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COLUMBIA, South Carolina: Federal prosecutors said that Christine Mary Livingston, supervisor in a South Carolina prison, accepted more than US$219,000 in bribes over three years and allowed 173 contraband cellphones to be smuggled in for inmates.

Earlier this month, Livingston, 46, was indicted on 15 charges, including bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering.

An inmate at the prison, Jerell Reaves, 33, who is serving a 15-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of a man at a Marion County convenience store in 2015, accepted bribes for cellphones and other contraband accessories on behalf of Livingston.

The federal indictment unsealed last week said that they would take between $1,000 and $7,000 over the smart phone Cash App money transfer program for a phone.

If convicted, they could face up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and an order to pay back the money they earned illegally.

Prisoners have run drug rings and fraud schemes and have even ordered killings from behind bars, said Corrections Director Bryan Stirling.

Prisoners communicating on cellphones caused a 2018 riot that killed seven inmates at Lee Correctional Institution.

In a statement, Stirling said, “This woman broke the public trust in South Carolina, making our prisons less safe for inmates, staff, and the community. We will absolutely not tolerate officers and employees bringing contraband into our prisons, and I’m glad she is being held accountable.”

The South Carolina prison system has urged federal officials to allow them to jam cellphone signals in prisons, but they have yet to receive approval.

State prison officials issued 2,179 violations for inmates possessing banned communication devices from July 2022 to June 2023. More than 35,000 cellphones have been found since 2015. The prison system has some 16,000 inmates.