Six charged in South Woods prison contraband smuggling case

Bridgeton’s South Woods State Prison is once again under scrutiny after state officials said a contraband and money laundering scheme reached inside the facility’s secured perimeter. Six people were charged in the case, including Senior Correctional Police Officer Kenneth Stinson, 39, of Penns Grove, whose suspension took effect March 25, 2025.

The New Jersey Department of Corrections said the investigation began in September 2024 after investigators assigned to South Woods State Prison’s Special Investigations Division received information that a senior correctional police officer was bringing contraband into the prison in exchange for money. Cumberland County prosecutors authorized the criminal charges on June 1, 2026. Officials said the alleged scheme involved current and former incarcerated people as well as civilians, reflecting a network that reached beyond the prison walls.

Stinson was charged with money laundering and introduction of contraband. State officials said the probe used intelligence gathering and coordination with law enforcement partners to identify and disrupt the operation. The department has said contraband poses a direct threat to the safety of staff and incarcerated people, a warning that carries particular weight at South Woods because the prison houses more than 3,000 people and is the largest state prison in New Jersey.

The case also raises familiar questions for Cumberland County about how prohibited items move through a locked facility and what oversight failed to stop them sooner. South Woods opened in 1997 in Bridgeton and has long been a major correctional presence in the county. When a staff member is accused of carrying contraband inside, the breach goes beyond a single criminal allegation and cuts to the core of prison security, staffing integrity and public trust in the state system.

The allegations also echo an earlier scandal at the same prison. In 2019, former South Woods officer David Cade pleaded guilty to smuggling drugs into the prison for money and was sentenced to three years in state prison. That history makes the latest case harder to dismiss as an isolated lapse and puts renewed pressure on prison administrators and state officials to show how they are tightening security inside one of New Jersey’s most consequential correctional facilities.