Illegal Inside! Carpenter Charged With Class X Felonies for Bringing Drugs Into Western Illinois Correctional Centre

MOUNT STERLING, Ill. – The man from Mount Sterling was employed to be a carpenter at the Western Illinois Correctional Centre. He has been charged with three felonies for bringing drugs and a mobile into the Mount Sterling jail without permission.

The 49-year-old Joshua D. Havens was arrested by Illinois State Police on February 21 as part of an investigation into claims that he was hiding drugs inside the jail. Havens wasn’t officially charged, though, until April 26. The charges come from things that happened on November 30, 2023.

Havens is charged with two counts of taking illegal items into prison without permission as an employee. Both counts are Class X crimes, which means the person could spend anywhere from six to thirty years in prison in Illinois. One count says Havens brought in illegal drugs, and the other says he brought in a mobile, Brown County State’s Attorney Michael Hill told the Jacksonville Journal-Courier.

Havens is also being charged with making and delivering a substance that looks like drugs, which is a Class 3 crime punishable by two to five years in prison in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Hills told the Journal-Courier that Havens is accused of trying to get 100 pills into jail that looked like drugs but were not.

The Illinois State Police and the Illinois Department of Corrections are still looking into the case.