MDOC and the Upper Pennisula Substance Enforcement Team recovered over $400,000 in drugs
Officers seized 15 sheets of suspected K2 paper, more than 500 suboxone strips, 74 grams of marijuana wax, 62 grams of methamphetamine and more than $4,500 in cash.
Let me being by saying, “I told you so.”
Sadly, there is nothing new under the sun. Most of the drugs coming into facilities are the result of staff bringing them in. They’re underpaid, overworked, and in a capitalist society, money is king.
What makes this latest event so much worse, is this is ONE of multiple stories in the last few years of Michigan DOC Corrections Officers getting busted for smuggling drugs into prisons all over the state (one here, a Saginaw County Judge’s brother here, and for good measure, a lawyer was caught, too).
It begs the question: how many arrests does it take?
How many people need to get busted for selling drugs before Heidi Washington and Michigan DOC do something about this problem?
Yes, being a corrections officer is no doubt miserable. And no, it’s truly not a lucrative career. Those two reasons alone are perfect reasons to reform the system and embrace evidence-based policies.
Prosecutors and Judges who knowingly send people to prisons should be held accountable for contributing to addiction; especially when they refuse to embrace diversion and rehabilitative programs, instead putting struggling people in a miserable environment where struggling staff members can then prey upon them.
Further, if other smugglers are being held accountable for deaths caused from the product they sell, Michigan DOC officers should be no different.
Read the full article here.
