An inmate at the Blair County Prison is accused of smuggling pills into the jail.

Michelle A. Barr, 38, was arraigned Tuesday afternoon on felony contraband and drug charges after an investigation by Hollidays­burg Borough police allegedly showed Barr brought 20 pills into the jail on Feb. 13, the day she was to start a three-month sentence for drugs and a DUI case.

According to the charges, prison staff contacted police on Feb. 16 after another inmate appeared under the influence of some sort of drug while she and Barr were alone in an intake isolation cell.

Staff suspected Barr had brought the drugs in with her on Feb. 13, so she was strip searched. Police said the strip search allegedly turned up a plastic bag of pills in her crotch.

Police said 17 of the pills were the anti-anxiety drug clonazepam, and three were unable to be identified.

Barr also had been in a cell on K block prior to going into the isolation cell, so police spoke to her cellmates there and were told there had been nothing unusual about Barr’s behavior, but they had noticed Barr was “regularly ‘digging into her butt crack,'” Hollidaysburg police Officer Allen Fochler noted in the charges.

The inmate who was with Barr in the isolation cell told police she took two pills after Barr put them in her pocket and that Barr had the drugs on her when she first met her in the cell.

Police said another inmate refused to submit to a voluntary drug test or give a statement against Barr, although others told police that Barr had given her clonazepam, which is sold under the name Klonopin.

Barr was in jail to start a three-month sentence after pleading guilty to a May 2017 drug DUI case and a September 2017 drug arrest. Her attorney, Mark Zearfaus, said Thursday the sentence was part of Barr’s participation in DUI Court. Zearfaus said he was not sure how Barr’s latest arrest would affect that sentence.

Bail was set by Magisterial District Judge Paula Aigner at $25,000 cash. A preliminary hearing is slated for April 10.

Mirror Staff Writer Greg Bock is at 946-7458.