Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — Kevin Coles, an inmate at the private Northeast Ohio Correctional Center prison in Youngstown last May, pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to paying bribes to a public official and two counts of possessing contraband in prison for incidents that happened inside the prison.

According to Coles’ indictment and a May 17, 2023, news release from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, from about February 2017 through about Jan. 17, 2019, Coles arranged for a corrections officer to be paid money in exchange for smuggling contraband, namely suboxone and tobacco, into the prison.

The investigation was carried out by the OIG’s Chicago Field Office and the FBI. Coles will be sentenced at 9 a.m. Jan. 17 by U.S. District Court Judge Pamela A. Barker in Cleveland.

Coles is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. His age and hometown were not available.

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