A federal correction officer at Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center accepted thousands of dollars in bribes to smuggle contraband, including cellphones, into the jail, according to a federal indictment unveiled Oct. 14.

Melissa Brooks, who started working at the jail in July 2024, is charged with bribery of a public official and conspiracy to bribe a public official in an alleged scheme that ran from July 2024 through December 2025, according to the indictment filed in Brooklyn federal court.

“As alleged, the defendant betrayed her duty as a correctional officer, endangering the safety of MDC staff and inmates, all to satisfy her own greed,” said United States Attorney Joseph Nocella announcing the indictment.

The indictment details several payments, including $5,000 transferred to Brooks on Oct. 18, 2024, and another $2,000 payment on March 6, 2025. In both instances, the money was routed through an associate of an inmate whose sister had sent the money.

The indictment cites texts between Brooks and people connected to the inmates as evidence of the alleged arrangement.

In April 2025, the mother of one inmate messaged Brooks that her son needed a cellphone and was prepared to pay for it, prosecutors allege. In a separate text chain on Dec. 15, 2025, the inmate told Brooks he had expected her to bring him his “stuff.” Brooks allegedly responded that people at the facility were “trying to throw my ass in jail.”

Brooks also allegedly received five payments totaling $1,000 from a friend of another inmate between March and June 2025. Two of those transactions included notes indicating that the money was intended for Brooks on the inmate’s behalf.

Latest in string of smuggling cases

Brooks’ case at the MDC, which is a federal detention center operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, is the most recent in a series of smuggling charges brought against MDC correction officers. In March 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced charges against 25 inmates, associates and former correction officers in 12 cases involving alleged smuggling and violence.

In one particular case in July 2024, former MDC officer Quandelle Joseph was sentenced to 30 months in prison for accepting more than $20,000 in bribes to smuggle narcotics and cellphones to inmates.

Yet the allegations against Brooks also echo a wider problem documented in jails operated by New York City, where correction officers have also been accused of accepting bribes to smuggle contraband. 

A November 2024 report by the city Department of Investigation found that about 38 city employees, contractors and volunteers had been arrested since 2018 for crimes related to contraband smuggling. 

The report also identified weaknesses in staff screening procedures and said cellphone recoveries in city jails rose from approximately 50 in 2021 to 200 in 2022 before falling to 92 in 2023.

“Since the 2018 Report, DOI has noted that staff continue to bypass front gate screening in many of the same ways noted in the previous reports,” former DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber wrote

Both New York’s federal and city jails have seen cases involving correction staff accused of exploiting their positions to bring prohibited items inside, which officials say exacerbates gangs and violence. 

“The contraband trade fuels gang and criminal activity within correctional facilities, and the presence of illicit drugs and alcohol can create disorder and exacerbate substance abuse issues for [people in custody],” Strauber wrote. 

Marc Bullaro, who spent more than 28 years with the city Department of Correction, including as executive officer of the training academy, said recurring ethics training could help address the risk of staff misconduct. Officers receive some instruction on ethics and inmate manipulation during their initial academy training, but Bullaro said that instruction should continue throughout their careers.

“I think it should be a yearly mandated training in ethics,” said Bullaro. He also called for annual training on preventing inmate manipulation, which he said “happens every single day.”

"Once you can stop the contraband, you can stop a lot of the other problems, including gangs, drugs and violence," Bullaro said.