Excorrections officer charged with mailing druglaced books to prisons Kerry BreenSeptember 3, 2025 at 9:38 PM 0 Canva A former correctional officer, a former inmate at a South Carolina prison and the exinmate's brother have been arrested and charged with running a widespread operation to smuggle dru...
- - Ex-corrections officer charged with mailing drug-laced books to prisons
Kerry BreenSeptember 3, 2025 at 9:38 PM
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A former correctional officer, a former inmate at a South Carolina prison and the ex-inmate's brother have been arrested and charged with running a widespread operation to smuggle drugs into over a dozen state prisons.
The trio allegedly used packages "presented as containing books" to smuggle hundreds of strips containing synthetic cannabinoids and Suboxone into 14 prisons in the state, according to arrest warrants. The packages were dropped off at the Woodruff Post Office and mailed to the various prisons between March and June 2025, officials said.
The former correctional officer was identified by the South Carolina Department of Corrections as Shataysha Quneeka Lewis, 36. Lewis left her job at South Carolina's Evans Correctional Institution in 2019, the department said. She was charged with possession of suboxone with intent to distribute, possession of synthetic marijuana with intent to distribute, providing contraband to prisoners and criminal conspiracy.
The former inmate was identified as Devin Jamaal Kershaw, 41. Kershaaw is a former inmate who spent about 20 years in prison for charges including kidnapping before his release in 2022, the South Carolina Department of Corrections said. He has been charged with possession of suboxone, possession of a firearm by a felon, furnishing contraband to a prisoner and criminal conspiracy.
Kershaw's brother, Coure Romaine Terry, 36, was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, the department said.
Court documents allege that Lewis conspired with Kershaw and Terry to smuggle the drugs and orchestrated the delivery of the packages. Video surveillance footage showed her sending the suspicious packages, according to court documents. At least 20 inmates received the packages, the corrections department said.
The court documents did not detail the investigation into the operation, but said that multiple inmates gave statements about their involvement in the smuggling effort. Officials also obtained messages and recorded calls from the prison phone system and contraband cell phones recovered from inmates, according to the court documents. The U.S. Postal Investigation Unit, the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office and the Woodruff Police Department contributed to the investigation, the South Carolina Department of Corrections said.
"We fight daily schemes from criminals trying to bring contraband into our prisons, and I will not tolerate it," South Carolina Department of Corrections Director Joel Anderson said in the news release. "These drugs are poisoning our inmates and are a danger to our staff. I am thankful we are holding these people accountable for the harmful situations they create."
Similar cases have made headlines in recent years. In March 2025, a New York woman pleaded guilty to charges of manufacturing synthetic cannabinoids and sending drug-soaked documents to inmates in multiple correctional facilities. A Chicago correctional officer was accused of trying to bring such materials into the Cook County Jail in August 2024. In 2022, a South African woman was sentenced to one year in prison for orchestrating a scheme to smuggle dozens of packages containing drug-soaked papers into Ohio prisons.
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