UPDATED 11/18/20
At an adult correctional facility in Chicago, a long time employee was caught stealing from inmates. The culprit was taking the items from the inventory storage, some of which included money and jewelry. According to police, the 19 year veteran had been taking items for a long time and when they were finally on to her, they decided to videotape the storage area. The woman, Paula Brown, was caught red handed stealing cook county jail inmate property. When it comes to inmate property, all items, including cash, wallets, lighters, cigarettes, clothing, and any items in the defendant’s possession is taken from the defendant at the booking department after the suspect is arrested. If bail is granted, the items will be returned to the defendant. If bail is not granted, the items will remain locked up. If you’re looking for someone in jail, you can try an arrest locator online. Alternatively, search for all jails near me on an online search engine. The results will pull up local results where you can search for an inmate.
It’s one thing to steal Monopoly money from the community bank during family game night. It’s a whole other thing to steal money from inmates in a county jail.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the latter was the case for 59-year-old Pamela Brown, a former employee of the Chicago Police Department who worked in the evidence department of Cook County Jail.
Brown was sentenced to two years in prison for stealing cash and other property that was collected from inmates in a police evidence storage area. A Cook County Jury found her guilty of two felony counts of official misconduct.
The woman was a 19-year employee of the police department before her termination. Her crimes weren’t discovered until a 2012 internal investigation revealed a reduction in her inventory records, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
When the internal investigation began to point towards Brown as the main suspect, the CPD Bureau of Internal Affairs set up a surveillance camera to catch her in the act.
The surveillance video caught Brown stealing multiple items, including foreign currency, jewelry, and a camcorder.
Surveillance cameras have become commonplace in all buildings, from police stations to grocery stores, in an effort to thwart rogue employees who steal from their employer.
“Today’s high resolution surveillance cameras provide businesses a way to protect their people and assets in a way that simply was not available with older analog camera technology,” says Dave Black, Project Director-Special Systems, Kidwell.
According to Patch.com, investigators reviewed the surveillance footage from the security camera system and developed a plan to catch Brown red-handed. They planted $200 in cash in the property storage of a new inmate, which Brown was responsible for reviewing and turning in to her supervisor.
She failed to turn the $200 in, and was arrested as she was leaving work in possession of the cash as well as a number of other goods stolen from evidence storage.
Cook County Judge Clayton Crane sentenced Brown to the two-year prison term on Sept. 2 during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building in Chicago.
In the immortal words of Monopoly mega-mogul Rich Uncle Pennybags: Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200 dollars. Go directly to jail.