Inmate gets extra time after found with cocaine
A man who had several controlled substances while an inmate of Texarkana Federal Correctional Institution last year was sentenced Monday to an additional 27 months behind bars.
Marcus Maxwell appeared for sentencing Monday afternoon with Texarkana lawyer Butch Dunbar before U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder III in Texarkana’s downtown federal building.
According to a factual basis on file in Maxwell’s case in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas, on March 14, 2018, Maxwell was in possession of cocaine, synthetic marijuana and the narcotic buprenorphine, a drug which comes in a form that can be dissolved beneath the tongue. Maxwell’s factual basis states that he possessed less than a gram of cocaine, eight doses of buprenorphine, and 40 doses of K-2, a form of
synthetic marijuana.
At Monday’s hearing, Maxwell asked Schroeder to consider that he’s been held in solitary confinement—with no access to phones or visitors and only one hour daily of recreation—for 17 months since he was caught with the drugs. Maxwell apologized for “my addiction” and asked the court for leniency.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Hornok pointed out that Maxwell intended to distribute the drugs to other inmates in the prison.
“That goes beyond using,” Hornok said. “It undermines the safety and integrity of our prisons.”
Hornok also brought Maxwell’s lengthy criminal history to the court’s attention.
Dunbar countered that many of Maxwell’s crimes are drug-related.
Schroeder described Maxwell’s behavior as extremely dangerous and emphasized the importance of a sentence that serves as a deterrence to future conduct. Maxwell must serve his 27-month term for contraband in prison consecutively to any sentence he is already serving.
Schroeder said he will recommend Maxwell for a drug treatment program at the Bureau of Prisons. Following his release from prison, Maxwell will be supervised by federal officials for three years. If he violates the terms of his supervised release, Maxwell could be ordered to serve additional time.