Jon E. Dougherty, NewsMax.com
Wednesday, June 23, 2004

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  To the untrained, it might seem harmless for inmates to have cell phones. But telephone use, as well as other privileges, must be earned by inmates. Even then, use of phones is often monitored.

There are other reasons why possession of cell phones by inmates is dangerous. Authorities have learned prisoners use them to conduct drug deals, arrange hits and other illegal activity outside of the prison walls, plan riots and even break-outs. Also, authorities say phones could be used by inmates to buy drugs, intimidate witnesses, or run gangs on the outside.

Unseen Problem

Interestingly, many prison officials have been caught unaware that they even had a cell phone problem among inmates. In some cases, authorities really only learned of their dilemma by default.

In profiling some Texas prisons, the New York Times reported that officials discovered the problem by finding cell phones during routine checks of packages and mail. In one instance, officials were tipped off when a mother told her inmate son in a letter she was putting more minutes on his cell phone. In another instance, a mother complained to the warden the reception on her son's cell phone was poor.

Texas prison officials finally began wising up during an investigation of a particularly violent gang, the Texas Syndicate. Electronic surveillance of a gang member in Darrington prison near Houston was making and receiving cell phone calls.

When officials raided his cell, he flushed the phone down the toilet. But the prison traps its sewers, so when officials checked the traps, they found the phone—and several others.

Legal Ramifications

In Texas, it is a felony punishable by 10 years in prison for inmates to possess cell phones, or for someone to give an inmate a phone. Besides parents of inmates, some prison guards and other officials have been caught supplying phones to convicts.

In fact, the Times said, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is currently prosecuting some 50 cases of cell phone use by inmates, many involving multiple defendants.

Not every state is as strict regarding prisoner cell phone possession – Iowa and Pennsylvania have recently enacted laws similar to the one in Texas – but prisons and jails in most jurisdictions ban their use and possession.

"If these guys were just calling their girlfriends, it wouldn't be such a problem, but we are concerned about cell phones being used for drug deals and arranging crimes," a senior law enforcement official told the Times. The official was involved this spring in the indictment of three Philadelphia jail guards who allegedly supplied phones, drugs and cigarettes to inmates in exchange for money.

Authorities in Philly realized the scope of the problem when a sweep of the city's three jails in 2002 turned up 61 phones.

"I'm not really surprised at inmates getting cell phones," Joseph D. Lehman, the secretary of corrections in Washington State, told the Times. "When people invent more ways to communicate, we shouldn't be surprised when inmates find ways to use the new technology. It's a continuing challenge.

In two years' time, only three cell phones have been found in Washington state prisons, Lehman said, adding one inmate was caught with one after he escaped. Lehman noted the phone could have played a role in his break-out.

"It's a big problem," Lt. Terry Cobbs, an official with the Texas prison system's inspector's general's office, told the Houston Chronicle. "[Inmates are] not getting the phones so that they can call their mothers on Mother's Day. They're getting them to keep their communications open on the outside with their organized criminal activities and to make sure they're getting all the drugs that they need."

New Intervention Methods

Many states are beginning to employ electronic devices that can monitor inmates for cell phone use, locate the signal and then jam it. The problem with that technology, say some prison authorities, is that it tends to also jam radios and other equipment used by guards.

Signal jammers could also ruin legitimate cell phone usage by civilians in the areas surrounding prisons.

The best method, say some experts, may simply be to employ electronic devices that can locate signals. Then authorities can move in and confiscate phones without jamming signals and upsetting surrounding communities or hampering guards' work.

Not all states have a prisoner cell phone problem. Those include states which require strict screening and searching of everyone entering a prison, including prison guards and employees. Martin Horn, the commissioner of corrections and probation for New York City, told the Times that is an effective deterrent: "In any prison where there is a strong and effective search procedure," including searches of the cells where inmates sleep, "you are more likely to catch contraband like cell phones."

Some prisoners have been extremely creative. One inmate in New York state impersonated a Hollywood executive and conned Nextel out of more than 1,000 phones. James Sabatino, 27, was sentenced to an additional 11 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $1 million in restitution, according to a report by White Plains station 1010 WINS.

Exported Problem

The Times said while the use of cell phones by prisoners was a growing problem in the U.S., it is even larger overseas.

The paper reported that prisoner cell phone usage is especially high in Brazil, for instance where—two years ago—inmates using banned cell phones organized simultaneous riots in 29 prisons; 15 people were killed in the ensuing melee, while 8,000 guards and family members were held hostage for hours.

Internet newswire service Ananova reported in December 2003 a Brazilian television station shocked the nation when it filmed maximum security inmates freely smoking pot and using cell phones. The footage on the 8 o'clock news on Rede Globo also showed prisoners selling marijuana and cocaine as if they were in a street market.

The footage was made by the TV crew using a hidden camera at the Bangu IV maximum security prison in Rio de Janeiro. It shows dealers shouting out their prices to other prisoners.

Said Asterio Pereira dos Santos, secretary of prison administration, "There are drugs inside prison and there are mobiles but not the way it was shown. This tape was made to try and make us look bad."

In Ontario, Canada in 2003, meanwhile, one inmate was charged with operating a drug ring from prison. The Toronto Star reported the inmate organized a drug run from Miami to Canada, and that the phone he used was smuggled to him by a woman who hid it "in a body cavity." Officials learned of his cell phone by monitoring him discussing it on a prison telephone.

Also, there have been reports of prisoners in Britain, Sweden, Thailand and India using cell phones, as well as Japan.

In the latter, six Japanese and foreign inmates at Fukushima Prison obtained an illegal phone in October 2003, the Mainichi Shimbun paper reported. Prison officials said it was likely a former prisoner who had come to know the six at the penal complex was involved in supplying the phone; the report said the phone was likely thrown over the security fence into the prison's exercise area.

In New Delhi, a mafia figure in the Kolkata prison planned the killing of police officers by communicating with his partners in Dubai via text messaging, Delhi Newsline reported.

"Most of the big gangsters currently in jail use the mobile phone to plan and execute their operations outside" according to a senior police official in New Delhi.

Too Strict?

One reason why inmates may be working so hard to obtain cell phones is because in many prisons, regular phone privileges are few and far between, analysts say.

John Moriarty, the inspector general of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, says prisoners in his state don't have regular access to phones for calls to lawyers or family. In fact, he tells the Times, prisoners can make only one call every 30 days—and that's if they haven't been a discipline problem and get permission from prison officials.

"That puts a real premium on cell phones as contraband in Texas," Steve Martin, a former guard and general counsel for the Texas prison system who is now a prison consultant in Austin, told the paper.

Others say the phones are getting in because prison employees are poorly paid. One 22-year-old Texas guard was caught on videotape agreeing to smuggle a cell phone and some heroin into a gang member. Her lawyer described her as "a poorly educated black girl, whose only qualification was a high school diploma, making only $9 an hour . . . The pay is so bad, it's obvious she is going to take the money."

Editor's note: