Cortez Berry (Photo : Facebook)
A teenager was beaten by the inmates in his cell and a photo of him wearing a leash and badly beaten face circulated on Facebook causing his family to be alarmed.
According to Fox News, the Georgia teen, identified as Cortez Berry, is serving time inside the Burrus Correctional Training Center in Forsyth, Atlanta due to a parole violation. Berry was allegedly attacked on Mar. 27 by his co-inmates because he did not want to join a gang in the said prison called the "Gangster Disciples."
The report said that the cellmates even threatened his girlfriend and asked her to pay $3,000. He was then attacked by the inmates and his swollen face was photographed while he sat in front of the men who apparently beat him.
The family of Berry has then asked the officials in the prison how the image was uploaded on Facebook and is he really safe inside the jail. The report highlighted that since 2010, around 33 inmates were already killed in prison in Georgia.
A spokeswoman from the Georgia Department of Corrections, Gwendolyn Hogan, released a statement saying that the officials are already investigating the situation and confirmed that Berry as indeed the one in the photo.
In an interview with NBC News, the aunt of Berry named Shavonda Wright, said that she visited her nephew the next day and she was shocked to see that his eyes were swollen and that it was bloodshot red. She added that the guards did not even notice that the beating happened until she went straight to the correctional on the evening of the attack.
Berry was charged when he was 14 years old with aggravated assault, robbery, and theft of a motor vehicle thus his probation in juvenile court. He violated his probation last two years ago and was sent to juvenile prison.
The website of the correctional showed that Berry has already been moved to Smith State Prison after the beating incident.
