Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Inmates Use Smuggled Cellphones to Maintain a Foot on the Outside

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 15:52:19 -0400

Inmates Keep Tie to Outside With Smuggled Cellphones"
New York Times (06/21/04) P. A15; Butterfield, Fox

The possession of cell phones by inmates continues to intensify as a
problem for prison officials, particularly those who are
concerned that the devices are being used to oversee criminal activities
back home, devise escapes, intimidate witnesses, or
buy drugs. States such as Texas, Pennsylvania, and Iowa have crafted
laws that make it illegal for an inmate to possess a cell
phone, but other states such as Washington are considering adopting new
technology that will enable prisons to detect the
use of cell phones. According to Joseph D. Lehman, the secretary of
corrections in Washington State, the new technology
would also allow prison authorities to monitor a cell phone and jam its
signal. However, some prison officials are concerned
that the new technology could jam radios used by the prison as well, and
even block local cell phone signals. Arizona and
Oregon are among several states that do not have a cell phone problem,
which is attributed to the strategic placement of
metal detectors and other strict policies. New York City jails run the
belongings and mattresses of inmates through a portable
X-ray machine in the corridors. www.nytimes.com/2004/06/21/na
tional/21PHON.html

===================================================================================

June 21, 2004

Inmates Use Smuggled Cellphones to Maintain a Foot on the Outside
By FOX BUTTERFIELD

One early clue that Texas prisons had a new contraband problem was a
letter, intercepted in a routine mail check, from a mother telling her
inmate son that she was putting more minutes on his cellphone.

Then there was the mother who wrote the warden complaining about the
poor reception for her son's cellphone.

But Texas officials say they learned the seriousness of cellphones'
being smuggled into prisons only during a recent undercover
investigation of a violent gang, the Texas Syndicate, when electronic
surveillance showed that a gang member was making and receiving calls on
his cellphone from the Darrington prison, near Houston.

When investigators raided the inmate's cell, he flushed the phone down
the toilet. But the prison has traps in its sewers, and when the
authorities checked the traps, they found multiple phones.

Prison officials across the country say inmates' possession of
cellphones is a growing and serious problem. In recent months it has led
to arrests or convictions of scores of inmates and of prison staff
members who have smuggled phones to inmates.
The authorities say they are concerned that inmates are using the phones
to buy drugs, intimidate witnesses, plot escapes or oversee organized
crime back home.

Most prisons and jails in the United States have policies forbidding
inmates to have cellphones. At least three states have taken the
enforcement a step further by making it a crime for an inmate to have a
cellphone.

Under a law enacted last year in Texas, it is a felony punishable by up
to 10 years in prison for an inmate to possess a cellphone or for a
person to give one to an inmate. The inspector general of the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice is now prosecuting 50 cases of cellphone
use by inmates, some involving multiple defendants.
Iowa and Pennsylvania have recently enacted similar laws.

"If these guys were just calling their girlfriends, it wouldn't be such
a problem, but we are concerned about cellphones being used for drug
deals and arranging crimes," said a senior law enforcement official
involved in the indictment this spring of three Philadelphia jail guards
accused of smuggling in cellphones, cigarettes and drugs in exchange for
money. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the
investigation is continuing.

The Philadelphia authorities were alerted to the cellphone problem when
a sweep of the city's three jails in 2002 turned up 61 illegal phones,
the plea agreement said.

"I'm not really surprised at inmates getting cellphones," said Joseph D.
Lehman, the secretary of corrections in Washington State.

"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 the past two years, three cellphones have been found in Washington's
prisons, Mr. Lehman said. One was found when an escaped inmate was
captured in a wooded area near his prison. The phone may have played a
role in the escape, Mr. Lehman said.

Like several other states, Washington is looking into new technology
that can determine if a cellphone is being used in a prison, then
monitor it and jam its signal, Mr. Lehman said.

But there are problems with trying to jam inmates' illegal phones,
several prison officials said, because the technology is also likely to
jam radios used by the prison and block cellphone signals in the
surrounding area.

As bad as the problem is becoming in the United States, it is worse in
many foreign countries. Two years ago, in Brazil, inmates
using cellphones organized simultaneous riots in 29 prisons in which 15
people were killed and 8,000 guards and relatives visiting the prisons
were held hostage.

Last year, an inmate was charged with running a drug ring from a prison
in Ontario, Canada, and there have been reports of inmates illegally
acquiring cellphones in Britain, Sweden, Thailand and India.

Several states, including Arizona and Oregon, say they have not found
any inmates with cellphones, a fact they attribute to strict policies of
searching all visitors, and even staff members, with metal detectors
every time they enter a prison.
In New York City jails, inmates are regularly told to put their
belongings and mattresses in the corridors to be run through a portable
X-ray machine.

Martin Horn, the commissioner of corrections and probation for New York
City, said, "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 cellphones."

In the 18 months Mr. Horn has been in the job, he said, only one New
York City inmate has been found with a cellphone, and it had been
smuggled in by a guard.

Cellphones are harder to smuggle in than drugs, both because they
contain metal and because of their size, Mr. Horn said. So the person
doing the smuggling is more likely to be a guard or other staff member.
"Often it is nurses," Mr. Horn said, "because they are manipulated into
a romantic relationship with an inmate."

In the Texas case, at the Darrington prison, it was a guard doing the
smuggling, said John Moriarty, the inspector general of the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice. In April, the guard, Eula May Johnson,
22, was secretly videotaped in her truck in a Houston shopping center
agreeing to smuggle a cellphone and a quarter-ounce of heroin to a gang
member in exchange for $250 in cash.

When she was arrested just after making the deal, she was found in
possession of the phone, the drugs and the cash, Mr.
Moriarty said. She was "a major supplier" of cellphones to the Texas
Syndicate gang members locked up at Darrington, he said.

But Ms. Johnson's lawyer, Charles Gaston, said she was "entrapped" and
the victim of a prison system that did not want to go after higher-level
officials.

"She was a poorly educated black girl, whose only qualification was a
high school diploma, making only $9 an hour," Mr.
Gaston said. "The pay is so bad, it's obvious she is going to take the
money."

One reason Texas may have a worse problem with cellphones than other
states is that inmates in Texas do not have regular access to phone
banks to call family members or lawyers, Mr. Moriarty said. Inmates can
make only one call every 30 days, provided they have no disciplinary
problems and receive permission from prison officials.

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

And phones keep getting in. Earlier this month, after a tip from an
inmate informant, a prison officer at Darrington opened a large jar of
white sandwich spread and found a cellphone and a charger inside, sealed
in a plastic bag.

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