Legal News

Cell phone smuggling holds sway in CA prisons

By Jonathan Hayter

Cell phones have replaced drugs as the contraband of choice among prisoners.  Last year California prison officials confiscated about 2,800 cell phones statewide, which is double the number from the previous year.

According to officials, cell phones allow gang leaders to continue their activities within prison walls.  Cell phone cameras have revealed prison security secrets and leaked photographs of guards to accomplices on the outside. Inmates have become expert at concealing these phones, in light fixtures, radios and toilets.  Also, cell phones are a big business, whether it's inmates charging other inmates for use or guards smuggling them in for a price.

Officials in California and other states are lobbying for a Federal Communications Commission waiver so they can use jamming devices to disrupt cell phone signals inside prisons. The effort has thus far been unsuccessful.

A bill by Sen. John Benoit would make it a misdemeanor to smuggle a cell phone into a prison or to possess one as an inmate. This would carry a 90-day good-behavior credit loss and possible isolation.

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Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on April 14, 2009 (boomark / email).