BATON ROUGE — A Natchez woman was arrested Saturday after allegedly having sexual relations with and accepting money from an inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where she worked.

Kentricia Ware, 24, 1746 Tenner Road, admitted to corrections officials Saturday had sex and an inappropriate relationship with and accepted $400 from an inmate at the prison.

West Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies charged Ware with felony malfeasance in the office by sexual misconduct.

Ware was hired at the penitentiary as a cadet on Oct. 2, 2017, and resigned during the investigation.

Ware is Natchez’s second penitentiary employee to resign after an investigation revealed them to allegedly have inappropriate relationships with an inmate.

Diamond Nicholson, 23, 3116 Oak Hill Drive, was arrested on Jan. 8 on a charge of felony sexual malfeasance after allegedly having sex with an inmate in the same penitentiary.

Ware was one of six penitentiary employees arrested on charges ranging from drug smuggling to inappropriate relationships to accepting money from inmates or inmates’ families.

Five other women, two of which were also native to Mississippi, left the penitentiary in the course of the investigation.

Tyleyiah Wrights of 1570 79th Avenue, Apt. 4, Baton Rouge, who was charged with felony introduction of a contraband after detectives reportedly found 17.4 grams of synthetic marijuana and $1,071 in cash in her vehicle. She resigned in the course of the investigation.

Kiaria Cruse, 21, of 1119 Homesville Road No. 2, McComb, was not arrested but is on administrative leave after she reportedly, “became enraged, shoved chairs into walls, and shouted expletives as investigators were preparing to interview her,” penitentiary communications director Ken Pastorick said in a release.

Shaqueel Anderson, 712 Morris Smith Lane, Centreville, reportedly resigned after she “became confrontational and threatened officers when detectives questioned her about inappropriate behavior with an offender,” the release said. Cameras allegedly caught Anderson allowing an inmate to place his nose in her chest.

Fredricka Ross, 28, 4167 Highway 33, Crosby was charged with felony malfeasance in office, after she reportedly accepted a cell phone from an offender’s relative and used the phone to communicate with an inmate. The same inmate reportedly struck Ross after he saw other inmates speaking with her. Ross did not report the incident.

TiChina Williams, 22, 9762 Highway 19, Wilson, La., was charged with felony malfeasance in office, after she admitted to kissing and receiving $4,000 from an offender and allegedly smuggling drugs into Angola.