Prison Sentence Handed Down To Former Howard County Correctional Officer

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Former correctional dietary officer Chanel Pierce, 29, of Pikesville has been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for a racketeering conspiracy in connection with her work at the Jessup Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison that houses approximately 1,800 men.

The conspiracy, which included former correctional officers, inmates and outside “facilitators,” was centered on bribing correctional officers to smuggle contraband, including narcotics, alcohol, tobacco and cell phones, into the prison.

According to Pierce’s plea agreement and other court documents, correctional officers accepted or agreed to accept payments from facilitators and/or inmates or engaged in sexual relations with inmates as consideration for smuggling contraband into JCI. Inmates acted as both wholesalers and retailers of contraband and, in the process, made profits that far exceeded the profits that could be made by selling similar drugs on the street. For example, conspirator inmates could purchase suboxone strips for approximately $3 each and sell them inside JCI for approximately $50 each, or for a profit of more than 1,000 percent.

As detailed in her plea agreement, Pierce conspired with inmate Darnell Smith, a/k/a Hook, Smith’s outside facilitator, Chaz Chriscoe, and others to smuggle contraband, including controlled dangerous substances, such as suboxone, into JCI and then distribute the contraband to Smith and other inmates. Pierce regularly met with Chriscoe at her residence and elsewhere to obtain contraband for smuggling. Pierce then concealed the contraband on her body, smuggled it into JCI and distributed it to JCI inmates. Pierce admitted that she did this regularly while employed at the facility, according to court documents.

In exchange for smuggling the contraband, Pierce received thousands of dollars in bribe payments, which were sent to her by co-conspirators on behalf of JCI inmates. The memo line of the payments would often include the name or nickname of the inmate on whose behalf the bribe was made. For example, on April 12, 2019, Pierce received a $500 bribe payment from co-defendant Vonda Bolden along with the message “for Boosie,” who was Bolden’s son, JCI inmate Marshall Hill. Pierce transferred most of the bribe payments to her personal bank accounts and used the funds for her own benefit.

Early on the morning of May 25, 2019, Pierce met with co-defendant Chriscoe at her home and obtained several balloons filled with controlled substances to smuggle into JCI. Pierce then went to work and was stopped by law enforcement as she entered the facility and searched. Law enforcement recovered a concealed purple balloon from Pierce’s person containing suboxone. A subsequent search of Pierce’s home revealed several more balloons filled with contraband that she intended to smuggle into JCI.

All 15 defendants charged in this case have pleaded guilty to their roles in the conspiracy, including another former correctional office, co-defendant Dominique Booker. Chaz Michael Chriscoe, 41, of Owings Mills was sentenced to 39 months in federal prison; inmates Darnell Smith, a/k/a Hook, 41, and Marshall Hill, a/k/a Boosie, 30, were sentenced to 63 months and to four years in federal prison, respectively; Dominique Booker, 45, of Baltimore and Vonda Bolden, 57, of Baltimore, are awaiting sentencing.