Photo: Cody Robert Whitten
An inmate at the North Central Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction (ADC) at Calico Rock has been charged in connection with smuggling contraband from a work detail in Mountain Home. Court records indicate 32-year-old Cody Robert Whitten of Ozark has been charged with a felony count of furnishing, possessing or using prohibited articles.
Online ADC information indicates Whitten has been incarcerated at the Calico Rock facility since 2017 after being sentenced in Franklin County to 30 years in prison for manslaughter, being a felon with a firearm and delivery of meth or cocaine, as well as being a habitual offender.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed Monday, corrections officers received information advising contraband had been smuggled into the prison by inmates on a parks and recreation crew.
A search of the areas accessible to the inmates on the work crew on Oct. 31 led to a cellphone, charger, charging station, a flashlight, four lighters, five bundles and a can of smokeless tobacco and a cigar. The items were located inside two water coolers in a small utility shed commonly occupied by the work crew.
Correction officers confiscated the contraband and restrained the only two inmates assigned to the parks and recreation crew. During a search, Whitten reportedly removed tobacco from his mouth and threw it in a trash can. The second inmate was searched without any illegal items being found. The two were transported back to the Calico Rock facility and placed in the restrictive housing area.
Whitten allegedly admitted to ownership of all the illegal items, using cellphones to set up tobacco drops and sneaking contraband inside the prison for other inmates and selling to them to obtain commissary.
He reportedly told officers he had the cellphone brought to him at the worksite and would make contact with the individual through the device to bring him contraband.
At the request of the ADC, the Arkansas State Police Criminal Division investigated the incident in mid-November. During interviews, the inmate not charged in the incident, reportedly told investigators he maintains all the Mountain Home parks, along with picking up trash. He said he had worked with Whitten for about two months. He said he was unaware Whitten was concealing contraband in the work shed, did not receive any and did not know the other inmate was bringing illegal items into the prison.
He said despite telling officers at the time of the shakedown at the shed the contraband was not his, he was still placed in the restrictive housing area. He reportedly said Whitten apologized to him on the way back to the prison for getting him in trouble for something he was not involved in.
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