Jail ends face-to-face visits, replaces them with video chat Ex-postmaster gets probation for stealing money orders

DARTMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — AMassachusetts jail is replacing face-to-face meetings between inmates and visitors with a video conferencing system.

Officials at the Bristol County jail in Dartmouth say they're making the change to prevent contraband being smuggled into the facility.

People visiting loved ones in jail are already separated by glass, but a jail spokesman says contraband is still slipping through.

Officials say a visitor recently managed to slip a strip of a narcotic behind some chipped paint in the visitation center, and an inmate on cleanup duty later retrieved it.

Visitors will no longer set foot inside the actual jail, but be directed to a video-conferencing trailer near the facility's entrance.

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A former Massachusetts postmaster has been sentenced to two years of probation for stealing more than $30,000 in government funds.

Carlitos Molina, 36, was ordered by a federal judge Thursday to spend the first six months of probation in home confinement and pay back the stolen money.

Molina pleaded guilty in April to misappropriation of postal funds for converting 65 post office money orders into cash from April to October 2015 while he was postmaster in Blackstone and then Holden.

The money orders came from post office funds and not customers. The post office allows employees to use money orders to pay for office expenses. Prosecutors say Molina lied and said he used some money to pay for repairs to the post office.