A male inmate serving a two-year sentence was arrested by Suffolk County Sheriff’s Deputies last week for using a pay phone to facilitate a prostitution operation while incarcerated at the House of Correction in South Bay.

Donald Delaney, 39, used pay phones within his unit to direct the prostitution activities of a woman in Chelsea. Delaney was arrested and charged with support from, or sharing, earnings of prostitution. His pre-trial hearing is scheduled for December 12 at Roxbury District Court.

Sheriff’s Department investigators became involved when Delaney began receiving large amounts of money deposited into his canteen account. Inmates are only allowed to have $500 in their account at any time. The canteen account allows inmates to purchase snacks, postage stamps, stationery or personal grooming goods while incarcerated. The Sheriff’s Inmate Accounts Department reported to investigators that Delaney had received nearly $2000 in money orders anonymously.

Following a three-week investigation in which Deputies identified and tracked the activities of Delaney’s accomplice, investigators determined that Delaney was directing prostitution activities via the pay phones from his housing unit and instructing the accomplice to send money orders in various denominations to his account at the House of Correction.

Deputies then arrested Delaney without incident while he was in the unit’s dining hall on Nov. 12. Investigators questioned the female accomplice and her case was turned over to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office for review.

“I’m proud of the heads-up teamwork on the part of our administrative staff which led to the investigation of this activity,” said Sheriff Andrea J. Cabral. “With our new methods and practice of our investigative unit, we were able to quickly uncover the crime and arrest the suspect.”

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