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GRAHAM (MCT) — Four Alamance County jailers have been charged with simple assault and unlawful restraint after an unauthorized tour of the county jail in April.

The misdemeanor charges were filed Wednesday by the State Bureau of Investigation, which probed the jail tour.

The charges stem from an April 5 incident during which a teenager was brought to the jail at night by a relative who requested a tour. Such tours are authorized by the sheriff or the jail director. This one happened without their approval, and the teen's parents also had no prior knowledge of the tour.

During the tour, the teen was taken into the jail and restrained.

A spokesman for the Alamance County Sheriff's Office has said the jail has no official "scared straight" program, though jailers have given informal tours to at-risk children who have been in trouble. Those tours take place during daytime hours and children are never put in handcuffs or restrained in any way.

Neither the SBI nor the Alamance County Sheriff's Office has identified the teenager.

The four jail employees charged were Lt. Gerry Steven Helms, 49, and officers Hugh Atkins Thacker, 48, Jason Lee Neal, 24, and James Bernard Stutts Jr., 25.

Stutts resigned before the internal investigation was complete, but Helms, Thacker and Neal were fired within 48 hours of the incident.