NEW ENGLAND - Seven more women have been charged with possession of methamphetamine inside the women’s prison here.
The latest charges, resulting from an investigation in February, come less than a year after correctional officers at the Dakota Women’s Correctional and Rehabilitation Center discovered five different woman on methamphetamine last August.
In the new cases, one defendant -- 20-year-old Luckee Enget -- is alleged to have arrived at the center Feb. 2 while already on methamphetamine, two days before the seven women tested positive for methamphetamine, according to Deputy Warden Vicki Urlacher’s affidavits in Hettinger County Court. Enget also tested positive for THC.
All the women except Enget have since pleaded guilty, according to the affidavits. Their initial appearances are scheduled for Thursday.
Warden Rachelle Juntunen said previously that 22-year-old Chelsea Nelson is believed to have smuggled in the drugs when she arrived at the prison and supplied them to the four other women last summer.
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Juntunen said it has been years since the prison saw these charges, but that might not mean it’s been years since prisoners were on drugs.
“Contraband, does it get into the facilities? Yes,” she said. “It’s just a matter of catching it.”
The latest set of charges is still under investigation, Juntunen said, but officials believe that, like last time, “it was smuggled in with a new arrival within a body cavity.”
She said the prison is looking at its procedures in light of the cases.
The other women charged in the latest sweep are Shantell LaFountaine, 27; Kayla Payne, 31; Tamara Clapper, 23; Phyllis Kraft, 21; Amanda Morin, 28; and Kayla Wright, 22.
The Class B felony charges carry a maximum of 10 years (more) in prison.
