Prohibited Items Continue to Make Their Way to Inmates

25-year-old Joshua Hansen of Dallas, Texas, an inmate at the Federal Correctional Complex in Beaumont, was arrested on an escape charge after he was caught running back to the prison with a bag of home-cooked food and other prohibited items.  The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office allegedly received a tip that inmates from the facility were crossing from prison grounds into private property owned by a local rancher and smuggling goods back in.

The sheriff’s office of Narcotics Investigators and U.S. Marshals set up surveillance to investigate the issue and witnessed a vehicle drop a large bag on the private property.  Then, a man, identified later as Hansen, was seen running from the grounds to retrieve the bag full of prohibited items.

Hansen, who was being held on a narcotics charge, was caught by officers while heading back to the yard with his goods, which included “a large amount of home-cooked food,” according to the report.  The duffle bag also contained marijuana, three bottles of brandy, one bottle of whiskey, multiple bags of Bugler tobacco, as well as packaged snacks and fruit.  Hansen was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on charges of escape and possession of marijuana.

The booking comes at the same time a new video and images show, just a year after initial arrests of inmates were made, contraband smuggling continues to be an issue at a federal prison camp in southeast Atlanta despite the Bureau of Prison’s insistence that it has taken measures to keep banned items out of the prison.

The Atlanta prison has a new warden, Darrin Harmon, and has made promises in the past to patch a problem fence and crack down on contraband being carried into the prison.  Yet, the video and photos provided this month clearly show inmates enjoying a New Year’s Eve party complete with music and a makeshift bar.  Just this past weekend, the prisoner who provided the footage indicated a fellow inmate also retrieved a backpack containing alcohol and marijuana.

One photo the inmate provided showed a wealth of confiscated items including cell phones, chargers, two dozen mini bottles labeled vodka, and a sharpened screwdriver.  Another was of a list of items seized in mid-January — drugs, an “assortment of pills,” eggs, alcohol, food items, “broken BOP locks,” a bolt cutter and even a microwave.

The Bureau of Prisons stated that “adjustments were made to operations at the FPC (federal prison camp) to deter contraband from entering the institution. Contraband is always a concern at our institutions regardless of security level.  At camps located within a city, as opposed to a rural area, there are greater opportunities for prohibited goods to be introduced. We are always looking for ways to enhance our interdiction, detection and deterrence efforts. The new leadership at Atlanta has been working hard on this since his arrival.”

In early 2017, a federal complaint was made involving a tale of how inmates at the camp had been breaking out and then sneaking back in with prohibited contraband such as phones, drugs, cigarettes and food from local eateries.  The former prison warden retired amid the bad publicity.

Sources:

Federal Inmate Escapee Arrested

Escaped inmate caught returning to prison with home-cooked food

Federal inmates still smuggling booze, contraband into prison camp