After discovering prison inmates were planning to use the courthouse as a pick up location for smuggling drugs, Marion Common Pleas Judge W.T. Edwards aims to ramp up security.
According to an email sent to the courthouse from Captain Peg Romine of Marion County Correctional, multiple inmates had devised a plan to pick up drugs at the courthouse when they were set to appear in court. In the email, Romine said three inmates are having outside sources place drugs on the ground to appear as trash where inmates are dropped off at the courthouse by the transport van.
Since discovering this, Edwards said these inmates are under investigation by law enforcement. However, this isn t to the fault of security officers. With one officer sometimes being tasked with keeping track of five inmates while dropping them off, Edwards said it is possible for officers to briefly lose sight of them.