ATLANTA — An federal prisoner will be serving even more time behind bars after he was found guilty of running an inmate "taxi service" and smuggling operation with his fiancée.
According to U.S. Attorney Byung Pak's office, Deldrick D. Jackson, 41, worked with Kelly Bass, on the outside, to escape from the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta (USP) more than a dozen times between July 2016 to April 2017. The facility is a medium-security federal prison.
During their escapades, officials said Bass would pick up Jackson and other escaped prisoners from outside USP and drive them to nearby hotels, restaurants and other locations. Hours later, they would return to the USP and the escaped inmates would slip back inside. Following Jackson inside the prison walls, officials said, was also contraband to be sold to other inmates.
The pair were finally busted on April 13, 2017 after Bass and Jackson drove from the USP to a fast-food restaurant, where police caught up with them and arrested them. After searching their vehicle, officers found two cellphones, 83 packs of cigarettes, and eight bottles of whiskey.
In all, officials said Jackson and Bass made 15 trips and raked in nearly $4,000 from escaped inmates.
Jackson, who was originally serving 10 years for 2013 charges of conspiring to distribute cocaine and laundering money, will spend an extra year and a half in a federal prison in connection to new charges of conspiracy to escape. Bass was sentenced to serve six months behind bars, with an additional eight months of house arrested.
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