Inmates disciplined in heroin plot

POCATELLO, Idaho – A woman serving a 20-year prison sentence for the death of a 2-year-old autistic boy from eastern Idaho has been disciplined inside the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center after staffers uncovered what they say was a plot to bring heroin into the prison.

Michelle Bott-Graham and another woman were given 30 days in detention at the prison. A prison staffer on Sunday declined to explain to the Associated Press how detention differs from the way inmates are normally held.

Warden Brian Underwood told the Idaho State Journal that the plot involved a plan to have a man toss a bag of black tar heroin over a fence.

According to prison reports, a staff member saw a man who appeared to be using binoculars on the back side of the prison. Another inmate told guards that the man was there to contact someone in the recreational yard.

Inmates were removed from the yard and the man walked out of sight, the report said.

Telephone conversations at the prison are recorded, Underwood said. Recordings of conversations between Bott-Graham and an unidentified male on March 21 and March 24 revealed the alleged plot to have the heroin tossed over the fence to Bott-Graham and another inmate, Underwood said.

According to prison officials, Bott-Graham admitted during an April 2 interview to having a conversation about getting heroin into the prison and choosing the best area to throw it over the fence.

Bott-Graham pleaded guilty in October to one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of felony injury to a child in the death of Pocatello toddler Cameron Hamilton. She received the 20-year sentence in February in 6th District Court.

Bott-Graham was originally charged with first-degree murder in the death of Hamilton, who died at a Utah hospital in December 2005 after suffering severe brain trauma.