SARANAC LAKE-A veteran corrections officer at Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Malone will spend the next 1 1/3 to four years in state prison after pleading guilty to selling heroin to inmates inside the facility after being caught on videotape.

Michael Bradish, 43, of Plattsburgh, a 16-year officer, was arrested last September while in uniform following a four month long investigation by the state Department of Corrections Inspector General's office. He pleaded guilty in February to first degree attempted promotion of prison contraband and fifth degree possession of a controlled substance.

He was also sentenced to a year in the Franklin County Jail to be served concurrently with the prison term for official misconduct.

The investigation into contraband in the prison led to the firings or resignations of several other corrections officers.

It had been alleged that Bradish had small packages of heroin mailed to him through the U.S. Post Service. Prosecutors say that took the packets of the drug to work with him and trafficked the drug inside the correctional facility to inmates for cash and various gifts.

He was caught on tape receiving 37 bundles of heroin from a St. Lawrence County man and was intercepted the next day on his way to work at the prison with the drugs on his person.

Bradish cried as he was sentenced in Franklin County Court by Judge Robert Main Jr. He apologized for his actions and said he was sorry for humiliating his family. He also apologized to the Department of Correctional Services.

In pronouncing sentence, the judge said that Bradish had ignored his responsibilities to the courts, the correction supervisors, his co-workers and inmates when he brought drugs into the jail. Main said that Bradish had endangered not only the inmates receiving the drugs but the officers who were responsible for supervising them.

"He has brought shame onto the department and, more tragically, embarrassment to the thousands of correction officers who every day and night put themselves on the line to appropriately exercise their responsibility to the care and custody of inmates". Main said. 4-11-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette