ATLANTA — Pierre Carlton easily fooled federal authorities, who, after all, aren't used to people trying to sneak into prison.
Carlton agreed to serve another man's 20-month prison sentence after he was promised cash and free crack, authorities say. He spent 15 months posing as Dexter Mathis and proved to be a model prisoner who earned a high school equivalency degree, kicked a drug habit and spent most of his time reading.
He was 47 days from being released early for good behavior when he got sick of pretending and didn't show up at a halfway house.
Since then, authorities have found the real Mathis, who allegedly cooked up the scheme when he was out on bail after pleading guilty to receiving $2,762 in proceeds from a bank robbery. Mathis is back in jail and has pleaded innocent to conspiracy charges that could add five years to his original sentence.
Mathis' lawyer, Steven Berne, said his client was only trying to help Carlton by sending him to a minimum-security prison where he could get off drugs.
"Mr. Carlton had a drug addiction, and Mr. Mathis educated him on the benefits of drug treatment in prison," Berne said Thursday. "This was a decision made by Mr. Carlton."
However, authorities say Mathis was Carlton's drug supplier and was able to persuade Carlton to serve his sentence by offering him cash and free crack after his release.
On June 7, 1999, Mathis drove Carlton to the U.S. marshal's office, where Carlton, who had memorized Mathis' biographical information, turned himself in.
Carlton is 32 and Mathis is 31, but the pair don't look much alike. Carlton is at least four inches shorter than Mathis, who is 6-foot-3 and weighs more than 200 pounds.
"The only thing they have in common is they're both black males," said Paul Kish, Carlton's lawyer. "It's a production line in there."
A spokesman for the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, Mike Binion, said officials rely on federal marshals to deliver the correct inmate. "He was Dexter Mathis as far as everybody knew," Binion said.
The ruse unraveled in September when Carlton was released early for good behavior but failed to report to a halfway house.
A week later, an FBI agent investigating a bank robbery spotted a car with tags that were traced to an alias once used by Mathis. He followed up and found the real Dexter Mathis.
After authorities realized Mathis was not the man who had spent 15 months in prison, he was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and is now serving the sentence he was supposed to serve in the first place.
Dan Dunne, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said admissions procedures have been tightened but wouldn't give details.
Carlton has pleaded guilty for his role in the scheme and will probably face probation, Kish said.
"I was hoping I was going to head out of prison either clean and sober or either have me drugs," Carlton told a judge.
Berne, Mathis' lawyer, said the scheme wasn't illegal because Carlton agreed to do it. He pointed to cases of men paying others to take their place in war, a practice that dates at least to the Civil War.
"The analogy is that you received an order by the government to act, and you had someone act in your place," Berne said.