee but across the nation,” said District Attorney General Jody Pickens. “The sad reality is that in many instances staff members are responsible for bringing the substances into the facilities. In this case, the substances in question were found in amounts that were capable of killing many people. It is my hope that this sentence serves to deter others from attempting to bring poison into our jails and prisons.”
