DRUGS SMUGGLED INTO THREE PRISONS WITH ALLEGED HELP OF CORRECTIONS
OFFICERS

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin
flowed steadily through three state prisons. And when investigators
followed the trail to the drug kingpins, it led to three of the prison
system's own officers.

Ironwood State Prison officer Richard Melendez, 28, was arrested late
last month after investigators swept through the Riverside County
lockup searching for drugs.

More arrests may follow, Department of Corrections officials
say.

While most drugs are traced to friends and relatives of inmates, the
larger quantities are almost always smuggled in by prison employees --
including sworn officers, investigators said.

Melendez's arrest followed those of prison officers suspecting of
smuggling drugs into California State Prison in Sacramento, known as
New Folsom, and San Quentin.

"We're trying to send a message," said Dave Mansfield, an agent with
the Office of Internal Affairs, created last summer after accusations
of officer abuse at Corcoran State Prison. "Somebody's going to get
spanked behind this stuff."

Investigators say prison employees usually have inmate contacts who
run their own distribution networks inside.

A gram of heroin can fetch $1,000 in prison, said parolee Robert
Johnson, who said prison workers brought him drugs at least 18 times
over his 18 years in the corrections system.

"I used to walk through the institution with $1,000 in my pocket or in
my mattress," he told the Sacramento Bee in an article published
Saturday. "I would go to the visiting room and slip it out, or have a
guard take it out. That was my job."

At Ironwood, near Blythe, some 50 officers fanned out to search 130
cells for drugs, and came up with Melendez as a main source of
contraband, officials said. He has not been charged.

At New Folsom, veteran officer Michael Laurin, 54, was arrested in May
after buying a pound of marijuana from inmates' relatives working
undercover, authorities said. His trial is pending.

And at San Quentin, officer April Reynolds was caught bringing heroin
into the prison with intent to sell, authorities said. A parolee who
was with her also was taken into custody.

Along with a cook, Sherwood Coleman, accused of buying cocaine with
the intention of selling it at the prison, they were indicted by a
grand jury in Contra Costa County.

Another cook, Daniel O'Callaghan, faces a preliminary hearing next
week on charges that he smuggled methamphetamine into San Quentin
after obtaining the drug from a parolee.

"It looks at this point like we're going to be able to take care of a
pretty good-sized cancer," said Corrections Director Cal Terhune. "We
don't like to find it, but when we do, we want to root it out."