POLKTON — A Lanesboro Correctional Institution prison guard was arrested Thursday on charges of trying to smuggle drugs and tobacco for an inmate.
Officers arrested a correctional officer at Lanesboro Correctional Institution on Thursday and charged her with trying to smuggle heroin and tobacco for an inmate.
Scarlette King Hodges, 29, of Ellerbe, was charged with possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver heroin, conspiring to deliver heroin and possession of a controlled substance on prison premises, all felonies. She was also charged with misdemeanor providing tobacco/vapor products to an inmate.
Hodges allegedly tried to deliver three grams of heroin to inmates on Jan. 5, according to the warrant. She then allegedly gave about one pound of pipe tobacco to an unknown person to deliver to an inmate on Wednesday.
She was booked into the Anson County Jail under a $50,000 bond for the felony charges and released after posting bond on Thursday.
Hodges was arrested by the Polkton Police Department with the help of the State Bureau of Investigation and Lanesboro management, according to Keith Acree, a spokesman with the North Carolina of Public Safety.
Acree said Hodges has been employed with the prison system since June 4, 2012.
She is due to appear in court for all charges on Feb. 2.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.
Lanesboro Correctional Institution is a high-security, close-custody state prison. It is staffed by 514 guards and support personnel and has a capacity of 1,400 inmates, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety.
On Dec. 28, a guard at Brown Creek Correctional Institution, a medium-security prison located adjacent to Lanesboro, was accused of trying to smuggle marijuana and painkillers into the facility to give to an inmate there.
Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough.
