More than a week before Mary­land cor­rec­tional offi­cer (CO) Shanika John­son was charged on Feb. 21 for bring­ing pot and cell phones into a Bal­ti­more prison, another CO was charged for a sim­i­lar offense at the maximum-security West­ern Cor­rec­tional Insti­tu­tion (WCI) in Cumberland.

In the West­ern Mary­land case, the defendant—27-year-old Justin Wayne Smith—“admitted to attempt­ing to deliver a bal­loon of heroin to an inmate,” says Mary­land Depart­ment of Pub­lic Safety and Cor­rec­tional Ser­vices (DPSCS) spokesman Mark Vernarelli in an e-mail. Vernarelli adds that Smith, who had been hired in 2007 and worked at WCI as a cor­rec­tional dietary offi­cer, also had a “single-use syringe” when he was arrested.

Accord­ing to Vernarelli, Mary­land Depart­ment of Cor­rec­tions (DOC) “intel­li­gence offi­cers had received infor­ma­tion that drugs might be deliv­ered into the prison and this infor­ma­tion led to the arrest.” He says that the DPSCS Inter­nal Inves­tiga­tive Unit detec­tives, as well as a DOC K-9 unit “assisted in the arrest process.” If con­victed on all counts, Smith could face a 35-year prison term, Vernarelli says.

The online court record of the case, which was charged in Alle­gany County, indi­cates that Smith is a res­i­dent of Frost­burg. The attor­ney rep­re­sent­ing him, Michael Noo­nan, could not be reached imme­di­ately for comment.

Tags: correctional officers, maryland department of public safey and correctional services, prison guards, shadow economy