California

6 posts

Fountain pen on black lined paper, illustrating California's prison cellphone bill

Jerry Brown Signs Prison Cellphone Bill

This bill and associated executive order are an attempt to hinder the smuggling of contraband cell phones into California prisons. These legislative efforts may slow the supply of cell phones, but they will not eliminate it. Just as illegal drugs continue to flow into prisons around the country, contraband cell phone smuggling is supply meeting demand. Until a strategy to address the fundamental demand for more communications between prisoners and their loved ones is also […]

Business newspaper article, illustrating an editorial on California's phone bills

Cellphone Bills Should Be Laws

This editorial discusses the three cell phone bills working their way through the California legislature. Certainly making it a misdemeanor to smuggle a cell phone and permitting random monthly searches of prison employees for contraband will help prevent some the contraband wireless phones from making it into prison, but it certainly won’t stop all cell phones in jail. The question then becomes what strategy is deployed to address the rest of the problem? Expensive and […]

Black professional video camera, illustrating a video series on California prison phones

Contraband Prison Cell Phone Video

A series of video news reports on the problem of smuggled prison cell phones in California. This report includes an interesting interview with a prisoner (via his contraband phone!) claiming that most of the contraband cell phones come from the prison guards and that most of the prisoners use the phones to stay in contact with friends and family rather than to plan crimes.

Alcatraz island prison under a cloudy sky, illustrating California's out of control phone smuggling

Prison Cell Phone Smuggling Called ‘Out Of Control’

This article on California’s contraband prison cell phone problem speaks for itself…But a key statement is, “Both prison officials and inmates we spoke with agreed that a large majority of inmates are using the phones to stay in contact with loved ones.” A secure prison cell phone service will reduce the contraband value of smuggled cell phones and allow detainees to keep in contact with loved ones. The smuggling of cell phones into California’s state […]

Alcatraz prison building by the water with a dock, illustrating phones as the hottest contraband

Prison Cell Phones Become Hottest Contraband Commodity

A visit to California State Prison Corcoran was cut short Sunday when investigators smelled marijuana on a woman as she passed through security, a prison spokeswoman said. Tisha Diane Holt was found with more than 2 ounces of concentrated marijuana hidden in her belongings. She consented to a search by prison staff and was arrested when they found the drugs, prison spokeswoman Teresa Cisneros said. Holt, a certified nursing assistant from Los Angeles, was booked […]