Alabama: Elmore County Jail guard Lita Williams, 57, was arrested and charged with first-degree promoting prison contraband on May 21, 2025, the Wetumpka Herald reported. Her arrest followed discovery of a cellphone in a jail cell during a routine search two weeks prior. Data from the phone showed that Williams was in communication with detainee Kendall Henderson, 46, who was being held on charges including cruelty to animals and arson. Sheriff Bill Franklin stated that Williams admitted to sneaking the phone because she had a “friendship” with Henderson. Williams bonded out shortly after her arrest. Henderson remained incarcerated. 

California: Dijon Barber, 32, a state prisoner serving four years for first-degree robbery and elder theft, was re-apprehended in Las Vegas on April 26, 2025, two weeks after he walked away from a Los Angeles community re-entry program on April 12, 2025. According to KTLA in Los Angeles, state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials did not disclose the exact location of the program nor how Barber managed to escape. His was the ninth escape from a re-entry program facility for CDCR prisoners this year. From 1977 to June 2025, the agency claimed a 99 percent apprehension rate for prisoners who “leave without permission.”

Costa Rica: In a bizarre moment, Costa Rican prison guards at the Pococi Penitentiary intercepted a cat strapped with drugs as it attempted to enter the prison on May 6, 2025. BBC News reported that the black-and-white cat was caught jumping the perimeter fence at night, carrying over 230 grams of marijuana and 67 grams of crack cocaine taped to its body. The Ministry of Justice released video footage showing guards apprehending the animal and carefully removing the illegal packages. The cat has since been handed over to animal health authorities.

Florida: A former federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) guard at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Miami was sentenced to four months in prison for wire fraud schemes on May 22, 2025. Angelo Stephen, 33, was also ordered to pay over $75,000 in restitution, according to the Miami Herald. He pleaded guilty in March 2025 to orchestrating fraudulent applications for COVID-19 relief funds. In one filed in August 2020, he falsely claimed to own a business, securing $20,000 in Economic Injury Disaster Loan funds. In 2021, he submitted two fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loan applications, along with falsified tax documents, netting an additional $41,666. Beyond pandemic fraud, Stephen also engaged in unauthorized access to personal financial accounts of two victims, orchestrating a $20,000 wire transfer from one victim’s Wells Fargo account in 2023 and cashing a fraudulent $8,500 check from another victim’s Guardians Credit Union account.

Georgia: Dekalb County Jail guard Tony Alzadia Randle, 22, was arrested and fired on April 16, 2025, for attempting to smuggle undisclosed contraband into the lockup, according to WSBB in Doraville. Randle, who had been employed at the jail for just seven months, was hit with multiple charges for violating his oath and crossing guard lines with prohibited items, including weapons, intoxicants, or drugs. He was later released on $5,000 bond. 

Georgia: For allegedly allowing two prisoners to be assaulted by other prisoners on April 1, 2025, Johnson State Prison guard Baronique Burton was charged with violating her oath of office and unlawful acts of violence in a penal institution. WMAZ in Macon reported that an arrest warrant was issued by a superior court judge on April 3, 2025, following testimony from a state DOC investigator that Burton, 26, “willfully and intentionally violated the terms of her oath by being party to the crime … by allowing Inmates … to be assaulted.” While she was not accused of direct participation in the beat-down, the “party to a crime” statute allows charges for those “concerned in the commission of a crime.” Burton was arrested and booked into Johnson County Jail. She had been on the job for only nine months. 

Georgia: WTOC in Savannah reported that DOC guard Kristen Leslee Pearson, 24, was arrested at Smith State Prison on March 26, 2025, and charged with sexual assault by a corrections employee and violation of her oath of office, for an alleged incident with an unnamed prisoner. It was also unclear what their relationship was, or even the nature of their sexual interaction. She was fired the following day. Awaiting trial on similar charges was her fellow guard Courtney Monae Tillman, 29. She was also fired and arrested for sexual assault and violation of her oath of office in November 2024, after she was accused of getting intimate with a prisoner in May 2023 and subsequently lying about it. A third guard, Martha Martin resigned under investigation for unspecified misconduct on the same day that Tillman was fired. Martin has not been arrested but has worked at four different prisons since 2013, resigning from one and transferring from three.

Georgia: WMAZ in Macon reported on May 14, 2025, that DOC guard Erica Blash had been charged with multiple crimes at Dodge State Prison. One arrest warrant was issued for providing unauthorized food to a prisoner, after she allegedly smuggled unspecified food items to an unnamed prisoner repeatedly between February 9 and April 28, 2025. Another warrant charged her with simple battery for punching another prisoner on May 3, 2025, when she also allegedly slapped a third prisoner on the back of the neck and head. The warrants allowed that the physical contact may have been “playful or nonplayful.” An additional charge of violating her oath of office was also added. 

Indiana: The U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Southern District of Indiana reported that Henry County Jail guard Curtis Doughty, 28, received two years’ probation on May 13, 2025, when he was sentenced for depriving a detainee of his civil rights under color of law. During a February 2024 cell search, Doughty shot and injured him in the spine with a pepper ball gun at point-blank range, even though he was not resisting. The guard then taunted other prisoners about inhaling the gas from the pepper balls shot during the incident. Appalled fellow members of the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team reported him for violating policy and training, which emphasized use of force only against active resistance, they said. Doughty then pleaded guilty in federal court in October 2024, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Jan. 2025, p.34.]

Italy: In his will, the late Pope Francis left around $230,000 to prisoners, according to National Catholic Reporter. Francis made a last visit to Rome’s infamous Regina Coeli Prison on April 17, 2025, four days before his death. Throughout his papacy, he advocated for reforms such as sentence reductions in the Italian penal system. Opening the Holy Door Ministry at the Rebibbia prison, he initiated a pastoral movement with about 50 volunteers regularly visiting prisoners. 

Kentucky: Louisville Metro Detention Center (LMDC) guard Chase Branson, 35, was charged with assault and official misconduct after an appalling use of excessive force while booking Joseph Cortina on May 21, 2025. WDRB in Louisville reported that Cortina was handcuffed and not resisting when Branson allegedly shoved him into a metal door and then tased him while he was face down on the floor, restrained by other officers. Body camera footage captured Branson verbally threatening Cortina, “I am going to tase you,” adding: “Because I can.” An internal investigation found the guard’s actions “unnecessary and excessive,” leading to the charges and a 15-day suspension. Branson was not detained but was on unpaid leave to await arraignment in July 2025. The jail tallied 15 detainee deaths between 2021 and 2023, along with numerous instances of guard misconduct, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Apr. 2024, p.14.] Cortina has filed suit in state court against Branson and LMDC Chief Jerry Collins, alleging a pattern of excessive force at the jail. See: Cortina v. Collins, Kent. Cir. (Jefferson Cty.), Case No. 25-CI-003584.

Louisiana: Jailers in three Louisiana parishes were arrested for smuggling in less than a month, beginning on April 17, 2025, when Bossier Parish Jail guard Colton Davis, 19, was charged for two counts of malfeasance in office and two counts of introducing contraband, according to KSLA in Shreveport. That same day Sheriff Julian Whittington fired the guard, who had worked at the jail since October 2023. Then on May 18, 2025, Assumption Parish Detention Center guard Ali Gant, 27, was fired and arrested on malfeasance and contraband charges after security footage caught him bringing a bag into the jail that had been sprayed with K2 synthetic cannabinoids, WBRZ in Baton Rouge said. He had worked at the lockup just since November 2024. Earlier, on May 14, 2025, Calcasieu Correctional Center guard Dalronique Q. Ross, 20, was fired and arrested for conspiracy and contraband introduction, after allegedly conspiring to distribute more paper sprayed with synthetic cannabinoids to detainees at the jail, KPLC in Lake Charles reported. Her bond was set at $50,000.

Louisiana: On April 23, 2025, Judge Alvin Sharp of the 4th Judicial District in Ouachita Parish vacated the 1998 first-degree murder conviction and death sentence of state prisoner Jimmie Chris Duncan. ProPublica reported that the ruling followed a September 2024 appeals hearing where new expert testimony declared that analysis of bite marks on the child victim, presented by forensic dentist Michael West and pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne, was “no longer valid” because it was “not scientifically defensible.” Sharp noted that the autopsy performed by Hayne, whose qualifications were “lacking,” was “sloppy in practice” and “inadequate overall.” Crucially, an expert medical witness testified that the child’s death was likely not a murder at all but an accidental drowning, contradicting the original finding by investigators. The ruling also cited ineffective counsel by Duncan’s trial attorney, Louis Scott, who failed to investigate available evidence and develop a coherent defense. Yet Duncan’s freedom remains uncertain; District Attorney Steve Tew can appeal, retry, or release him.

Michigan: According to Michigan Advance Local Media, former state DOC guard Joshua Michael Evans, 49, received a 90-day jail sentence and two years’ probation on May 29, 2025, for smuggling drugs into Parnall Correctional Facility. Evans pleaded guilty on April 1, 2025, to one felony count of delivery of a controlled substance, in a deal that also dismissed an additional contraband charge. Tipped-off investigators found Evans in the prison visiting room with 151 Suboxone strips on July 11, 2024. Prosecutors alleged that he was muling the Schedule 3 narcotic to an unnamed prisoner. As of early June 2025, Evans was still employed by DOC, though on unpaid suspension from duties.

Minnesota: For a brutal assault on a Hennepin County Jail guard, Gregory Jorge Garcia, 24, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on April 21, 2025, KMSP in Minneapolis reported. The sentencing followed his conviction on four counts of assault in March 2025. As his handcuffs were being removed after an escort to his cell in November 2023, Garcia suddenly and viciously attacked the guard, Matthew Durette, who sustained severe injuries, including a traumatic brain injury. The guard returned to work just days before Garcia was sent to prison. 

Mississippi: WTOK in Meridian reported that Marion County Regional Correctional Facility guard Marcy Parker, 34, was arrested on May 22, 2025, for allegedly smuggling contraband into the jail. County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Zack Guidroz said that Parker was freed after posting a $25,000 bond. An investigation began after a prisoner was discovered with an illegal cellphone, and evidence was uncovered of additional contraband being introduced into the lockup. Parker was fired and charged with one count of introduction of contraband and one count of conspiracy.

Missouri: Steven M. Reminger, 53, a former electronics technician at the state DOC’s Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center, pleaded guilty in federal court to smuggling contraband into the Bonne Terre prison. According to KTTN in Trenton, Reminger admitted to trafficking a veritable pharmacy of narcotics—including fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, K2, THC edibles, marijuana, knives, and cellphones—for prisoner Belvin Williams. He is serving a 120-year sentence for dragging a St. Louis man from his car in 2013 and shooting him in the leg. The smuggling scheme unraveled after several prisoner overdoses prompted a tip to prison officials. As the investigation proceeded, they reached out to U.S. Postal Service inspectors, who discovered that Reminger used a false name to keep a P.O. box, where they intercepted a package containing the contraband and $4,000 in cash. Reminger claimed not to know what the package contained but admitted receiving similar deliveries for bribes up to $50,000. He faces up to 20 years in prison for each of his two charges at his July 2025 sentencing.

Montana: Former state DOC guard Andre Hunter was accused of two counts of raping a prisoner at Montana Women’s Prison, as well as one count of releasing articles to a prisoner, and another count of official misconduct, according to KTVQ in Billings. Hunter pleaded not guilty to the felony charges in Yellowstone County District Court on May 6, 2025, and was released on his own recognizance. The charges stem from a February 2025 interview that DOC investigators conducted with prisoner “Jane Doe,” who alleged that she had a romantic relationship with Hunter beginning in late January 2025. She also claimed that Hunter provided contraband, like a pen and candy, and twice had sex with her: once, she said, he digitally penetrated her through her cell’s food port on February 11, 2025; he then allegedly coerced her to have intercourse with him in an unmonitored control hub on February 18, 2025. Video evidence corroborated Hunter’s presence in the hub, where semen consistent with his was found. He denied all allegations. 

Nevada: According to Las Vegas Optic,San Miguel County Detention Center guard John B. Hartwick, 21, faces four felony charges, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, for a shooting incident in Las Vegas on April 18, 2025. Police alleged that Hartwick fired a .45-caliber handgun at a home after a dispute over cigarette payment. Cops responding to the shooting scene found Hartwick parked nearby, with another unnamed man and two teens. After obtaining a search warrant, they found two handguns and high-capacity magazines in the vehicle. The other man then claimed responsibility for the shooting, but investigators later determined that was a lie to protect the guard from losing his job; in fact, one of the teens admitted, it was Hartwick who fired the gun, which the teen had taken from his mom, who is a retired cop. She was not implicated in the incident. Hartwick was released to house arrest on an unsecured $5,000 bond to await a preliminary hearing on June 18, 2025.

New Mexico: State Police arrested former Western New Mexico Correctional Facility guard Elijah Williams, 21, on May 15, 2025, following an investigation into multiple allegations of sexual assault on prisoners. KOAT in Albuquerque reported that the probe began in April 2025 and uncovered credible evidence; however, state Corrections Department (NMCD) officials did not elaborate on what that was. Williams was being held at the Cibola County Detention Center on four counts of criminal sexual contact and one count of battery. NMCD Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero confirmed his immediate termination for violating NMCD’s “zero tolerance policy” for guard misconduct.

New York: Former Warren County Jail guard Stephen A. Frank, 48, was given up to 25 years in prison when sentenced on May 2, 2025, for repeatedly assaulting his former wife. According to WNYT in Albany, Frank was convicted on three counts of aggravated criminal contempt, four counts of criminal contempt, and two counts of assault after a week-long jury trial. Witnesses testified to multiple violations of protection orders that the victim obtained and severe injuries inflicted to her face, arms, chest, neck and even her lungs. Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen noted the violence often occurred in front of the couple’s two children, causing both physical and emotional harm.

New York: Former Eastern Correctional Facility guard Jorge Torres, 28, pleaded guilty on May 13, 2025, to promoting prison contraband in the first degree, according to WRGB in Schenectady. Torres admitted to smuggling cellphones and other contraband into the Napanoch prison on several occasions, taking bribes each time up to $1,500. The State Office of Special Investigations recovered approximately 30 cellphones from prisoners at the lockup during its inquiry. Under state law, cellphones are deemed “dangerous contraband.” Torres was scheduled for sentencing in Ulster County Court on July 14, 2025.

New York: Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Keane announced that former Erie County Correctional Facility guard Matthew J. Morano, 29, was arraigned on May 20, 2025, on charges of official misconduct, promoting prison contraband in the second degree, and conspiracy in the sixth degree. He has since resigned from the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. Morano was accused of smuggling the loot to prisoner Luis Bonilla. Co-defendant Ashley Bonilla, 34, the prisoner’s wife, was also arraigned on the same day on similar contraband and conspiracy charges. Her husbandwas arraigned on May 6, 2025. 

Ohio: Allied News reported that Mercer County Jail guard Josue Antonio Rolon, 32, was free on bond after he was arraigned on contraband smuggling charges on June 3, 2025. Tipped-off investigators found 50 medical strips in his work locker on November 28, 2024, and they suspected Rolon of muling them for an unnamed detainee, after a lab test confirmed that the strips contained Suboxone. Rolon denied knowing anything about the contraband. But he also denied seeing or letting anyone tamper with his locker. 

Ohio: Lorain County Jail guard Christopher Jackson was fired on April 21, 2025, for displaying “reckless judgment” in a December 2024 incident, according to WKYC in Cleveland. Jail surveillance video captured an unnamed detainee throwing a cup of feces at Jackson, who then entered the cell and shoved him, appearing also to throw punches. During the fracas, the detainee then managed to escape, forcing Jackson to give chase. Sheriff Jack Hall stated that Jackson violated policy by not awaiting backup or securing the unit, thus allowing the escape. The detainee was charged with assault. Jackson’s case was referred to prosecutors for potential dereliction of duty charges after an investigation by a new corrections inspector general, who began his duties in January 2025. Jackson, a 17-year veteran at the jail, has appealed his firing.

Ohio: Mansfield Correctional Institution guard Crystal Kinser, 36, was handed felony charges for smuggling drugs into the lockup after she was caught with 458 Suboxone doses on May 13, 2025. The Mansfield News Journal reported that some of the contraband fell from her pants pockets, and more was found concealed in food containers. Kinser admitted bringing the containers for an unnamed prisoner, but she claimed not to know anything about the contents. The Suboxone that fell from her clothing she didn’t try to disclaim. Prisoners staged a recent hunger strike to protest pervasive smuggling of K2/Spice into the prison. Kinser was freed on $10,000 bond to await an arraignment scheduled for November 2025.

Pennsylvania: Former Mercer County Jail guard Charles Arn, 55, was sentenced on May 16, 2025, after pleading guilty to manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver contraband. According to WKBN Youngstown, Ohio, Arn received 90 days to one year of confinement and two years of probation. As PLN reported, he was arrested in October 2024 and accused of supplying prisoners with chewing tobacco, vape pens, and fentanyl, in exchange for bribes collected via Cash App. Arn admitted to investigators that he was selling candy to prisoners and detainees. But a detainee ratted out the guard for smuggling chewing tobacco and fentanyl, too. How did he know? His girlfriend facilitated payment of bribes in August 2024 from detainees to Arn. [See: PLN, Dec. 2024, p.62.]

Pennsylvania: For allegedly falsifying timecards to collect nearly $7,000 in unearned overtime pay between March 2024 and March 2025, Blair County Prison guard Franklin Deshong, 35, was arraigned on 58 felony charges on June 6, 2025, the Altoona Mirror reported. Officials at the jail alerted police after discovering 29 unverified shifts on Deshong’s timecards. Surveillance video showed that he was not present during many of these disputed shifts. Deshong reportedly admitted to falsifying 209 hours. He was released on $75,000 unsecured bail.

Pennsylvania: The Pottsville Republican Herald reported that state DOC guard Jocelyn Ebert, 23, was arraigned on April 28, 2025, on charges of felony institutional sexual assault and misdemeanor obstruction for alleged sexual encounters that she had with a prisoner at the State Correctional Institution in Frackville. A police investigation, including interviews and video footage, revealed that she engaged in multiple sexual acts over several months with the prisoner, inside his cell block closet and even through his cell door wicket. In one instance Ebert and the prisoner were seen together entering the closet; when they left, she licked something off her hand. The prisoner stated that Ebert would instruct other prisoners to lock down, clearing the way for their liaisons. Ebert was released on $25,000 unsecured bail.

Pennsylvania: The USAO for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced on May 1, 2025, that Michael Jefferson, 42, a BOP guard at the Federal Detention Center (FDC) in Philadelphia, was charged with aggravated sexual abuse and deprivation of rights for the alleged sexual assault of an unnamed a prisoner in July 2024. The indictment states that Jefferson pinned the victim to the ground as he assaulted her, causing her additional injury. He was suspended from the BOP. If convicted, he faces a potential life sentence.

Pennsylvania: The same office announced onApril 10, 2025, thatPhiladelphia Department of Prisons guard Ivory S. Cousins, 35, was convicted on three counts of depriving a prisoner of his constitutional rights and one count of filing a false report at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. Cousins ignored the medical needs of an unnamed prisoner and pepper-sprayed him without justification before she then helped another prisoner steal his belongings in August 2019. She faces a maximum of 41 years in prison at her July 2025 sentencing. 

South Carolina: On May 23, 2025, former BOP guard Angela Crosland, 51, received a 136-month prison sentence for bribery, money laundering, and drug distribution. She was convicted at trial in January 2025 of taking nearly $57,000 via Cash App transfers from prisoners’ families to smuggle methamphetamine, Suboxone, K-2 and marijuana into FCI-Williamsburg; she was also found guilty of filing false tax returns, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Mar. 2025, p.62.] She was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay the IRS $19,000 in restitution for failing to claim the ill-gotten gains on her income taxes, WLTX in Columbia reported.

Tennessee: The USAO for the Western District of Tennessee announced that former BOP guard Bryan Miller, 32, received a 12-month, one-day federal prison sentence plus two years of supervised release on April 23, 2025. Miller pleaded guilty in January 2024 to taking $195,000 in bribes for smuggling narcotics to prisoners in FCI- Memphis over a four-month stretch beginning in December 2022. 

Tennessee: According to WVLT in Knoxville, former Monroe County Jail guard Cody Harrill, 34, was indicted on May 7, 2025, for official misconduct and introduction of contraband. A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe launched in December 2022 found that she smuggled unspecified contraband into the jail and helped others to do the same. Harrill surrendered himself and was released on her own recognizance. She has a documented history of policy violations and insubordination, her personnel file revealed, including faking illness, improperly bonding out an ineligible detainee, unprofessional conduct, and allowing detainees unsupervised access to restricted areas. In a written response to one of her write-ups for insubordination, Harrill responded: “None of the higher ups care how this jail is run so why should I? Nobody gets in trouble for serious stuff. It gets overlooked.” 

Texas: KVII in Amarillo reported that former state Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) guard Jonatan Mojica was sentenced to 12 years in prison on April 14, 2025, after pleading guilty to engaging in organized criminal activity, bribery, and drug possession. Mojica was caught in July 2021 attempting to smuggle over 200 grams of methamphetamine into the Clements Unit in Brazoria County. A search of his vehicle then found multiple cell phones matching those confiscated from prisoners in recent shakedowns. Investigators then found that he took thousands of dollars in bribes for prior deliveries to prisoners of both phones and drugs.

Texas: The Hays County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) in San Marcos lost two county jail guards to misconduct, beginning on May 6, 2025, when guard George Jearld Snell, 35, was fired and arrested on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child.Sheriff Anthony Hipolito called the alleged crimes “sickening” and “a betrayal of everything this badge stands for,” KXAN in Austin reported. The three-year veteran guard was being held on a $2 million bond. Two weeks earlier, fellow guard John Duran, 45, was arrested on charges of official oppression and tampering with a governmental record after an unnamed detainee accused him of sexual misconduct—including using surveillance cameras to watch her in the shower. Also a three-year veteran guard, Duran was put on administrative leave and jailed on a $20,000 bond, according to the Austin American-Statesman. He was additionally accused of lying on his employment application, in which he did not report that he was previously investigated for contraband trading and other violations while working for TDCJ. 

Texas: Bexar County Detention Center guard Clemente Lopez, Jr., 20, was arrested and charged with engaging in organized criminal activity on May 14, 2025, KSAT in San Antonio reported. Details were not available for this arrest, but Lopez, Jr. had just been arrested 12 days earlier for allegedly opening the cell of detainee Francisco Bazan, 46, on April 28, 2025, to four fellow detainees. Rudy Bueno, Gilbert Suarez, Rodrigo Martinez III, and Gabriel Benjamin Garcia then proceeded to beat Bazan to death, reportedly over a $40 debt. Lopez had resigned from the County Sheriff’s Office and was out on a $500,000 bond when he was picked up on the new charge. He posted bail again and was released the following day. Sheriff Javier Salazar said, “I wanted to look [Lopez] in the eye and tell him exactly how disgusted I was with the behavior, and I did so.”

Texas: Former Jefferson County Jail guard Sgt. Clayton Friddle, 33, was arrested on April 24, 2025, and charged with official oppression as a public servant, KFDM in Beaumont reported. A routine review of jail surveillance video revealed his involvement in multiple instances when detainees were mistreated with pepper spray. He was suspended, fired and booked into the Jefferson County Jail. He was then released on a $2,000 bond.

Texas: Former Evins State Juvenile Correctional Facility guard Yuliana Mares, 40, was jailed on April 22, 2025, after she was accused of sexual contact with an unnamed 16-year-old detainee in February 2025. According to AIM Media Texas, Mares allegedly touched the teen’s genitals. She was charged with indecency with a child by sexual contact and violation of civil rights of a person in custody, for which she faces up to life and 20 years in prison, respectively, plus $10,000 in fines. Hidalgo County Jail records showed that Mares was being held there on both charges with a combined bond of $45,000. 

Virginia: On April 29, 2025, former state DOC guard Ashley M. Heckel, 36, received a five-year suspended prison sentence for delivering Suboxone to prisoners at the now-shuttered Augusta Correctional Center between May 2022 and late 2023. According to the Staunton News Leader, Heckel pleaded guilty to the felony in June 2024, admitting that she was approached by prisoners about working the contraband scheme after revealing she had financial problems. Co-conspirator and former prisoner Jayquon Norman received a nine-month prison term for his part in the scheme five days earlier.

Virginia: Another former DOC guard, Raekwon Robins, 29, was arrested April 11, 2025, after allegedly attempting to smuggle over $150,000 worth of drugs into Pocahontas State Correctional Center. Robins reportedly confessed, according to WRIC in Richmond, and a search of his residence yielded narcotics, a handgun, and $1,000 cash. He faces three counts of possession with intent to distribute and two counts of conspiring/delivering controlled substances to a prisoner.