A federal prison guard in Atlanta was sentenced to prison for taking bribes to smuggle contraband to inmates, acting U.S. Attorney John Horn announced Wednesday.
“Corrupt corrections officers compromise prison safety while they profit from the underground economy that unfortunately exists in prison,” Horn said in an email. “Prison is supposed to be a place where the controls are strong enough that additional crime is impossible, but this breaks down instantly when the officers themselves participate in the corruption.”
Dirk Antonious Engram Jr. admitted that he charged $500 every time he smuggled cigarettes, marijuana, or other contraband into the prison for inmates.
In November 2013, Engram began working as a corrections officer at U.S. Penitentiary-Atlanta, a medium-security prison with approximately 2,000 male inmates, Horn said. In 2014, Engram began smuggling contraband into the prison for inmates who befriended him.
He was arrested on September 11, 2014, by agents with the FBI after he accepted a bribe to smuggle what he believed was heroin into the penitentiary, Horn said.
Engram, 27, of Atlanta, was sentenced to two years, four months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty to the charges on March 24, 2015.
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