HOUGHTON – A Dollar Bay man was sentenced to six months in jail for smuggling prescription pills into the Houghton County Jail’s work camp.

Bruce Scherer, 31, was charged with furnishing contraband to a prisoner, a five-year felony. An identical charge was dismissed in a plea agreement.

Minimum sentencing guidelines called for 0 to 17 months.

“I know I screwed up,” Scherer said. “I was doing a weekend at the work camp, and I brought prescriptions in there I shouldn’t have brought.”

Judge Charles Goodman told Scherer that despite his protestations, he was there not because of his prior record, but because of his current charge.

“The sheriff’s departments, the county jails, the prisons, Mr. Scherer, cannot have controlled substances, which we know are abused and create problems We don’t need those kind of substances in the jail, unbeknownst to the sheriff, with the potential for harm and destruction that those types of things to able to cause,” he said. “Period. That’s why you’re here.”

However, Goodman said, Scherer should be getting tired of being in the justice system, having had 15 convictions since 2002. In the future, he said, Scherer needs to address his substance abuse issues, and to think.

“At some point, Mr. Scherer, an individual has to think, I would presume, that enough is enough,” he said.

Scherer received credit for 61 days served.