Rikers Guard Busted For Selling Drugs And Booze To Inmates

It's been a particularly rough week for guards at Rikers Island. In the past few days, corrections officers have been accused of sleeping on the job and possibly sleeping with inmates. Now a Rikers Island guard has been busted trying to smuggle drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes to prisoners in exchange for cash, according to the Post.

Teneya Griffith, 25, was arrested for trying to sneak three "zip" sandwich bags holding 2 ounces of marijuana, three water bottles filled with vodka, tobacco, and a few cigarettes into the prison on Thursday. "When they handcuffed her and escorted her out of the building, several officers began clapping," a jail source told the tabloid. "Officers snitched on her. They had concerns that she was compromised." Prosecutors allege that Griffith had agreed to split the contraband between two inmates for $400 and $500, respectively.

Griffith allegedly told cops: "I know I shouldn't have done it. This is poor judgment." She was fired from her $57,757-a-year job and faces a first degree felony charge of promoting prison contraband that is punishable by up to seven years behind bars, as well as misdemeanor charges of promoting prison contraband, marijuana possession and official misconduct. Her grandmother, Joan Griffith, was "shocked" by the allegations: "I can't see her doing something like that. She's a good person."

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By Ben Muessig in News on January 2, 2010 2:18 PM

Comments [rss]

tnuc

she's an aspiring rapper.

NYCDOC is nothing but perps gaurding perps. the criminals run the place.

scrappymcgee

I hope she goes to jail. I'm 26 and would be a hard working employee for that salary. I'm sick of paying for these bastard high salaries. I hope the press keeps up the pressure and exposes all these horrible city unions

dgeee

...proving the police and prison guards are nothing more than a street gang with uniforms.

HMAN

Easy on the police! NYCDOCS= no polygraph,no credit check

and no required college.

Yetta

And just last week, a guard was caught open-mouthed while sleeping on the job. And another one allegedly received phone calls to her cell phone from an inmate and he moved in with her? Something like that...

Nice role models.

jaycjay

"into the prison"

Rikers is a jail, not a prison.

jaycjay

Did you somehow miss the first paragraph of the story?

theLtrain

Speaking of weed and rikers, I wonder how weezy is doing.

Steven

What an greedy idiot. 25 years old and making close is $60,000 really good

casey shain

a 25 year old prison guard makes almost $60,000/year? no wonder NY state is almost broke. i've been in publishing for almost 30 years and don't make that.

inoyourider

Hope she gets a the same jail sentence as a petty thug would get.

inoyourider

Correct that, she should get more for betraying the public's trust.

inoyourider

Maybe you should find a different line of work.

Just sayin'.

just saying

Can you just imagine what her supervisors might be making? And more likely than not, they've been entrenched in the DOC system for many years. Rikers clearly needs different management and the DOC should start by "reassigning" the incompetent supervisors who allowed conditions to get out of control.