The Washington Post
Prosecutors charged more than 50 corrections officers and inmates Wednesday in a widespread bribery and drug conspiracy inside Maryland’s largest state prison.
Prison guards are accused of smuggling cell phones, tobacco and drugs into the Eastern Shore facility in exchange for money and sex, according to the indictments unsealed in a federal investigation of the state’s long troubled system.
The arrests and court appearances on Wednesday were the culmination of a three-year investigation that revealed what authorities said was a culture of corruption at the 3,300-inmate medium-security Eastern Correctional Institution.
Prison guards passed through security and handed off heroin, cocaine and pornographic videos to inmates in exchange for hundreds of dollars, according to prosecutors.
The guards also are accused of warning inmates when prison officials were preparing to search cells for contraband and of using violence to retaliate against inmates who reported the smuggling to prison administrators.
The prison guards “abused their positions of trust as sworn officers,” according to one of the two indictments unsealed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore Wednesday. “This criminal conduct created a culture of corruption and lawlessness and perverted the intended purposes of [the prison].”
Inmates directed the highly lucrative operation from the inside. According to court records, they used the recorded prison phone system and illegal cellphones to place orders and make direct payments to correctional officers through the online payment system, PayPal.
The “going rate” paid to guards was $500 for each package or as much as $3,000 a week, prosecutors contend.
In turn, inmates could sell the drugs to other inmates at a significant mark-up — $50 for the prescription opioid Suboxone, for example, compared to the $3 street price, according to the court filings which also said one inmate said he hoped to make $50,000 before he was released.
The union representing corrections officers said “no one wants correctional officers to be honest more than fellow correctional officers, who depend on their co-workers to have their backs.”
The statement from AFSCME also said the state system is understaffed by hundreds of officers and “needs men and women of the highest integrity to perform these dangerous jobs.”
The charges against a total of 80 people, including people outside the prison who helped in the alleged scheme, are the latest in a series of investigations to reveal problems inside Maryland prisons.
Three years ago, more than two dozen state corrections officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center and the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center were indicted for helping leaders of a dangerous national gang operate a drug-trafficking and money-laundering scheme from behind bars.
In the 2013 case, an investigation uncovered smuggling operations and personal relationships between guards and inmates, including the revelation about a gang leader who impregnated four prison guards.
The earlier indictments put pressure on the administration of former governor Martin O’Malley and led to changes in leadership at the Baltimore detention center, tougher screening procedures for employees and inmates, and the creation an anti-corruption investigation team.
The 2013 case involved a total of 44 defendants and the Black Guerilla Family, the dominant gang at the Baltimore facilities. Forty people have been convicted, including 24 correctional officers.
The BGF leader, Tavon White, pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
In the court papers unsealed Wednesday, prosecutors say correctional officers at the sprawling facility in Somerset County became middlemen between inmates and their outside contacts who provided the illegal cellphones and drugs.
The guards — men and women — hid contraband in their hair and underwear when they passed through security, prosecutors said. Inside, guards delivered packages to pre-arranged “stash” locations in bathrooms and storage closets or in the officers’ dining room, where guards could interact with inmates who worked as servers and kitchen staff.
In November 2015, court filings file, the inmate who hoped to build a $50,000 nest egg through the scheme, told a correctional officer, “I just passed out a pack today. So 1400 is owed to us…We need more,” he wrote in reference to the tobacco sales.
Three days later, the inmate texted again, the indictment states.
“I want at least 50,000 leaving this place. I know I can get it.”
Some inmates traded sex with prison guards in exchange for the contraband, and “these sexual relationships cemented the smuggling and trafficking relationships,” prosecutors said.
The correctional officers, inmates and outside facilitators face a long list of charges in the racketeering and drug conspiracy and face maximum sentences of 20 years in prison.
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