LEXINGTON, Ky. — A former Federal Medical Center Lexington employee pleaded guilty Monday to a federal bribery charge, admitting she accepted $18,602 to smuggle tobacco and synthetic marijuana into the prison in 2023 and 2024, according to a plea agreement filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
A. Jade Howard, who also used the names Ashley Howard and Ashley Amber Howard, acknowledged she was a Bureau of Prisons employee at FMC Lexington and that she took payments sent through mobile banking apps to bring contraband to an inmate, the filing says. Howard worked first as a correctional officer and later as a materials handler, roles that carried custodial authority over inmates.
Howard admitted she began by smuggling tobacco after being approached in spring 2023. In August and again in September 2024, she smuggled two batches of 50 sheets of paper that she believed were laced with synthetic marijuana. Staff uncovered and confiscated remaining sheets on Sept. 25, 2024; lab tests later found the sheets were coated with 5F-ADB, a Schedule I synthetic cannabinoid, according to the plea agreement…