{"id":56460,"date":"2026-05-26T01:10:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/?p=56460"},"modified":"2026-05-25T21:14:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T01:14:49","slug":"correctional-officer-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/index.php\/2026\/05\/26\/correctional-officer-arrested\/","title":{"rendered":"Correctional Officer Arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"56461\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/index.php\/2026\/05\/26\/correctional-officer-arrested\/joe-a-cress\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Joe-A-Cress.webp?fit=200%2C302&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"200,302\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"Joe A Cress\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Joe-A-Cress.webp?fit=200%2C302&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Joe-A-Cress.webp?resize=125%2C125\" alt=\"\" width=\"125\" height=\"125\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-56461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Joe-A-Cress.webp?resize=125%2C125&amp;ssl=1 125w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Joe-A-Cress.webp?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 125px) 100vw, 125px\" \/><br \/>\nAt the request of the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex, Kentucky State Police arrested a correctional officer who prison officials said was bringing illegal narcotics into the facility.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Kentucky State Police charged 60 year-old Joe A. Cress, of Hazard, with first-degree promoting contraband, second-degree trafficking in a controlled substance and first-degree official misconduct.<\/p>\n<p>Cress was transported following his arrest Thursday to the Rowan County Detention Center in Morehead, where he is being held on $25,000 bond. According to online court records, he is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Morgan District Court.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, the Department of Corrections said Cress had his employment terminated on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Department remains committed to protecting both inmates and correctional employees by continually evaluating and strengthening contraband prevention efforts, and has seen a significant reduction in dangerous contraband this year, including a more than 35 percent decrease at the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>There has been no word as to whether any inmates will be facing charges in addition to Cress.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation remains ongoing by the Kentucky State Police.<br \/>\nSource: NE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the request of the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex, Kentucky State Police arrested a correctional officer who prison officials said was bringing illegal narcotics into the facility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":56461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-archive","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6aKAp-eGE","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-11-16 10:21:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Joe-A-Cress.webp?fit=200%2C302&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56462,"href":"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56460\/revisions\/56462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wvih.com\/wp1\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}