Former FCI-Cumberland Employee Faces Prison Term for Smuggling Contraband

[Greg]

Former Federal Corrections Officer Robb Phillips Faces Prison Term for Smuggling Contraband into the Prison
AssociatedContent.com

By Regina Sass

Robb Phillips, 33, of Cumberland, Maryland, a former corrections officer, has pleaded guilty to taking bribes from prisoners to smuggle cigarettes as well as other items into the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland (FCI-C) and selling them for a large profit.

He was hired as a corrections office in July 20, 2000. In November of the next year, he started working as a teacher in the Education Department at FCI-C. Ever since April 15, 2006, cigarettes have been banned in federal prisons and were classified as contraband. Not too long after the ban had been put in place, one of the inmates asked Phillips to smuggle in cigarettes and he said he would pay Phillips $50 for each pack or $1000 for a carton. He also told Phillips that he would make arrangements so that Phillips could be paid outside of the prison. On or about July 2006, Phillips did bring five or six packs of cigarettes to the prison, gave them to the inmate, and was paid his $50 a pack.

Phillips had a female friend of his open a post office box in her name so that he could receive money orders for the payment of the contraband that would also be in her name. He promised to pay her for her help. In order to get the payments outside of the prison, the inmate gave Phillips the contact information of friends and associates of the prisoner.

At Phillips' direction, the money orders were made out in the name of the female who had opened the post office box. They were either sent to the box or Western Union money orders were sent to Western Union locations, again in the name of his female friend. The friend cashed the money orders and gave the money to Phillips.

After he received the money, Phillips bought the cigarettes and then told the prisoner when he would deliver them. ON the pre arranged date, he would being them into the prison, hidden inside a large potato chip bag in his lunch box. Once he arrived at the Education Department, he would put them into a computer box in a storage room. He would then keep watch while the inmate put the cigarettes inside his clothes.

Phillips also, without having any authority to do so, used the prison's computers to read the email and tack the phone calls of the inmates to make sure they did not tell any authorities about his business.

By the time the scheme came to an end, he was bringing in as many as 50 packs a week as well as other contraband such as snuff, for which he was paid $50 a can. All in all he received in excess of $14,000 in payments.

When he is sentenced, he faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and three years of supervised release.

Source: U.S Attorneys Office United States Department of Justice

[Bobshouse]

50.00 a pack? 1000.00 a carton? and they say tobaco is not habit forming....lol.

You want to get rich quick, obviously prison is not the place to do it! How many other idiots are going to bite it before they learn? Hope he enjoys his stay with Bubba, course the Bureau will move him to a softer joint where he wont be recognized as a former LEO, but personally, I feel you should do the time where you did the crime.

[Greg]

As I understand it, $50 seems to be the going rate for bringing in a pack of cigarettes. The inmate pays the crooked staff $50 per pack and then sells the cigarettes for $5.00 each or $100/pack.

Glad to see there is some serious prosecution of crooked staff happening--too many people think there is no harm in bringing in cigarettes because they are not illegal on the outside.

This is a good object lesson to the newer people in corrections--don't ever give ANYTHING to an inmate that they are not supposed to have, even if it seems harmless (such as a piece of candy). Once the convict knows that you will violate rules for something small, they will work their way up, seeing what else they can get you to do.

[Greg]

Originally Posted by Bobshouse

You want to get rich quick, obviously prison is not the place to do it! How many other idiots are going to bite it before they learn? Hope he enjoys his stay with Bubba, course the Bureau will move him to a softer joint where he wont be recognized as a former LEO, but personally, I feel you should do the time where you did the crime.

...and when you get caught and are no longer of any use to the convict, the convict will sing long and loud about everything that you did. Anybody who trusts a convict is a fool.

[Von Nanega]

True that. Smuggling smokes seems to be the main contraband crime recently.

[BikerRN]

Won't idiots like this ever learn?

I guess not, seen too much of this crap in my time. I just learned that a former CO that went to work for a Police Department recently lost his job for violating policy and law. He used his MDT to "run" a license plate number for a "friend of a friend". Guess what, the "friend of a friend" was a drug dealer!

Of course when said drug dealer got caught he snitched off the cop. Said cop was "OK" when I worked with him, but not "By The Book". This is where people go wrong in Corrections. You need to be "By The Book" and strong enough to fight those battles. Of course the BOP doesn't help any when you are that way.

"I'm not telling anyone to violate policy ::hint hint:: but try to run a smooth house without any problems and calling me or Compound." Working Corrections is a "trickbag" in itself. My goal is to get out as soon as I can retire. Of course I've got a long ways to go.

Biker