LANCASTER COUNTY, S.C. — A former correctional officer at the Lancaster County Detention Center was arrested Monday night and charged with bringing contraband into the facility.
Christopher Paul Sweet, 33, of Fort Mill was arrested Monday night.
A cellphone was found in the common area of a cell on Jan. 2 during a search by corrections employees, according to a news release from the Lancaster Sheriff's Office. An inmate claimed the phone after an investigation was launched.
Sweet was interviewed and was accused of giving inmates cellphones and chargers, marijuana, cigarettes, cigarette lighters, and “blunt spray” to mask the odor of marijuana and cigarette smoke.
He was terminated, charged with furnishing contraband to a county prisoner and one warrant charged him with misconduct in office.
The incidents are believed to have happened between September and the end of December.
Sweet was employed as a correctional officer in November 2015.
Debbie Horne, an administrator at the Lancaster County Detention Center, left her job the same day as Sweet was fired, officials said.
Horne worked at the detention center since 1993.
Officials said that is a personnel matter and they can't discuss why Horne no longer works at the detention center.
He was released later Tuesday on personal recognizance bonds of $15,000.
“Contraband in jails and prisons is a huge safety concern,” Sheriff Barry Faile said. “Seemingly harmless items can be used as currency for commerce among inmates, give some inmates advantages over others, and create disputes among inmates.
These activities create danger to inmates, corrections staff and the public who might be in the facility.
Cellphones are particularly onerous and allow inmates to communicate outside the walls to arrange all sorts of improper and illegal activities. We thoroughly investigate the backgrounds of correctional officer candidates with the intent to weed out those who might fall to the temptations offered by certain inmates.
Once an inmate has compromising information on a correctional officer, that correctional officer becomes a liability.
Mr. Sweet stepped into this trap. His actions were intolerable and he put his coworkers at risk. I am deeply disappointed at this turn of events and took immediate action to see that Mr. Sweet was terminated and that appropriate criminal charges were made against him.”
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