Anyone who ever has harbored the foolhardy notion of trying to smuggle an illegal substance or item into the Blair County Prison was dealt an “eye-opener” by way of the June 5 Mirror article “Warden commends work to halt smuggling.”

The lesson was that, to be successful, it will take a plan much more sophisticated than the one hatched to “funnel” illegal items to an inmate who was at the Station Medical Center on Ninth Avenue in Altoona for an appointment — and that an even-more-sophisticated plan is likely to be doomed to failure, with additional criminal charges being the plan’s final product.

Actually, in hindsight, the plan was rather elementary in scope and virtually asking to fail, even if it was successful at any time in the past — especially since the inmate seemed interested only in using a certain restroom as he was leaving the medical center.

The interest in that particular restroom illuminated the “suspicion lightbulb” of the two corrections officers accompanying the inmate, and they found items allegedly meant for the inmate under a trash bag inside the restroom’s trash can.

The June 5 Mirror article identified the items as a vacuum-sealed bag of marijuana, vapes, vape cartridges, tobacco and rolling papers.

At a meeting of the county prison board on June 2, Prison Warden Michael Hale said the two corrections officers — Shannon Booker and Timothy Williamson — “stopped thousands of dollars of contraband from coming into the prison.”

The warden noted the high prices paid inside the prison for items such as marijuana cigarettes and vapes.

On the criminal stage, “well thought-out formation of a foolproof plan” oftentimes fails to consider a piece or two of potential evidence capable of scuttling it.

Regarding the situation in question, the two people suspected of delivering the contraband to the medical center apparently failed to consider the possibility of prison phone call records linking them to the suspect.

The new criminal case initiated by what was found in the medical center trash can became rather routine after that, and the two “delivery” suspects ended up in the county prison on May 28 upon their failure to post bond that was set at $500,000.

That bond figure alone ought to be a deterrent to anyone else toying with being a supplier, by whatever means, to an inmate at the Mulberry Street prison facility in Hollidaysburg. Hopefully, the county court won’t be in a lenient mood when the two suppliers in the incident in question arrive for sentencing.

Yes, the two corrections officers who upset the restroom-delivery contraband mission deserved the praise they were accorded at the June 2 prison board session. It is reasonable to believe that the prisoner at the center of the incident tried to distract the two officers from wanting to re-check the restroom, but they weren’t duped into falling victim to the plan in progress.

Upon arriving at the medical center, Booker searched the restroom and found no contraband. However, after the inmate’s appointment concluded, Williamson searched the same restroom and found the illegal stash.

The tasks of prison personnel can take many twists and turns, some of them potentially deadly to the officers or other inmates. Every day they are on duty in whatever setting, their performance must be top-notch flawless.

Booker and Williamson were top-notch on the day in question.