Tonia Bryant looks at a picture colored by an inmate and holds pink roses made of toilet paper and dyed with Kool-Aid by another Thomas County Jail inmate.

THOMASVILLE, Ga. — LaTonia “Tonia” Cloud Bryant was managing a McDonald’s when — on a whim — she filled out an application for a job at the Thomas County Jail.

While awaiting word on the job application, Bryant continued duties at the fast-food restaurant.

She remembers some diners: A married couple arrived at the restaurant every day for lunch and ordered Quarter Pounders with cheese and Diet Cokes.

A group of older men arrived promptly at 3 o’clock every afternoon. “We’d have the coffee pot waiting for them,” Bryant recalled.

Eventually, she was contacted and told the jail job was hers. That was 18 years ago. She began as a jailer, was later promoted to sergeant, then to her current position in jail administration.

“This is heaven,” 44-year-old Bryant said about her job.

She is courteous but firm with jail inmates. Most are in pretrial status and have not been sentenced.

Said Bryant, “They’re innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, I respect them.”

When Bryant leaves work at the end of the day, she does not take situations of 200-plus inmates home with her.

Bryant and her husband, Charlie Bryant, a U.S. Army retiree, have been married for 12 years. Bryant has a grown son, two stepchildren she refers to as “bonus” children and three grandchildren.

A Pavo resident, Bryant previously served on Pavo City Council.

A certified funeral director and embalmer, she sometimes works at the Cairo funeral home owned by her father, Ernest Cloud.

Her mother is Ann Powell, Thomas County E-911 director.

After spending her early years in Cairo, Bryant moved to Thomasville when she was in eighth grade and graduated from Thomasville High School.

She holds associate degrees in criminal justice, phlebotomy and surgical technology.

Bryant does not like to see people sick. “So that was not the career for me,” she quipped.

Leader of the children’s ministry at Kenyon Memorial Seventh-Day Adventist Church, she also heads the church’s community service entity, which delivers food to Providence Plaza and Scott Senior Center.

“Jail is not what people think it is,” Bryant said.

Women inmates make hair dye from beets, use colored pencils as makeup and fashion hair rollers from toilet tissue.

Inmates make crosses from trash bags.

A male inmate made roses from toilet tissue, dipped them in Kool-Aid to turn them pink and gave them to Bryant. The attractive, pale-pink flowers are on a shelf in her office.

Other inmates color pictures and give them to jail employees. Some make Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Christmas cards for jail employees.

Bryant would never look for another job. She finds her jail position most rewarding.

Some former inmates return to say hello. Some return to let her now they are OK and have a job.

Bryant is stern when she has to be, but she also has a soft side when it comes to helping others.

“I’m not mean. I just mean what I say,” she explained.

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820.