LITTLE ROCK — An inmate involved in a 2006 contraband scandal was nabbed again last week in a new attempt to smuggle tobacco into the Tucker Unit in Jefferson County, officials said Tuesday.
The black market value of the contraband tobacco is almost $14,000.
Daniel Bradshaw, 30, was a trusty inmate with access outside the prison fence on Oct. 23, when prison officials said they found a five-gallon plastic bucket buried in the tractor shed and filled with 177 packs of loose-leaf tobacco, 86 packs of chewing tobacco and a cigarette lighter.
Bradshaw and three other inmates were identified as suspects.
After a large cache of tobacco, food and other contraband items was found in a horse barn in early 2006 near the Maximum Security Unit at Tucker, Bradshaw, a trusty, also was identified as being involved in the smuggling. But he was never punished, prison sources said.
That 2006 scandal resulted in 10 correctional officers retiring, resigning or being disciplined. The large cache of tobacco was hidden under a false floor of the horse barn, along with a working cell phone, hundreds of dollars in cash and two freezers full of food, including beef, pork and French fries.
Just more than a year later, Bradshaw was a trusty again - this time at "Little Tucker," the Max's medium-security neighbor.
Department of Correction spokesman Dina Tyler said she couldn't confirm that Bradshaw was in trouble again, citing the confidentiality of inmate records.
Tyler said she wasn't sure why the inmate - identified by others as Bradshaw - regained trusty status so quickly.
He probably persuaded the classification board that he had learned his lesson, she said.
"I don't think he'll be getting a third chance," she said.
She did say that one of the inmates involved in last week's bust had been mixed up in the horse-barn contraband operation.
Multiple prison sources confirmed that Bradshaw was involved in the smuggling ring exposed last week.
Convicted in 2002 of drug and weapons charges and sentenced to 10 years, Bradshaw becomes eligible for parole in May 2009.
The investigation remains an internal one and no formal punishments have been meted out yet, Tyler said.
The four have been transferred to the Maximum Security Unit - routine for inmates suspected of breaking prison rules.
The Correction Department punishes smugglers because contraband often becomes a source of violence and gang activity in prisons.
Since Arkansas prisons banned all tobacco use in 2000, tobacco has become the leading contraband item. Individual hand-rolled cigarettes sell for up to $2 each, according to former inmates and prison officials.
Loose-leaf tobacco is popular because it is easier to conceal during searches, Tyler said.
Each three-quarter ounce pack of Bugler loose-leaf tobacco - the most popular prison tobacco and the kind found last week - comes with 40 cigarette papers, but inmates commonly roll more out of each pack.
Even conservative estimates make the trade extremely lucrative with profits of at least $78 per pack over the $2 retail price.
Using those calculations, the Oct. 23 bust yielded $13,806 in prison market loose-leaf tobacco alone.
Arkansas, Pages 9, 13 on 10/31/2007