Former NEOCC corrections officer gets probation in conveyance case

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A former corrections officer at the private prison on the East Side was sentenced Tuesday to probation with no jail time on charges she tried to sneak marijuana into the prison.

Ciara Golden, 31, received the sentence from Judge Anthony D’Apolito in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court following a June 6 plea of guilty to a charge of illegal conveyance of drugs into a detention facility, a third-degree felony.

Assistant Prosecutor Katherine Jones asked for a sentence of six months in the Mahoning County jail, saying that an example needs to be set because Golden abused a position of responsibility.

She said she agreed not to ask for more time after speaking to Golden’s attorney, Tom Zena.

Jones said Golden is accused of trying to bring the marijuana into the prison Jan. 5, 2023. She got the marijuana into the building but not into the part of the building where inmates are housed, Jones said.

Zena asked the judge to spare his client any jail time. He said an inmate saw that Golden was very upset one day over money problems and told her she could make some money if she helped him get some marijuana.

“He preyed on her,” Zena said.

Golden tried it and was arrested almost immediately, Zena said.

Zena also said his client knows she made a mistake, is remorseful, has a full-time job and is caring for her 7-year-old daughter.

Golden, in tears, also told the judge she realizes she made a mistake.

Judge D’Apolito said in cases like Golden’s, some sort of incarceration is almost always necessary to act as a deterrent. But in Golden’s case, he said he was concerned because if Golden was locked up, there were no good options for care for her daughter because Golden is her sole provider.

The judge sentenced her to the probation and decided not to add local jail time as part of her sentence, but he warned her if she ever gets in trouble again, she would go to prison.

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