A former federal correction officer on Tuesday was sentenced to 30 months in prison for accepting bribes in exchange for providing contraband to individuals detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn.
Quandelle Joseph pleaded guilty in January 2024 to the charge of accepting bribes as a public official, according to a news release.
“Quandelle Joseph put his own interests above the safety of incarcerated individuals and other correction officers at the Metropolitan Detention Center by accepting bribes to smuggle drugs, cell phones and other contraband into the jail he was sworn to protect,” said Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “This office has zero tolerance for corruption in prison facilities and those who abuse the trust placed in them to carry out their duties will find themselves on the wrong side of the bars like this defendant.”
According to court documents and facts presented at the sentencing proceeding, Joseph became a correction officer at the MDC in May 2020. During his employment, Joseph accepted tens of thousands of dollars from inmates in exchange for smuggling narcotics, cigarettes, and cell phones into the MDC.
In one instance, Joseph accepted bribes to smuggle contraband into the MDC for an inmate, who then sold the contraband widely throughout his unit. Joseph also warned the inmate about upcoming contraband searches at the MDC. For example, on January 26, 2021, Joseph texted an inmate from whom he was taking bribes: “Tighten up search comin clean phones out call logs n text n try to stash it.” The next day, Joseph texted the inmate: “keep your phones cleannnnnnnnnn erase texts and call logs every night.”
