Former Augusta commissioner Sammie Sias has reported to Federal Correctional Institution Williamsburg, a medium-security prison in Salters, S.C.
“We can confirm that Sammie Lee Sias is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Correctional Institution-Williamsburg,” said Emery Nelson from the office of public affairs for the bureau of prisons.
Sias was convicted last year of lying to a federal agent and destroying computer files during a 2019 probe of sales-tax spending for renovations at Jamestown Community Center.
Sentenced in May to three years in federal prison and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, Sias, 69, had been free on bond until Monday, when he was ordered to turn himself in by 2 p.m.
Williamsburg, one of four federal penitentiaries in the Palmetto State, is located midway between Columbia and Myrtle Beach, about 140 miles east of Augusta.
Sias had requested Estill Federal Correctional Institution, a medium-security facility 80 miles southeast of Augusta, according to court records.
Nelson said inmates don’t get to select which prison they’re assigned to, while the bureau does not discuss why individuals are assigned to particular institutions.
