SELMA — A former Dallas County Correctional officer must make a $50,000 bond before he is allowed out of seclusion in the jail.

Jonathan Alexander, 57, of 2954 Landline Road, Selma, faces charges of promoting prison contraband, second-degree; possession of marijuana, second-degree; attempted distribution of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance.

He made is bond appearance in Dallas County District Court on Monday before Judge Bob Armstrong.

Assistant District Attorney John Oxford said the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department had recommended the $50,000, to which Alexander’s attorney, Vaughan Russell agreed.

Alexander, a correctional officer at the Dallas County Jail, was arrested early Saturday morning after a stake-out by investigators for the sheriff’s department.

Investigators John Hatfield and Mike Grantham nabbed Alexander as he reported to the jail with several bags filled with contraband, including a 12-pack of beer; numerous packages of Bugler tobacco, rolling papers, cigars, cigarettes and lighters; chips, cookies, peanuts, Kool-Aid and candy bars; deodorant, soap, toothpaste; cell phones and chargers; gin; and home-made sandwiches, grilled chicken and sandwiches from local fast-food restaurants.

Investigators also recovered a bag of marijuana, cocaine and crack cocaine among the items.

During the brief hearing, Armstrong called the bond a fair one and not out of Alexander’s reach. “I fully expect him to be able to post a bond and get out of jail,” the judge said.

Russell, who Alexander retained to represent him, said members of the former correctional officer’s church had gathered to see who could put up their property to make the bond.

“He is extremely remorseful,” Russell told the court. “This is not the way he has lived his life.”

Russell described his client as a man with a “big heart who could not say no.”

Sheriff Harris Huffman, who was not at the hearing, said Alexander was hired as a correctional officer at the jail in January 2009. Alexander was stripped of his uniform and placed in the black-and-white stripes of jail-issue after his arrest.

Huffman said Alexander was fired from his job as a result of the arrest.

Russell said his client was not released in the general population of the jail and had been in a “small steel box” since his arrest early Saturday.

The sheriff’s department worked the case after receiving information from a source about someone smuggling contraband into the jail.