Ross County and Loveland, Ohio — An attempt to smuggle suboxone into the Ross Correctional Institution was foiled because the phone call to plan it was monitored…as usual for all prison phone calls.
The Ross County Grand Jury met on Friday, August 21st, 2026. They returned all 18 of the cases they were presented, with only two open for release to the public. From one of the cases,* according to the Ross County Prosecutor’s Office:
An investigator at the Ross Correctional Institution contacted the Ohio State Highway Patrol on July 15th regarding a phone call between 32-year-old Jessica C. James of Loveland, Ohio (near Cincinnati) and an undisclosed codefendant, where they were planning for James to convey drugs into the prison on her person.
They discussed the amount of drugs to be conveyed, as well as what they were going to do afterward since this would be the last time.
On July 23rd, James arrived at RCI and was escorted to the trooper to be interviewed, and was told that she was suspected of conveying drugs.
She became upset and started to cry, and after being mirandized, admitting to having contraband. She removed two balloons of drugs from her bra, stating that they contained suboxone that she had packed.
The Ross County Prosecutor’s Office sees many cases like this where drugs are attempted to be smuggled into the local prisons.
All prison phone calls are monitored and recoded.
For indictments on third degree felony illegal conveyance of drugs of abuse onto the grounds of a detention facility, James could get up to three years and $10,000 in fines.
James bonded out of the Ross County Jail, and will receive a summons for her court date.
*The investigators in the Prosecutor’s Office provide law enforcement reports on alleged offenses to the Grand Jury, which then deliberates on each case in secret. After each Grand Jury has adjourned, the investigators then offer a discussion of the law enforcement reports to news media in the cases that are open to release to the public.
