Cell phones in prison a growing problem

Since I first blogged about this issue back in 2007, it seems like the problem is only becoming more serious.

As the new story notes, California state penal officials confiscated more than 2,800 cell phones last year, double that of 2007. Texas could confiscate nearly 1,500 this year.

Why? Federal law prohibits jamming cell phones, though Congress is considering new legislation on that, targeted at prisons. As for what you can do with one inside the stir?

You can call in drug deals, either from the outside or within prison. You can talk to sympathetic guards. You can use them as a form of prison currency for those two reasons. You can rent them out, for reasons one and two. Probably, you can get, like condos, time-share cell phones.

More seriously than that, you can orchestrate prison gang work, set up outside crimes and harassment, arrange getaway rides for escapes, call in bribes for those more friendly prison guards and more.

Here in Texas, Grits for Breakfast picked up on some issues back in 2007, following up on a National Public Radio story that highlights the problem nationally, including this Texas example:

Last month, a warden in Texas also got a call — from the mother of one of his inmates. She was calling to complain that her son was getting poor cell-phone reception inside the prison.

“She was paying for the service, and she felt that she should get good service out of the prison,” says John Moriarity, the inspector general of the Texas prison system. “That cell-phone company assured her it was within the coverage area, and she wanted to know why they were having some difficulty getting a good cell-phone signal out of the prison.”

(NPR also reports that a Maryland state senator got a cell-phone call from an inmate complaining about prison conditions!)

Henson noted, speaking of friendly prison guards, that a cell phone, being metal, can’t get past a detector, so a corrupt guard is allowing each one inside.

Give the Time story a further look; I've just summarized it.

Henson has more on the phone calling reform ideas here.

And, back in 2007, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was already worried about BlackBerries, not just cell phones.

Oh, if you want an unvarnished look inside TDCJ, try The Backgate, a blog by TDCJ staff. It’s so renegade it’s even pro-union!