Anthony Ellison, once an inmate of the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC), was hit with a 29-month sentence for his role in a corrupt contraband and bribery racket involving prison staff and fellow inmates, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced. The sentence, handed down by U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter, will be served both concurrently with another federal sentence currently being served by Ellison, and consecutively to it, underlining the severity of the offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The conspiracy, which Ellison played a part in between 2018 and 2021, saw bribes totaling around $80,000 funneled to a corrupt guard at the jail through money transfer apps like CashApp by way of friends and relatives on the outside, Ellison and at least ten other inmates used this system, to procure a steady flow of contraband into the facility which included drugs, cellphones, and cigarettes the MCC would witness a reduction in its illegal market after the implicated guard left, coupled with ensuing lockdowns from both a contraband search and the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet Ellison would soon reconnect the jail's contraband pipeline by developing a sexual relationship with MCC employee Sharon Griffith-McKnight, who became his new contraband supplier.
In addition to imprisonment, Ellison, a 37-year-old from Brooklyn, New York, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and charged $200 in special assessments, all of which underscores the U.S. Attorney's Office's commitment to addressing corruption within the penal system. According to U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, "The hope for rehabilitation is illusory in an environment where inmates and staff are trafficking in drugs and other contraband."
The investigation was lauded for its thoroughness, with efforts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, and the Special Agents of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York being particularly highlighted; the Office’s Public Corruption Unit, assisted by prosecutors Jessica Greenwood, Jonathan E. Rebold, and Daniel H. Wolf, managed the case.
