LSCI Allenwood Inmate Sentenced For Possessing Cellphone In Prison

WILLIAMSPORT - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that on January 20, 2022, Geraldo Rodriguez-Diaz, a 27-year-old inmate at the Low Security Correctional Institution, Allenwood (LSCI Allenwood), pleaded guilty to possessing a cellphone in prison. 

According to United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, on May 10, 2021, an LSCI Allenwood correctional officer’s handheld metal detector alerted on Rodriguez-Diaz.  Staff then searched Rodriguez-Diaz and found a Samsung cellphone hidden in a pocket stitched on the inside of Rodriguez-Diaz’s prison uniform.  Federal law prohibits inmates from possessing cellphones due to the institutional security risks posed by their use.

Following the acceptance of the guilty plea, U.S. Magistrate Judge William I. Arbuckle sentenced Rodriguez-Diaz to two months’ imprisonment. Judge Arbuckle ordered the imprisonment term to run consecutively to his current 10-year prison sentence previously imposed in the Middle District of Pennsylvania for Rodriguez-Diaz’s involvement in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Drew O. Inman and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alisan V. Martin prosecuted the case.

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