Cellphone use behind bars causes fear of inmate criminal activity

[LeighAnn]

L A Times via Boston Globe

Cellphones, nearly as common as toothbrushes or televisions , are ringing alarm bells among authorities in the California prison system, where the phones are a growing form of contraband.

More than 1,000 cellphones and BlackBerrys have been confiscated during the last year after being smuggled into California prisons in a security breach that has authorities scrambling to stop illicit communication.

The problem was first detected about seven years ago as the devices became smaller in size , but smuggling of the items in the 33-prison system has exploded in the last few years.

Police and prosecutors worry that the phones will help gang leaders and other convicts orchestrate criminal activity from behind bars. The problem has also caught the attention of state lawmakers who are demanding an investigation into the sources and methods of phone smuggling and plan to draft legislation to provide tougher penalties for those convicted of the misdemeanor. "It is a tremendous problem," Anthony P. Kane, associate director for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told lawmakers.

More

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/07/01/cellphone_use_behind_bars_causes_fear_of_inmate_criminal_activity/

[MADem]

1. They have the technology to stop that shit.

They can actually do the "cone of silence" routine. They might have to get some sort of FCC dispensation to make it happen, but it seems appropriate in this case.

And this point is valid--the usurious costs to the families of the inmates, when calling cards would be a logical solution:

Advocates of prison reform say the state has provided an incentive for cellphone smuggling because it charges inmates up to four times the market rate for collect calls to their families from phones provided by the prisons. "The bigger issue is the problem incarcerated people have keeping in contact with family members," said Cheryl Branch, project director for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches Ex-Offender Action Network. "Most individuals who find themselves incarcerated are low-income. Their families cannot afford the cost of the collect calls."

Donald Andrews, who was released in December from the California State Prison system, said he heard about others using cellphones to evade exorbitant rates for using the prison phones to call home, though he never saw an inmate with one. "It costs too much to call home on the regular phone," said Andrews, who works for the Stop the Violence, Increase the Peace Foundation in Los Angeles.

Bill Sessa, a corrections department spokesman, acknowledged that the state's contract with Verizon Business and other telecommunications providers sets high rates for collect calls from prisons. The state receives $26 million a year in commissions -- less if phone use declines -- under the contract. But Sessa discounted the idea that the high cost of collect calls is behind the proliferation of illicit cell phones. "We very strongly encourage communications between inmates and their families," he said, noting the prison gives those with financial hardship free stamps and envelopes so they can write home.

[MadMaddie]

2. This is what privatization does...privatize the prisons and the

prisons are allowed to make money any way they want....and there is technology to stop cell phone signals...

[LiberalFighter]

4. They probably could deactivate the phones instead of jamming them

Which may be a whole lot cheaper.

Any way they could detect the presence of phones in the facility or better yet when they enter the facility? Of course visitors would be warned that any phone they have on their presence would be electronically locked once they past a certain point. Then they would have to call their provider to get unlocked.

[Jed Dilligan]

3. The Two Twenty-First Centuries

collide in this story. Know what I mean?