CHICAGO — A woman who formerly worked for a Cook County jail contractor has been sentenced to probation for smuggling drug-soaked papers into the facility.
Shawnda McClendon was one of the first people arrested when the sheriff’s office began intensive efforts to stem the flow of drugs into the jail amid a surging death count in 2023. Since then, more than 50 people have been charged with similar crimes.
McClendon, 40, of Chicago, had worked for one of the jail’s commissary contractors since November 2020, the sheriff’s office said after charges were filed in May 2023.
Two months earlier, on March 2, sheriff’s office investigators who had been tipped off about plans to smuggle drugs into the jail confronted her as she prepared to deliver commissary items that inmates had purchased.
She initially denied having contraband but then admitted that she did and removed 19 infused papers wrapped in plastic that she had concealed on her waistline, according to the sheriff’s office.
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Officials estimated that the papers, once broken down, would have sold for $125,000 had they made it into the jail. McClendon was allegedly part of a secretly recorded phone call regarding the contraband smuggling effort.
The papers were sent to a lab for testing, which came back positive for synthetic cannabinoids, prosecutors said.
McClendon pleaded guilty last week to bringing a controlled substance into a penal institution. Prosecutors agreed to drop a much more serious Class X felony charge of bringing a controlled substance into a penal institution by an employee. Class X felonies carry a minimum sentence of six years in prison.
In addition to 12 months of probation, Judge Peggy Chiampas ordered McClendon to perform 100 hours of community service.
Paper problem
Like jail operators across the country, the Cook County sheriff’s office actively works to cut off the supply of drug-infused papers sold between inmates.
About a month after McClendon was caught, the sheriff’s office enacted new restrictions after two private defense attorneys brought contaminated papers into the facility for client meetings. Under the new rules, defense attorneys who wanted to take paperwork to client meetings had to schedule an appointment so the documents could be inspected. Correctional workers and county employees were also barred from taking paper into the jail unless it was work- or union-related.
The jail had 17 inmate deaths during 2023, according to medical examiner records, the most in years. Autopsies determined that eight of the deaths were drug-related.
Last year, seven inmates died at the jail, but only one was drug-related.
