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Maybe it&#8217;s time the Luzerne County prison go on a 12-step recovery program, beginning by admitting it has a problem.Specifically, the place repeatedly employs guards and other workers who later are revealed to be using illegal substances or &#8220;moonlighting&#8221; as drug dealers. It happens often enough to discredit the correctional facility&#8217;s operations and cast an unfair light on the lockup&#8217;s law-abiding staffers.One sensible control &#8211; random drug testing of workers &#8211; went by the wayside a few years ago, reportedly due to concerns about the cost.Prison counselor Louis Elmy, 51, last week became the latest employee suspected of crossing the &#8220;Breaking Bad&#8221; barrier. Federal prosecutors charged the former Wilkes-Barre Area School Board president with distributing crack cocaine. Elmy, whom they described as a habitual drug user, also faces a firearms charge.It wasn&#8217;t immediately clear from court paperwork if the drug charges were associated with his prison job; however, Elmy has been placed on administrative leave without pay.If guilty, Elmy would represent another black eye for an institution whose image too frequently takes hits from ugly revelations like these:October 2014: &#8220;WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Two Luzerne County corrections officers &#8230; are among 13 people charged with operating a narcotics ring that spanned five Northeastern Pennsylvania counties,&#8221; the Times Leader reported. The case against one of those officers was later withdrawn; the second officer was sentenced to two to four months in county prison for selling oxycodone.March 2012: &#8220;SCRANTON &#8212; Federal authorities Friday said a former correctional officer from Swoyersville and his wife face drug charges in connection with smuggling marijuana into (a federal penitentiary).&#8221; The officer, who had been a county correctional officer before taking a job at the U.S. prison, eventually pleaded guilty and was given an 18-month sentence.March 2011 &#8220;WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Four current and former employees at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility were arrested Thursday afternoon and charged with smuggling drugs into the facility.&#8221;October 2003: &#8220;WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Guards at the Luzerne County prison snitched on fellow workers, telling prison officials they suspected a few colleagues were smuggling drugs into the jail, officials said.&#8220;It led to a lengthy investigation that included the use of confidential informants &#8211; inside and outside the prison &#8211; and surveillance that showed three guards were allegedly paid hundreds of dollars to take marijuana to inmates on numerous occasions,&#8221; the Times Leader reported.Readers can split hairs about whether the distribution of painkillers and steroids by some ex-county workers should be lumped in the same editorial as offenses involving cocaine and marijuana. But the central issue for Luzerne County is this: Shouldn&#8217;t the people employed by the prison behave markedly differently than the people held behind bars?

Our Opinion: Drug crimes by Luzerne County prison workers badly damage public confidence