This article discusses the legislative initiative to make it a felony in Idaho to smuggle contraband such as cell phones into prison. One interesting fact is that the Idaho Department of Corrections confiscated a cell phone that had been used over 33,000 times in six months. As we have written before, wireless is the new prison currency, and it’s likely that some of this cell phone’s airtime was traded to other prisoners for favors and other contraband.

The Idaho Department of Correction says it’s a growing problem they need to stop — cell phones illegally obtained by prisoners behind bars.

IDOC says in 2010, 18 cell phones were confiscated from prisoners.

They’re hoping Idaho lawmakers will pass stricter regulations to help put a stop to this activity.

“It has quickly grown to be the biggest problem that we’re facing,” said Deputy Warden Tim Higgins. “A cell phone that comes inside the institution can be used by an offender to do their criminal activity even while they’re incarcerated.”

IDOC recently confiscated a cell phone from a known gang leader serving time in prison. The phone had been used more than 33,000 times in six months, including text messages and calls.

The cell phones and other contraband get into the hands of offenders in a number of different ways.

IDOC says contraband is passed during visiting hours from an outsider, through secret drops and sometimes even through prison staff themselves. The contraband is often concealed in body cavities.

Cell phones can go for big bucks in prison. A regular cell phone typically sells for around $300, while a smartphone with Internet access costs around $1,200. Higgins says one inmate confessed to shelling out $3,000 for a smartphone.

“Right now if we intercept a cell phone coming into the institution all we can do is send the person away,” said Higgins.

That’s why the department is asking the Legislature to give the law more teeth. Right now, passing major contraband is considered a misdemeanor under the current Idaho law, but they’re hoping to change that.

The proposed law would make it a felony for smuggling a controlled substance, more than three ounces of tobacco, firearms or dangerous weapons, or any telecommunication device into a prison or jail.

“We need to be able to keep our facilities and our communities as safe as we can and this is a tool that will help us carry that out,” said Director Brent Reinke.

The bill has been introduced in a Senate committee. IDOC officials are confident Idaho lawmakers will pass this legislation.

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Perhaps Bexar County Jail should re-examine its policy on allowing guards to bring in food, a judge suggested this week as two ex-jailers were convicted in separate courtrooms for smuggling contraband.

State District Judge Sid Harle made the comment Monday as he sentenced former jailer William Douglas Hemphill, 33, to five years’ deferred adjudication for smuggling a cell phone to an inmate in a box of ramen noodles.

Two months earlier, Harle had sentenced ex-jailer Robert Falcon to six years in prison for trying to smuggle heroin to inmates in barbacoa tacos. And jurors Tuesday convicted former jailer Alfred Casas of aiding an escape attempt by smuggling hacksaw blades in tacos.

These are older incidents just now getting adjudicated, said Deputy Chief Roger Dovalina, who oversees the jail. The few bad apples have been fired and arrested, he said, and he doesn’t remember any new cases arising in the past couple of years.

“We are looking at different options, but it has been difficult” to bar jailers from bringing their own food because they don’t get lunch breaks like regular employees, Dovalina said.

Accepting bribes is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. But in exchange for an earlier no-contest plea, prosecutors Monday instead pursued a lesser charge against Hemphill of possessing a prohibited substance in a correctional facility. Hemphill, who now works for a box manufacturer in Louisiana, can’t work in law enforcement in Texas again.

Jailers searched inmate cells in July 2008 and found the phone in the cell of Nathan Knowles, 28, who was awaiting trial on drug and theft charges.

“Another inmate told me that if I get cool with Officer Hemphill, he would bring me a cell phone,” Knowles said in a written statement.

In a letter of resignation, Hemphill admitted bringing the phone but said it was only after Knowles threatened the jailer’s family and his girlfriend.

“I started to blow it off until he started naming my parents’ street and the details of my car,” he wrote.

If there was a threat, Hemphill never reported it, as jail policy requires, authorities said.

A smuggled phone could be used to threaten witnesses or for ongoing criminal conduct, said Adriana Biggs, chief of the district attorney’s white-collar crimes division.

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According to this news article, possession of contraband prison cell phones will be a felony in Alabama prisons and prison cell phone detection technology will be allowed if an Alabama bill passes. Rather than spend state funds on prison cell phone jammers, Alabama should consider a secure prison cell phone solution such as meshDETECT.

A Senate committee today approved a bill that would give the state Department of Corrections new powers to keep cell phones out of the hands of prison inmates.

The bill was approved by the Judiciary Committee in the wake of an inmate uprising at the Holman Correctional Facility on April 5 that was sparked by a dispute over a cell phone, which is considered contraband.

Jeffery Williams, deputy commissioner of governmental relations for the prison system, said the bill would give the agency the authority to contract with a communications company to detect cell phone communications from prisons.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Gerald Allen R-Cottondale, would have elevated possession of a cell phone from a misdemeanor to a Class C felony.

After Chairman Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, expressed concerns over a heightened penalty, Allen agreed to amend the bill to make possession of a cell phone a Class A misdemeanor with a penalty of up to a year in prison and a $6,000 fine.

Williams said the incident at Holman occurred when a correctional officer attempted to take a cell phone away from an inmate.

The incident escalated into a disturbance during which inmates seized control of one wing of the maximum security prison for about four hours. It took a prison system tactical team using tear gas to quell the disturbance.

Williams said that, after the disturbance, the department was informed by Escambia County officials that the county’s 9-1-1 system had been receiving “a huge volume” of calls that were traced back to cell phones in four prisons in the area.

“This is an important piece of legislation that will give us an opportunity to address this issue that’s a huge problem for the Department of Corrections,” he said. “Cell phones are smuggled in our facilities and we believe there is technology out there that will detect these cell phones within the system and disrupt these cell phones.”

Williams said the department already has confiscated 5,000 cell phones.

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