Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a former New York City
Department of Correction Officer has been sentenced to a year in jail for accepting cash in
exchange for bringing marijuana, alcohol and tobacco to an inmate in a Rikers Island jail.
District Attorney Clark said, “This defendant had been on the job just 10 months when
he began taking bribes to smuggle in forbidden items, betraying his fellow Correction Officers
and endangering staff and inmates. We will not tolerate anyone bringing in contraband,
because the high profits it generates fuels violence in jail.”
Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peters said, “When Correction
Officers take bribes from inmates to allow contraband into the City’s jails, they’re violating the
trust placed in them as law enforcement officers and putting their colleagues at risk by fostering
a dangerous environment. DOI continues to focus on rooting out these crimes and
recommending meaningful reforms that will make our City’s jails safer.”
District Attorney Clark said that James Brown, 46, of Queens, was sentenced today by
Bronx Supreme Court Justice George Villegas to one year in jail. Brown pleaded guilty to
third-degree Bribe Receiving on June 1, 2017 for accepting $700 from Dene Morris to bring
the contraband to her husband, Shane Morris, who was being held in the Otis Bantum
Correctional Center. On December 9, 2016, as Brown was going to work, a DOI canine
detected marijuana. Brown was found to have four ounces of marijuana, tobacco and a bottle
containing Patron tequila on him. The case is pending against Dene and Shane Morris.
