5.18Bringing, Selling, Giving, Furnishing, or Otherwise Providing Access to a Prescription Drug or Controlled Substance in a Correctional Facility
“(1) Except as provided in [MCL 800.2821], a person shall not sell, give, or furnish, either directly or indirectly, any alcoholic liquor, prescription drug, poison, or controlled substance to a prisoner who is in or on a correctional facility or dispose of that liquor, drug, poison, or controlled substance in any manner that allows a prisoner or employee of the correctional facility who is in or on a correctional facility access to it.
(2) Except as provided in [MCL 800.282], a person who knows or has reason to know that another person is a prisoner shall not sell, give, or furnish, either directly or indirectly, any alcoholic liquor, prescription drug, poison, or controlled substance to that prisoner anywhere outside of a correctional facility.
(3) Except as provided in [MCL 800.282], a person shall not bring any alcoholic liquor, prescription drug, poison, or controlled substance into or onto a correctional facility.
(4) Except as provided in [MCL 800.282], a prisoner shall not possess any alcoholic liquor, prescription drug, poison, or controlled substance.” MCL 800.281.2
“(1) A person is not in violation of [MCL 800.281] if all of the following occur:
(a) A licensed physician certifies in writing that the alcoholic liquor, prescription drug, or controlled substance is necessary for the health of the prisoner or employee.
(b) The certificate contains the following information:
(i) The quantity of the alcoholic liquor, prescription drug, or controlled substance which is to be furnished to the prisoner or employee.
(ii) The name of the prisoner or employee.
(iii) The time when the alcoholic liquor, prescription drug, or controlled substance is to be furnished.
(iv) The reason why the alcoholic liquor, prescription drug, or controlled substance is needed.
(c) The certificate has been delivered to the chief administrator of the correctional facility to which the prisoner is assigned or at which the employee works.
(d) The chief administrator of the correctional facility or the designee of the chief administrator approves in advance the sale, giving, furnishing, bringing, or possession of the alcoholic liquor, prescription drug, or controlled substance.
(e) The sale, giving, furnishing, bringing, or possession of the alcoholic liquor, prescription drug, or controlled substance is in compliance with the certificate.
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(3) [MCL 800.281(3)] shall not apply to the bringing of alcoholic liquor, prescription drugs, or controlled substances into or onto a correctional facility for the ordinary hospital supply of the correctional facility.
(4) [MCL 800.281(3)] shall not apply to the bringing of any alcoholic liquor, prescription drug, poison, or controlled substance into or onto a privately operated community corrections center or resident home which houses prisoners for the use of the owner, operator, or nonprisoner resident of that center or home if the owner or operator lives in the center or home, or for the use of a nonprisoner guest of the owner, operator, or nonprisoner resident.” MCL 800.282.
Violation of MCL 800.281 is a felony punishable by:
•imprisonment for not more than five years; or
•a fine of not more than $1,000; or
•both. MCL 800.285(1).
“If the delivery of a controlled substance is a felony punishable by imprisonment for more than 5 years under [Article 7 of the PHC], a person who gives, sells, or furnishes a controlled substance in violation of [MCL 800.281] shall not be prosecuted under this section for that giving, selling, or furnishing. If the possession of a controlled substance is a felony punishable by imprisonment for more than 5 years under [Article 7 of the PHC], a person who possesses, or brings into a correctional facility, a controlled substance in violation of [MCL 800.281] shall not be prosecuted under this section for that possession.” MCL 800.285(2).
1.Conduct Punishable Under MCL 800.281(1)
A prisoner can be convicted under MCL 800.281(1) without ever leaving the prison if he or she is responsible for bringing the contraband into the prison. People v Lewis (On Remand), 97 Mich App 650, 652 (1980) (holding the defendant’s conviction under MCL 800.281(1) was proper because the defendant was directly responsible for bringing the contraband into the prison where the defendant, a prison inmate, employed agents to pick up whiskey and marijuana outside of the prison and smuggle it inside where others would unload it, repackage it and deliver it to the defendant.)
“[T]he term ‘prisoner’ as defined in MCL 800.281a(g) . . . include[s] all parolees who have not yet been released.” People v Armisted, 295 Mich App 32, 39, 41 (2011) (holding that a parolee who was an inmate at a community residential center had not yet “been released from confinement or sent into the community at large[]” and had therefore not been “released on parole” within the meaning of MCL 800.281a(g)).
“The chief administrator of a correctional facility may search, or have searched, any person coming to the correctional facility as a visitor, or in any other capacity, who is suspected of having any weapon or other implement which may be used to injure a prisoner or other person or in assisting a prisoner to escape from imprisonment, or any alcoholic liquor, prescription drug, poison, or controlled substance upon his or her person.” MCL 800.284.
4.MCL 800.281(4) Does Not Impose Strict-Liability
“MCL 800.281(4) does not ‘plainly impose’ strict liability”; rather, “to establish a violation of MCL 800.281(4), the prosecution must prove that a defendant acted with intent, knowledge, or recklessness as required by MCL 8.9(3).” People v Tadgerson, ___ Mich ___, ___ (2025), rev’g 346 Mich App 104 (2023); MCL 8.9(2). “The issue in [Tadgerson was] whether MCL 8.9 requires the prosecution to establish a scienter requirement or mens rea element for the offense of being a prisoner in possession of a controlled substance (PPCS) in violation of MCL 800.281(4).” Tadgerson, ___ Mich at ___. MCL 800.281(4) provides in relevant part that “a prisoner shall not possess any alcoholic liquor, prescription drug, poison, or controlled substance.” Tadgerson, ___ Mich at ___. MCL 8.9 “imposes a culpability requirement for statutes that are not otherwise excluded by MCL 8.9(7),3 statutes that are not plainly strict-liability offenses, and statutes in which the mens rea is not specified in the statutory language.” Tadgerson, ___ Mich at ___. In this case, a corrections officer “observed [a] prisoner pull something out of his pocket and drop it into the lower slot of defendant’s cell door.” Id. at ___. The officer “walked to defendant’s cell, noticed that defendant was holding a crumpled piece of paper, and demanded that defendant turn over the item that was thrown into his cell.” Id. at ___. “Defendant held the paper in his hand, did not look at its contents, and told [the officer] that he believed it was just a note with some words on it.” Id. at ___ (quotation marks omitted). The officer “opened the cell door, took the paper from defendant, and noticed that it contained two orange strips of film.” Id. at ___. “[L]ab testing confirmed that the item contained buprenorphine,” a schedule III controlled substance. Id. at ___. “Defendant was charged with PPCS.” Id. at ___. He “pleaded no contest to violating MCL 800.281(4).” Tadgerson, ___ Mich at ___. “Because defendant entered a no-contest plea based on the trial court’s erroneous conclusion that PPCS was a strict-liability offense, [the Michigan Supreme Court] remand[ed] this case to the trial court for [further] proceedings.” Id. at ___.
1 MCL 800.282 is discussed in Section 5.18(B)
2 This statute applies to the Department of Corrections facilities. For provisions that apply to jails, see Section 5.17.
3 ”[E]xpressly exempted [are] several of the most commonly applied criminal statutes, including the Michigan Penal Code, MCL 750.1 et seq.; the Michigan Vehicle Code, MCL 257.1 et seq.; and the Public Health Code, MCL 333.1101 et seq. See MCL 8.9(7).” Tadgerson, ___ Mich at ___ n 3.