Sneaking Into PRISON – He Carried WHAT?

Lawyers are a prison inmate’s most reliable contact with the outside world, which puts them in an ideal position to obtain items that inmates find difficult to obtain. Such items can include private letters from loved ones and treats from the outside world. But sometimes, lawyers discretely bring items that the inmate can’t legitimately or legally obtain, or finds difficult to source through normal smuggling channels.

Early in July, a lawyer in Sydney was caught sneaking contraband into the prison for her client during an official visit. Kristy Lee Howell was apprehended on July 2nd at the Parklea Correctional Center located in the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia during a visit to an inmate whom she was representing.

The forty-three year-old lawyer made her first appearance before a magistrate at Blacktown Local Court on Monday the 22nd of July. At the hearing she was represented by Barrister Lang Goodsell, who told the court that Howell would plead guilty to smuggling a little over a hundred grams of tobacco into prison. Additionally, Howell admitted that she’d carried thirty-two doses of buprenorphine—a painkiller only available by prescription—into the detention facility.

Howell, who hails from Cranebrook, appeared before Magistrate Brian Van Zyulen. After the initial plea was entered, the magistrate continued the matter despite several other charges remaining unanswered. This was done a the request of Howell’s legal team, who only recently joined the case and asked for more time to make proper preparations. The next hearing in the matter is scheduled for August 16th, at which point the magistrate has instructed that all remaining charges must be answered.

Howell did not choose to comment to reporters arrayed outside the courtroom after the hearing. She is currently free on bail on the condition that she refrain entirely from contact with the Parklea inmate to whom she had smuggled the prohibited items, and that she further steer clear of all correctional facilities until her trial is completed.