The guard smuggled contraband included drugs, lighters and knife blades to detainees at the Rivière-des-Prairies Detention Centre.
Fania Jean-Charles, 40, who was a jail guard for a dozen years, was taken into custody after she was discovered smuggling contraband that included drugs, lighters and knife blades to inmates at the Rivière-des-Prairies Detention Centre.
In a sentencing decision handed down on Monday, Quebec Court Judge Salvatore Mascia focused on the gravity of Jean-Charles’s decision to betray the public trust.
“Corrections officers have one of the most difficult jobs in law enforcement and play a vital role in public safety,” Mascia wrote in his 40-page decision. “When they break the law, they not only create an unstable prison environment, but they also put our communities at risk.
“The corruption of a corrections officer is unacceptable. The accused in this case has disgraced herself, the law she swore to uphold and the justice system she represented.”
Jean-Charles was arrested in 2021. She was placed under surveillance when her colleagues realized she was smuggling contraband to detainees, transporting the goods inside chip containers and soda cans with false bottoms.