A corrections sergeant at Arkansas' largest prison was arrested Monday and charged with attempting to smuggle drugs into the unit, officials said.
Tia Washington of Greenville, Miss., was booked into the Jefferson County jail early Tuesday morning, according to online records. The 26-year-old was charged with furnishing a prohibited article and later released, according to the jail.
Arkansas Department of Correction spokeswoman Dina Tyler said Wednesday that Washington had been caught "coming on the shift" at the Cummins Unit with about 2½ ounces of marijuana and about 2 ounces of suspected K2, a synthetic form of the drug that has plagued Arkansas prisons and been linked to several deaths.
"As she entered the prison, Washington was searched by prison staff," Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said in an email. "During the course of the search an object was detected inside her belt," which was later determined to be marijuana or K2.
Sadler added that the 71 grams of suspected marijuana was found hidden inside Washington's body.
Washington had worked for the Department of Correction for three years, Tyler said, and was promoted to sergeant in March. Washington was fired after the arrest.
Tyler said that State Police are continuing to handle the investigation. She described the amount of drugs discovered as not uncommon for stashes that people are caught smuggling into the prison.
"It's more, obviously, than we want," she said.
Cummins, located in Lincoln County, is a prison farm with a capacity of 1,876 inmates. Tyler said the incident was the second instance of a guard at the prison being caught with marijuana in recent months.
Jauquez Smith, an officer at the unit, was arrested July 24 after 8 ounces of marijuana and 52 pills were found in his car, Tyler said. State Police confirmed that Smith had been arrested, though it was unclear Wednesday what charges he faces.
The Department of Correction has struggled in recent years to keep K2 out of prisons, logging hundreds of incidents involving the drug, according to testimony given to lawmakers last year.
Because the drug is made up a variety of chemical compounds, its composition can be quickly altered to make it harder to detect and easier to smuggle.
Metro on 08/22/2019