Aware­ness of sus­pected cor­rup­tion among Baltimore’s prison guards grew on early Sun­day morn­ing, with the arrest of 20-year-old cor­rec­tional offi­cer Shanika John­son after she was searched as she entered the Bal­ti­more City Deten­tion Cen­ter (BCDC).

Accord­ing to court records in the case, when John­son attempted to enter the facil­ity, her “bag was searched by cor­rec­tional offi­cer Take­sia Diggs,” who “recov­ered approx­i­mately (1) ounce of sus­pected mar­i­juana. She also recov­ered (2) cel­lu­lar tele­phones.” A detec­tive then inter­viewed John­son, who “waived her Miranda rights and stated that she was bring­ing the mar­i­juana and cell phones in to give to an inmate,” the records con­tinue. “She refused to name the inmate. She also advised that the inmate was pay­ing her $1000.00″ for smug­gling the goods. John­son was released on $35,000 bail the same day. A trial in the case is sched­uled for March 23.

Since last April, when three cor­rec­tional offi­cers were indicted in fed­eral court (and have since pleaded guilty) as part of a prison-gang con­spir­acy involv­ing Mary­land lead­ers of the Black Guerilla Fam­ily, the issue of prison-guard integrity has arisen repeat­edly in pub­lic. In Octo­ber 2009, doc­u­ments made pub­lic as a result of an inmate’s fed­eral law­suit against prison guard Anto­nia Alli­son named 16 cor­rec­tional offi­cers who had been sus­pected of gang ties. And in Novem­ber 2009, cor­rec­tional offi­cer Lynae Chap­man was indicted in state court for mis­con­duct in con­nec­tion with procur­ing a cell­phone for a detained mur­der sus­pect who fathered her unborn child; in Decem­ber, Chapman’s attempt to plead guilty in the case was rejected by a judge.

Mary­land Depart­ment of Pub­lic Safety and Cor­rec­tional Ser­vices spokesman Mark Vernarelli declined to com­ment on the John­son case, though he con­firmed Johnson’s employ­ment at the BCDC and said she’d been hired in May 2008. Since then, court records show, John­son was charged with second-degree assault last March after an argu­ment at her home on the 6800 block of McClean Boule­vard over too-loud music esca­lated into push­ing and hair-pulling. Both John­son and Sonja White, the other per­son involved, were arrested, and in both cases, the charges were placed on the inac­tive docket.

John­son has no criminal-defense attor­ney in the case, accord­ing to court records, and City Paper could not find a way to con­tact her for comment.

Tags: BCDC, BGF, corruption, prison guards, shadow economy