In 2003, Simmon got a job as a prison corrections officer and, she said, stopped being a courier for her boyfriend. But he badgered her until she gave in, she said.

On Nov. 19, 2005, the Bedford Hills corrections officer stuffed 55 grams of marijuana in her underwear and inside a body cavity, then boarded a bus from New York City to Upstate Correctional Facility in Franklin County.

While she was in line waiting to get into the prison, a state investigator approached and arrested her for bringing drugs into the prison. She resigned as a corrections officer and was convicted of a misdemeanor.

Months later, interviewed at her home in Queens, Simmon denied ever bringing drugs to work and said she thinks it's wrong that inmates use drugs in prison.

"I never gave drugs to anyone I watched, and even though I did what I did, I was not thinking in the capacity of an officer," she said. "I knew better."

Simmon declined to say whether she knew any other prison employees who sold or gave drugs to inmates, but did sy all prison personnel should be checked when coming to work.

"Besides checking the visitors coming in, they should be checking the corrections officers and everyone," she said.

- Lou Michel