Alice English 16 years as a prison guard conviction for smuggling drugs and other contraband into Bordeaux jail

Alice English provided "a complete confession," the judge concluded: "It was clear and deliberate, fluid and unrehearsed. It was replete with factual details that were provided spontaneously and without suggestion or prodding.She appears destined to get a lengthy taste of life on the wrong side of the bars.She was hustled into custody and off to Maison Tanguay, the women's prison in Ahuntsic, yesterday, where the Verdun resident will await sentencing following her conviction for smuggling drugs and other contraband into Bordeaux jail in 2005.Her payoff, thus far, for carrying out the smuggling includes $1,000 cash and dismissal from the Quebec prison service.
At a morning hearing yesterday, Quebec Court Judge Patrick Healy found English guilty on five counts - four of trafficking in drugs plus one of conspiracy to traffic.She faces potential jail time of 10 to 14 years.English, 55, is a mother of four and a grandmother of 12. Her defence lawyer, Tom Pentefountas, said she has health problems. English has spent relatively little time in a cell; she was freed on $1,000 bail 10 days after she was arrested.The judge will hear pre-sentencing arguments June 5."These are very serious charges, and we now have convictions," the judge said before he ordered English taken back into custody.Evidence showed that while on sick leave, about 5 a.m. on July 7, 2005, English carried coffee cans into Bordeaux containing 110 rocks of crack cocaine, weighing 38.5 grams, 2.8 kilograms of marijuana, 1.1 kilos of hashish, one gram of cocaine, pornographic magazines and five cellphones with batteries.She placed the contraband in a garbage bin, where it was discovered about 6:30 a.m.Sgt. Patrice Lefebvre of the Sûreté du Québec pegged the value of the drugs, once in prisoners' hands, at $257,500. Under questioning by prosecutor Mario Dufresne, Lefebvre told Healy that drugs are worth "four or five times more" inside the prison than on the street.Healy dismissed as "self-contradictory" court testimony English gave in February. He accepted without argument an earlier confession by English videotaped by investigators during which, he noted, the accused appeared relaxed and even joked.