This article is another example of the corrupting influence of the demand for cell phones in prison. The demand for smuggled cell phones, like the demand for drugs in prison, drives the economic incentives to supply this demand. In addition to supply prevention, the satisfaction of demand, using a secure cell phone solution like meshDETECT will reduce the economic incentives to supply contraband cell phones.

Agents with the Alabama Department of Corrections arrested a correctional officer on suspicion of smuggling drugs and cell phones into Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore.

Leonard Purter has resigned and was initially taken to the Elmore County Jail, said Brian Corbett, a DOC spokesman.

Purter made bond and was released from jail Tuesday, court documents show.

DOC agents arrested Purter on Sunday morning for allegedly trying to bring various pills, marijuana and cell phones into the prison.

Purter had been employed with the DOC since July 31, 2007, Corbett said.

According to documents filed in Elmore County district court, Purter is accused of possessing about eight ounces of marijuana, a total of 173 pills and 14 cell phones with batteries and chargers.

The DOC continues to investigate the incident, Corbett said.

“This is just one example of the ADOC’s diligence in trying to keep contraband out of our facilities,” he said.

Purter has an unlisted phone number, and it is unknown whether he has hired an attorney.

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Another article about the corrupting influence of contraband such as cell phones on guards in prison. Interestingly, this guard, “charged $200 to get drugs into the jail, $200 for a carton of cigarettes and $250 for a cell phone.” Is the ability to communicate with loved ones while in jail more valuable to prisoners than drugs or cigarettes?

On Monday a former District of Columbia Department of Corrections officer pleaded guilty to charges of accepting bribes in exchange for smuggling contraband into the jail for inmates.

Twenty-three year old Ryan Motley could receive as much as twelve years in prison for his role in bringing in cell phones and marijuana. Residents of the D.C. Jail, located on the southeast side of Capitol Hill, are not allowed to have cell phones in their possession, and marijuana is also illegal. Local prosecutors said he admitted to bringing in at least 10 cell phones and an undisclosed amount of marijuana into the jail. In return, Motley received an estimated $1,800.

Motley was stopped in November 2010, as he was entering the jail through a staff entrance. His operations began to unravel when a co-worker questioned him after discovering two cell phones in his protective vest.

A female returning citizen, Laura Norris, said, “When I was in the D.C. years ago, it didn’t feel any different than being out on the streets. Some of the people locked up had everything.” Norris said she recalled seeing cigarettes, marijuana, and other illegal items during her time there ten years ago. “I never did federal time, but I was sentenced to the D.C. Jail time.”

Smuggling items into the detention center has long been a problem. A guard, who wish to be unidentified, said, “We have a big problem with people bringing stuff into the jail. People are always looking for a way to make extra money. The biggest scheme I can think of in my career here was with Marshall and Adams, back in ‘07”

The guard is referring to D.C. corrections officers Dana Marshall, 52, and Sheri Adams, 30, who were arrested as part of a scheme that involved multiple jail officials and as many as thirty inmates. An unnamed inmate and undercover agent alleged that food, drugs, electronic devices (iPods and MP3 players), cell phones, and weapons have been illegally brought in by these two women. They were charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery.

The unidentified guard said that Marshall, who was stationed in the culinary department, where he could in a special diet tray and have an inmate assigned to the kitchen detail deliver the tray to another inmate. Adams acted as the “middle man,” authorities said. She met with the inmate’s contact outside the D.C. Jail to take the orders and money.

Adams charged $200 to get drugs into the jail, $200 for a carton of cigarettes and $250 for a cell phone. She brought the contraband to Marshall, who would smuggle in the goods.

A Washingtonian who was incarcerated at the jail for six months said, “I was there for half a year and saw a lot of stuff. I saw people listening to their iPods and even people talking on cell phones in their cells. All of these cats [guards] are doing it. The act isn’t going to end any time soon.”

David Carson, a DC resident who lives in the Potomac Gardens neighborhood, remarked, “It disturbs me that just blocks away this kind of stuff is going on. I thought the job or a corrections officer is to keep inmates safe while they are going through the court process. It only goes to show that correctional officers aren’t any different than the people they are sworn to oversee. To some that wear the badge, it doesn’t mean anything.”

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This article discusses the contraband prison cell phone legislation working its way through the California legislature. It states that a smuggled prison cell phone sells for $1000. Offering inmates a secure prison cell phone service would eliminate the value of the contraband cell phone in prisons.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that California State Senator Alex Padilla pushed a bill to punish cellphone smugglers through its first stage of approval yesterday (his third attempt in the last four years).

Currently, phones are used by jailed bigshots like Charles Manson, the Nuestra Familia gang and many an everyday drug/human trafficker to make sure business doesn’t skip a beat while they serve their time. Thanks to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who — by some backward logic — wouldn’t pass the bill until it was harsher, neither the smuggling or the possession is punishable by law. See: “10,000 Cell Phones Smuggled Into California Prisons in 2010.”

But there’s an even more powerful force to blame, swaying legislative morality since 1957:

The California prison-guard union, or CCPOA, who demands that guards be paid for the time it would take to scan them for phones — costing the state millions of dollars it simply doesn’t have. At the beginning of February, after an in-depth analysis of the smuggling problem, the Senate Public Safety Committee found that prison guards were among those most at fault:

“All indications are that the primary source of cellphones being smuggled into prisons is prison staff. The committee has been presented no evidence of visitors who are properly screened through metal detectors being responsible for the problem.”

Committee Chairwoman Loni Hancock even had the spine to say it out loud yesterday: “These cellphones are being brought in primarily, it appears, by prison people employed by our corrections system. To me this is not only a very egregious public offense, but a breach of public trust.”

The real question is, why can’t California politicians bypass one measly union? Padilla originally wanted prison guards to be scanned on the way into work for any illegitimate phonage on their person.

But there was no getting past the state’s No. 1 political lobbyist and campaign piggybank: the CCPOA. Governor Schwarzenegger received gobs of campaign funding from the group, and Governor Jerry Brown after him.

Thanks to their influential protector, in the heat of California’s financial crisis, prison guards are paid for “walk time” — the time it takes to get from their car to the front door.

Here’s yesterday’s watered-down version of Padilla’s bill, as passed through the Public Safety Committee yesterday. And not a moment too soon: During the first two months of 2011, over 2,000 phones were confiscated in state prisons. (Next, the bill goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Sigh.)

Smuggling: Any person, employee or nonemployee who possesses a cell phone with the intent to deliver, or delivers, to an inmate is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by six months in jail and a fine of up to $5,000 per device.

Inmate Possession: An inmate in possession of a cell phone shall be subject to loss of time credits. Time credit lost will not be eligible for restoration.

Visitor Protection: The bill contains language for visitors who inadvertently bring a cell phone into a prison without intent to deliver to an inmate.

Next question: How would the crime be enforced?

CCPOA spokesman JeVaughn Baker says the union is behind the bill in its current form. (And they kind of have to be. How would it look if they weren’t?) But in practice, why would prison guards and other prison staff turn in one of their own for partaking in a hugely profitable side-business? A recent State Inspector General report found that phones can go for as much as $1,000 each in the slammer. One corrections officer made $150,000 in a year — pretty much doubling his salary.

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