For Inmates, Having A Phone Can Add Years In The Cell
The smuggling of cell phones into Texas prisons has risen in recent years as inmates look to contact people outside the jail, and corrections officers look to profit from smuggling phones into jails.
Law enforcement officials are concerned inmates will use cell phones to conduct illegal business from their cells, and investigators seized 135 phones from Texas prisons in 2005.
Still, Texas prosecutors have yet to prove an instance of inmates using phones for illicit business. In one case, prosecutors tapped Texas law to win a 40-year sentence against convicted kidnapper and auto-thief Michael Manor, who was caught with a cell phone in jail, which he says he used to call his sister.
The sentence has helped prosecutors win easy plea bargains from other inmates, for possessing a cell phone in prison is a third-degree felony in Texas. Texas prisons do not have pay phones, a deficit that may be fueling the problem.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Dallas Morning News (04/26/06) P. 1A; Michaels, Dave .
