MONTGOMERY,Jonathan Dale Benton Ala. (AP) — A former Alabama correctional officer was sentenced to over six years in federal prison for working with an inmate to smuggle methamphetamine into the state facility where he worked, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Investigators with a canine unit found three bags of meth inside Henry Guice Jr.’s car in June 2023 while it was parked at Stanton Correctional Facility in Elmore County where Guice worked, according to a statement released by federal prosecutor Doug Howard.

Widespread drug availability and rampant overdoses are well documented in Alabama prisons.

The former Alabama Department of Corrections officer Guice, 46, confessed to possession with the intent to distribute in a plea hearing in May. A man incarcerated at the facility, 48-year-old Brad Elliot Gordon, was indicted in June on charges that he conspired with Guice to sell the drugs. Gordon has a trial scheduled for February.

Lawyers for Guice declined to comment.