CORRECTIONAL OFFICER SENT TO PRISON

State Attorney Bill Eddins says a former correctional officer at the Santa Rosa Correctional Institute has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for communicating with an inmate by cellphone and smuggling contraband into the facility for that same inmate. 22-year-old Mia Martinez-Welch, pleaded guilty to the charges which were filed after a cellphone was seized from an inmate’s cell. Data extracted from the phone revealed the inmate was in communication with several female correctional officers including Martinez-Welch, who smuggled tobacco and drugs into the facility. Martinez-Welch was terminated after her arrest.