Thirty-year-old Kimberly Vickers wiped away tears as she was called to face the charges against her.
Vickers is accused of smuggling cellphones, heroin and needles into California State Prison, Sacramento between May and August.
She appeared before Judge Laurel White in Sacramento Superior Court Monday morning.
According to court records, Vickers worked as a recreation therapist at the prison, and at least one of the inmates she is accused of helping was one of her clients.
An internal affairs investigator said in court documents that he found at least two phones connected to Vickers when he began an investigation into cellphone smuggling in July. He said she brought the phones to a convicted killer named James Rainone and another prisoner named Gilbert Roos.
Rainone was sentenced to life in prison in 2005 for murdering a man outside of Sacramento's Oak Park Market. Prison officials said he was separated from the rest of the population at the new Folsom prison after he attacked a guard and another inmate.
The investigator said a guard found a phone in Rainone's cell in mid-July. He said the guard discovered sexually explicit messages between Rainone and Vickers on the phone. Similar messages, he said, were located on a phone also purchased by Vickers in a neighboring cell.
News10 attempted to talk to Vickers outside of the courthouse after her arraignment, but her attorney, Ryan Friedman, would only say, "No comment. No comment. She's presumed innocent until proven guilty."
Vickers will be back in court for a follow-up hearing on Jan. 15.
