NEW BERN – United States Attorney Thomas W. Walker announced Oct. 3 that Raye Lynn Holley, 50, a former correctional officer at the Rivers Correctional Institution in Winton, and Kenneth Dodd, a former inmate at the same facility, were sentenced by United States District Judge Louise W. Flanagan to 20 months and 37 months imprisonment, respectively.

Investigation revealed that Holley, while employed as an officer at Rivers Correctional Institution, accepted payments from inmates within the facility in return for smuggling in contraband items such as cell phones and cigarettes. It further showed that Dodd and other inmates paid bribes to correctional officers to gain their cooperation in the scheme.

Two others have been previously convicted and sentenced for their conduct in the scheme: former Rivers Correctional Officer Rhonda Boyd of Gates County was sentenced in July 2013 to 20 months imprisonment; and former Rivers inmate Roland Bazemore was sentenced in April this year to 30 months.

Boyd and Holley, of Murfreesboro, were indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 3, 2012 in the Eastern District of North Carolina. The indictment alleged the offenses took place beginning in early 2011 up to the time of their arrest.

In May, 2013, Rashonda Cross, another former correctional officer at the Winton facility, entered a plea of guilty for conspiring to accept bribes from inmates at Rivers, as well. Cross is set to be sentenced in December.

Rivers Correctional is a private prison which operates under federal contracts.

Investigation of this case was conducted by the Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance provided by the United States Postal Inspection Service.