BOISE - A private prison guard in Texas who company officials say helped an Idaho inmate escape by providing an envelope stuffed with money has been convicted in a separate case of providing contraband to another Idaho prisoner.

John Ratliffe, a former guard at the Dickens County Correctional Center where hundreds of Idaho inmates are housed due to overcrowding at home, was sentenced last month to five years probation, 120 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine for giving cigarettes to Idaho inmate Patterson Franklin, according to court records obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Ratliffe pleaded guilty.

The problems surfaced starting Dec. 3 when sex offender Scot Noble Payne escaped through a prison kitchen door and scaled a fence.

Afterward, Ratliffe acknowledged to his bosses at the prison run by Florida-based The GEO Group that he used Franklin as an intermediary to provide illegal items, including tobacco, underwear, sex tapes, music — and at least $200 Payne had with him when he was caught Dec. 10, according to an eight-page report compiled by GEO officials following the escape.

Payne’s footprints also were found in the alley directly behind Ratliffe’s home in Paducah, Texas, on the day before Payne was captured near the guard’s home, the report said.

Payne committed suicide March 4 after weeks in an isolation cell, a punishment for his escape.

“Officer Ratliffe acknowledges that offenders asked him where he lived. He told them ’Paducah’ and described his house to them,” according to the GEO report. “He further admitted that they (the prisoners) asked the shortest distance to Oklahoma from his house. He gave the directions going through Childress and Quanah.”

Under terms of his contraband sentence, Ratliffe will only go to prison if he violates conditions of his release, which include staying out of “honky tonks” and “beer joints,” according to court documents.

Ratliffe denied knowing Payne planned to escape.

Dickens County prosecutors couldn’t be reached for comment on whether Ratliffe faces additional charges related to the escape.

Attempts to reach Ratliffe were unsuccessful. His telephone number in Paducah isn’t listed.

The 43-year-old Payne was among inmates shipped to Dickens and another nearby facility in Littlefield, Texas, in August 2006 due to problems they experienced at another Texas facility run by GEO, the Newton County Correctional Center. Those included incidents in which the inmates were punched and doused with pepper spray by guards.

GEO officials told the AP they took quick action upon learning in December about Ratliffe’s contraband operation. It included setting up a post office box where at least some prisoners’ families sent items or money to be transferred to inmates, according to documents.

“When we have incidents of this kind, we conduct a full investigation, and if disciplinary action is required, we take that action properly, and that’s what we did in this case,” said Pablo Paez, a GEO spokesman.

Ratliffe was placed on unpaid leave, then fired, Paez said.

Records show a chaotic scene in Paducah before Payne was finally cornered by search dogs in a nearby riverbed.

Ratliffe allegedly threatened to commit suicide shortly after searchers found Payne’s footprints near his backyard fence, prompting Texas Rangers to transfer Ratliffe to the local courthouse “where a mental health warrant was signed by the judge,” according to the GEO report. In addition, officers fired three shots at Payne, missing him three times.

Idaho officials said they learned of Ratliffe’s activities following Payne’s capture.

“We found out about it on Dec. 11 in a conversation between Warden Ron Alford and our contract compliance person Sharon Lamm,” said Jeff Ray, a spokesman for Idaho prisons.

Alford was transferred in March to another GEO prison, after complaints from Idaho about conditions at Dickens.