Corrections officers at Lakeview Correctional Facility found a stash of contraband—including a cellphone, drugs, and makeshift weapons—hidden in an inmate’s mattress earlier this month.
The search happened August 8, while the inmate was away in a program area inside the prison’s disciplinary unit.
According to officials, the haul included a ceramic knife, a razor blade weapon, and two ceramic blades taped together with electrical tape. Officers also found drugs in various forms, including a latex glove fingertip filled with a brown leafy substance, stained sheets of paper stored in a zip lock bag, and round containers holding white paste and a blue mouth guard piece.
Some of the drugs were also hidden on a desk shelf inside the cell. All the items were seized and sent for testing.
The inmate, 29, is currently serving 8 to 10 years for multiple robbery and assault convictions out of Suffolk County. Officials say he was involved in a series of armed robberies in 2021 while on parole, including one in which a store clerk was pistol-whipped and needed 25 stitches to the head.
Western Region Vice President Kenny Gold called the seizure significant, saying it included all three top categories of contraband inside state prisons: drugs, cellphones, and ceramic blades.
“The members involved in securing these items may have saved another employee’s life, or possibly another inmate or even that inmate himself,” Gold said. “Despite new technology being used to detect certain drugs, they are still finding their way in.”
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