(Michigan City, IN) - A correctional officer at Indiana State Prison allegedly brought marijuana into the facility on Monday.  Christian Bates, 22, is charged in La Porte Superior Court 2 with trafficking with an inmate and official misconduct.

According to court documents, Bates drew the suspicions of prison security by walking into a bathroom with two potato chip bags and quickly walking out of the bathroom without the bags.  The chip bags allegedly containing marijuana were found by security inside a cabinet during a search of the bathroom, prison officials said.

According to court documents, Bates told investigators an offender instructed him to go to Gary where he would find the chip bags under a tree or in some bushes and bring them into the prison.

Bates, who denied knowing the contents of the bags, was later approached by an inmate asking for the chip bags. The chip bags had already been confiscated by prison security before Bates returned to the cabinet to find they were gone, authorities said. 

The Portage man was being held in the La Porte County Jail on $1,500 bond.