The Michigan DOC is changing prison pay phone vendors and increasing the price of a prison phone call. Some of the increased revenue generated by the new phone rates will be used to install cell phone jammers to thwart smuggled contraband cell phones.

The corrections department had contracted with Kansas-based EMBARQ. That contract expired in 2009 but the company agreed to continue service until the department found a new vendor, Cordell said. EMBARQ offered the department the fifth cheapest phone rate for prisons in the country. The new contract with PCS gives Michigan prisoners the 11th cheapest phone rate in the country.

The contract is a zero-dollar contract. The corrections department contracts with PCS for the service and the users pay for it. It does not generate a profit for the department, Cordell said.

The new rate is still much cheaper than collect calls placed outside of the prison system. According to rate information on AT&T’s website, collect calls using 800-CALL-ATT cost $1.49 per minute with a $5.99 to $8.50 service charge per call. It costs $3.99 per minute and a $9.99 connection fee to make a call using 800-COLLECT, according to rates on their website.

The rate increase will go toward providing more phones in prisons and upgrading existing technology. About 29 percent of the per minute rate goes into a fund to equip the prison to detect and jam cell phones within facilities, Cordell said.

Across the country, inmates using smuggled cell phones is becoming a growing problem. It has not gotten out of hand in Michigan, Cordell said, with about eight to 10 cell phones confiscated each year. Michigan law makes it a felony to bring in a cell phone as contraband. But the trend has prison officials concerned. They search for cell phones everyday, and the new technology will allow prisons to jam cell phone signals.

“They are a huge security issue — especially a smart phone. You can run your criminal empire. You can run and organize escapes. You can put hits out on people,” Cordell said. “We take them very, very seriously.”

The new phone system will be phased into Michigan’s prisons throughout the month.

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This is an older article, but it is interesting for the perspective it gives on the problem of contraband cell phones smuggled into the prisons of Europe. As in the U.S., jamming cell phone signals is the primary approach being considered to eliminate smuggled prison cell phones.

Drugs and weapons aren’t the only contraband in prisons these days. The latest underground currency among inmates is an item most of us consider harmless: the cell phone. And so far, prison officials are fighting a losing battle to keep inmates from obtaining cell phones and using them to communicate with people both inside and outside prison walls.

Recently in Serbia took place an interesting case regarding this issue, when local jail inmates sent SMS messages from their cells in program of a TV show. This correspondence of prisoners with family and friends was registered by the operational center of the “Authority for management of criminal sanction”, an organ of Ministry of Justice of Republic of Serbia. It has been discovered that some inmates from lower security level areas of prisons, where television watching is allowed, received messages until early morning hours via a TV show called “Farm”, and sent SMS to family members and friends from their smuggled mobile phones. During unannounced inspections in several prisons in Serbia last year, authorities found 22 smuggled mobile phones, as well as 20 hand-made daggers, several bars and a few grams of substances which are found to be narcotics. Serbian Ministry of Justice then announced that this action of confiscation was part of a unannounced check and search operation of all areas and inmates in correctional institutions in Niš, Požarevac, Sremska Mitrovica, District Prison in Belgrade and correctional institutions in Kruševac and Valjevo. The problem of contraband cell phones in prisons have all countries in the region. This year, there were few such cases in Croatian prisons, where several inmates used mobile phones to threaten witnesses. Furthermore, it was discovered that some prisoners used mobile phones to coordinate drug trafficking from countries of the region to Croatia. Inmates sometimes use cell phones to keep in touch with friends and family on the outside — collect calls made from inside prison facilities are notoriously expensive. But officials say cell phones are also being used to orchestrate crimes, harass witnesses, organize retaliation against other inmates and even order hits. Mobile phones in prison cells is a problem symptomatic in most correctional institutions in the world. In California, home to one of the largest prison systems in the world, more than 2,800 cell phones were confiscated from inmates last year, double the number seized in 2007. In Texas, prison officials seized 549 cell phones from inmates in the first four months of this year alone. In California, a prison staff member admitted to earning more than $100,000 last year by selling cell phones to inmates. Germany also did not remain immune to this phenomenon . The German Ministry of Justice issued a fact that in 2009., prison authorities across Germany confiscated 286 cell phones from inmates. In many prisons, cell phones have become as valuable as drugs, if not more so. In a recent sting operation in Texas, an undercover officer was offered $200 by a prisoner for a cell phone and only $50 for heroin. California officials say inmates currently fork over between $100 and $400 to obtain a smuggled cell phone. It’s easy to understand why cell phones command such a premium. Unlike the one-time sale of drugs, an inmate can rent out the same phone dozens of times to fellow inmates.

Technical Issues in Checking Contraband Cell Phone Use in Jails and Prisons

“In the broadest sense, contraband cell phones are a technical problem and eliminating them demands a technical solution. Technology advances have allowed them to be made smaller and more powerful – and easier to conceal. These days phones are half the size of a cigarette pack, and SIM cards, which can be used interchangeably on most cell phones, are smaller than a postage stamp,” said Terry L. Bittner, Director of Security Products, ITT, manufacturer of commercial and military security solutions. Bittner said conventional methods of locating them will only become more difficult. Detection systems have shown that general shakedown searches have failed to detect them. Dogs can be trained to detect cell phones and have had some success, but they aren’t foolproof. The case for jamming is certainly intuitive – if jamming signals could be precisely controlled as advertized. Jamming systems have been used for everything from blinding enemy antiaircraft radars to blocking or attempting to block the Voice of America. By some reports, the Soviets were spending more to jam VOA broadcasts than the United States was spending to transmit them. Jamming is used as a temporary force protection method against Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). ”Jamming is also largely effective – sometimes too effective. Some systems will not only prevent cell phones from being used in the jail, but near the jail as well. Most of our experience with this effect is from overseas. In both India and Brazil, cell phones up to five kilometers from the prison were jammed by the prison jamming systems. Recently, a prison in Ireland was forced to stop jamming because their system interfered with the legitimate cell phone signals in the hospital across the street from the facility,” Bittner said. Proposed American prison jamming systems also have gaps to avoid interfering with bandwidths used by emergency first responders. Public Safety communications in the 800 MHz band are interleaved with commercial wireless systems, so jamming equipment intended for use in the United States doesn’t jam that band. That’s good for first responders, but could also make the cell phones using that bandwidth, such as Nextel’s, the inmates’ carrier of choice. And that brings up another problem with jamming – it produces no intelligence. Cell phone signals are blocked, but prison authorities have no idea whether cell phones are present and/or where they are located. Jamming creates the illusion of security. An inmate with a contraband phone on an unjammed bandwidth, or from a dead zone can make calls with relative impunity. Buttner notes the optimal solution is a system that prevents phones from getting into the prison in the first place. But a system that detects and locates the cell phones inside the prison, alerting authorities to their presence and location, and giving them the option to move immediately to confiscation or to observe them in action to gain intelligence on the movement of contraband is the next best thing. And the system should also have lower or comparable costs to that of jamming equipment. ”Radio frequency (RF) detection systems do not require any special legislation. They are already legal, and indeed, are being used in several prisons in the United States. Most systems simply detect the signals emitted by the phones, both when being used in conversations and when they periodically “ping” the nearest cell phone tower. If you leave your phone near a computer or television set, that buzzing sound you intermittently hear is the phone contacting the tower,” Bitnner said. RF detection systems consist of a network of receivers deployed throughout the prison that continually scan the entire cell phone spectrum many times a second. Continual scanning makes it nearly impossible to evade detection by keeping calls brief or only turning on the phone when making a call. When a cell phone transmission is detected, special triangulation software immediately pinpoints its location. The system also logs all captured events. ”Detection-only systems do not permit users to listen in on the conversations or gather telephone numbers. Systems that do allow for the interception of calls, phone numbers and text messages still require an accurate location so that those in close proximity to the prison are not intercepted (similar to jamming). Any cell phone in the hands of an inmate is contraband, and warrants to tap into the conversations can be obtained. Indeed, gang members operating in a Baltimore prison were nabbed in precisely this manner,” Bittner added. Detection systems allow authorized corrections officers and other authorized officials to carry their own cell phones, the most economical form of communications, within the facility, which would otherwise be blocked by jammers. They also enable officers to target searches, both for cell phones and the other contraband like drugs that the presence of cell phones indicates. Bittner added that perhaps the most effective solution combines detection with specially trained dogs. Dogs can be effective in finding contraband phones, but they have certain weak points. Like humans, they can lose interest, especially when much time is spent and nothing is found. Directed searches ensure that they are always hunting where the ducks are, as it were, ensuring they stay alert and enthusiastic. Indeed, a combination of detection and dogs may be the most powerful possible check to contraband cell phones. Corrections officials have a heavy responsibility in deciding wisely about deterring contraband cell phone use. As the vote in the U.S. Senate suggests, the politically “safe” proposal may be to jam because it is a solution that, in concept, is easy to understand. But jamming devices are being marketed beyond the walls, and the prison contraband may be the camel’s nose inside the tent. Jamming devices are being marketed to churches, theaters, schools, libraries, shopping malls, hotels (where house phone use and its attendant fees have all but disappeared), public transportation, office buildings and restaurants. Public safety officials are already worried about their ability to receive emergency calls, most of which now come from cell phones. So the technical decisions corrections officials make will have implications far beyond the prison or jail walls.

Signal jammers in prisons in the region

Last year, the “Authority of prison system” of Republic of Croatia initiated the action of implementing systems for signal interference and mobile phones detection around prison units across Croatia. The System deployment started with the purpose of precise “choking” of signals with special antennas, and mobile phone detection using non-linear detectors, which will enable to find them in prison cells even when disassembled. Furthermore, special detectors will operate at prison entrances, with whom will be searched for contrabands. This action is a part of a project to improve the security level in prison units worth 5.5 million kuna, and whose deployment will be finished until 2012. “Department of prison system” director Miroslav Mihoci, states that after the implementation of the system, cases like Cvikova, where prison authorities found two mobile phones in a prison cell, will not be repeated as soon as they secure funds for the purchase of this sophisticated technology. “We have already presented these projects to foreign donors and now we are waiting for the money. For detectors, some of which are already purchased, we will spend about 616,000 kuna, and the rest will fall off for focused antennas,” Mihoci said. Mobile phone detectors are already in use and are similar to metal detectors or explosive device detectors. They alarm even when mobile phones in its detection area are turned off. So far, the signal jamming antennas were not used because they were not precise enough and apart from prison buildings, many of which are located in populated areas, they were interfering with signals from users outside the prison. New, so-called directional antennas, when purchased, will be able to accurately determine the area where the signal has to be blocked. Legal expert for telecommunications ?uro Lubura explained that in this case, jammers are installed in each prison cell, and all prisons can be merged into a single system throughout the prison. “Such project would allow detection of any unauthorized communication attempt with precise detection of the prison cell. System administrators would have the ability to determine whether the system would just register the communication attempt or to do both, register and prevent the communication. While ordinary GSM signal jammers of great power radiate all the time and interfere with the signal in the protected areas, but also in the surrounding areas, our system radiates a very short time, and only after it detects illegal communications,” Lubura said. Croatia Minister of Justice Ivan Simonovi? and Miroslav Mihoci stated that the prison system reform will need more than a billion kuna in the next five years. They plan to get most of this money from loans by Council of Europe Development Bank, where some of the loaned money is non-refundable. “Part of the money will be obtained from donations by international funds, and the rest will be financed from the budget,” Simonovic said. This project, as well as the satellite surveillance of conditional convicts, electronic bracelet system and the construction of new facilities, are parts of the Action Plan to reform the prison system.

System implementation well underway in correctional facilities across Germany

Germany stands out as the leader in deployment of signal jamming systems and of mobile phones detection systems in Europe. Mr. Lubura as an example cites a prison in Hinfeld, Germany, where prison authorities implemented this system in 502 prison cells. “Implemented this way the system poses no risk of harmful radiation to humans,” Lubura states. German Federal state Baden-Württemberg installed signal jamming systems across its correctional institutions in 2008, being the first in Germany to do this. Systems were installed as a response to the large number of cell phones found in prison cells. Namely, 2007 in prisons of this region, which counts a total of 6450 prisoners, authorities found 153 contraband cell phones. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice of Baden-Württemberg reacted to this problem, implementing a specially designed system for signal jamming. A large number of signal jammers were installed across all prisons, whose interference range is just a few meters. This investment worth several million euros, Minister of Justice of this region, Ulrich Goll, rated as a complete success: “Contraband cell phones in prison units and their use in criminal purposes was a big security problem. Thus, we are pleased that the applied systems work, and that they do not interfere with signals outside the prison walls at any stage.”

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Contraband prison cell phones in the Bahamas. It is a problem there, as it is globally.

Prison officials confiscated 240 cell phones from inmates at Her Majesty’s Prisons between January to May despite best efforts to block the use of the contraband material.

The Ministry of National Security plans to soon install a system to stop mobile phone signals without disrupting cellular service to surrounding neighbourhoods.

“The unauthorised use of cell phones within prisons continues to pose a serious challenge, and my ministry is determined to find a more effective means of curtailing their use. In this regard, we are seeking the installation of a cellular telephone jammer to selectively block the use of cell phones within the prison compound by persons who are unauthorized to make use of them,” said National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest, during his contribution to the budget debate yesterday.

The Mount Moriah MP also tabled the 2010 annual HMP report which noted that there were 2,374 admissions at HMP last year, a three per cent decrease from 2009 which saw 2,454 inmates admitted that year.

There were 1,625 remanded inmates – those not sentenced – while 749 had been sentenced, according to data provided in 2010 annual report.

The 2010 figures reveal that of the inmates admitted to the prison last year on murder charges only two had been sentenced for the crime while 104 were on remand.

Male inmates far outweighed the female prison population with 2,235 men incarcerated last year compared to only 139 women.

Of the 752 inmates who were randomly drug tested last year 342 were positive for narcotics, according to the report. The high positive factor was due to the fact that many inmates had drugs in their systems when they entered prison, said the report.

Last year there were 51 inmates serving life sentences while seven were on death row. The prison had 58 deportations, one extradition and 11 transfers from the United States.

According to the report the daily cost of incarceration for an inmate is $44.25 or $1,345.95 a month. The cost of feeding an inmate is $3.28 per day or $99.79 a month.

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This article discusses how as prisons try to block unauthorized cell phone use, companies are developing systems that cost over $1 million to address the problem. This is cost that will be passed on to the taxpayer if prisons adopt this technology. By adopting the meshDETECT secure prison cell phone solution, prisons and taxpayers will avoid this cost and reduce prison cell phone smuggling and the value of contraband prison cell phones.

The Bloods street gang is a known distributor. Charles Manson has had at least two. In April, one was used to start a riot in an Alabama prison. Much to the chagrin of corrections officials nationwide, inmates have discovered the advantages of using mobile phones to coordinate escapes, intimidate witnesses, and order retaliation against other prisoners.

Although there are no nationwide statistics, in California alone more than 10,000 contraband phones were confiscated from inmates in 2010, up from 1,400 in 2007. In Mississippi, authorities grabbed more than 4,000 handsets from prisoners last year, up 43 percent from 2009. “Illegal cell phones are probably the largest public-safety risk prisons are facing nationally,” says Terri McDonald, chief deputy secretary of California’s Corrections and Rehabilitation Dept.

Those worries have spurred nearly a dozen companies to develop electronic devices that jam signals, find phones, or block calls from unapproved numbers. “The only way to eliminate the threat is to physically capture the cell phone from the inmate,” says Terry Bittner, director of security products for ITT Defense & Information Solutions. The McLean (Va.) company makes a device called the Cell Hound that detects phone signals and pinpoints their location within a radius of 21 feet.

Cell phone jammers are already used by prisons in Mexico, France, Australia, and elsewhere. In the U.S., though, phone jamming is illegal (except when done by a federal agency) under a 1934 law that prohibits deliberately interfering with radio signals. A bill that would have allowed prisons to jam cell phone signals was passed by the U.S. Senate in 2009 but died in a House committee. Representative Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) plans to reintroduce a similar measure this spring. “We have the technology to block illegal cell phone calls,” Brady says. “We just need to remove government roadblocks to be able to use it.”

Carriers and wireless industry trade groups oppose prison jamming. They say it would interfere with cell phone communications outside the walls. “In seeking solutions to one problem, we must be careful not to create additional problems that could adversely impact the reliability or dependability of … service,” says Joseph Marx, an AT&T (T) assistant vice-president who works on regulatory issues.

As an alternative, AT&T and others suggest “managed access” technology. Such systems establish a radio-frequency umbrella around a prison that intercepts signals from wireless devices. The system checks each cell phone number to see whether it’s on an approved list. If it’s not, the call is blocked. Since the technology doesn’t interfere with legitimate cell phone calls, it’s not barred by the 1934 law.

Last August the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, 130 miles north of Jackson, installed the first such system in the U.S. So far the technology, by Tecore Networks of Columbia, Md., has blocked more than a million attempted calls and texts by inmates while allowing guards and other approved users to make calls, corrections officials say. The state plans to deploy the system at two more prisons this spring. “I’ve searched high and low and I haven’t seen anything better than managed access to deal with illegal cell phones,” says Christopher Epps, commissioner of the Mississippi Corrections Dept. “This is the future for prisons.”

Following the March escape of an inmate who used a smuggled handset to arrange his getaway, the Texas Criminal Justice Dept. is evaluating both managed-access technology and simpler systems that locate cell phones for its 112 prisons. California corrections officials are testing similar systems at two prisons, and they eventually hope to deploy equipment to combat cell phone use by inmates across the state soon. “We’re seeing interest in our technology from prisons all over the country,” says Howard Melamed, chief executive officer of CellAntenna, a Coral Springs (Fla.) company that makes jammers and managed access systems. The company’s gear is being used in Australia, but CellAntenna has yet to make any sales to U.S. prisons.

A big problem, says Melamed, is paying for such systems. Jammers cost more than $30,000 per building, while managed access runs from $400,000 to more than $1 million for a typical prison. ITT Defense’s Cell Hound detection system ranges from about $20,000 for a small facility to $600,000 for a larger prison.

Some jailers prefer lower-tech solutions. Prisons in more than a half-dozen states search for hidden handsets with dogs that can sniff out the chemicals in phone batteries; in Maryland, as word of the dogs has spread among inmates, cell phone seizures have dropped from 1,600 in 2009 to 1,100 last year. And officials at Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California have confiscated just a dozen or so handsets from inmates since 2006, fewer than any other major prison in the state. Pelican Bay’s remote location, it seems, means the facility suffers from something many outside the walls surely rue: lousy cell phone coverage.

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The dark gray device used to detect cell phones looks like an oversized walkie-talkie.

When Scott Schober, president of a Metuchen technology company, flipped it on in an officer cafeteria at a New Jersey jail several months ago, a warning immediately flashed.

“I turned around and walked out and said, ‘You’ve got phones in there,”‘ he said, describing the demonstration he gave for officials. “They basically said, ‘We’re not surprised.”‘

Cell phones are illegal in jails and prisons, and officers are supposed to be on the front lines of keeping them out. For Schober, the incident highlighted the pervasive nature of a problem that has dogged prison officials here and around the country.

State and county corrections officials in New Jersey are quietly testing new technology as they step up efforts to stem the tide of illegal phones behind bars. Department of Corrections Commissioner Gary Lanigan said an internal committee is examining whether to invest in detection equipment, along with recommending ways to improve security.

Law enforcement officials say phones can be as dangerous as weapons and allow inmates to continue terrorizing neighborhoods long after they’ve been locked up. Prisoners with cell phones have directed gang activity. They have intimidated witnesses. One inmate at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton allegedly ordered, over a cell phone, the murder of an ex-girlfriend who testified during his trial.
But despite security upgrades and increased penalties for having phones in prison, there are signs the problem is getting worse in New Jersey.

Inmates are making fewer calls on prison land lines, which can be monitored by officers. Meanwhile, the number of phones found in prisons has increased 50 percent over the last year. The most phones, 190 of 259 this year, were in Northern State Prison in Newark, one of the state’s most secure facilities.

“There are routinely finds of cell phones that you don’t hear about,” Lanigan said. “Searches have been enhanced. They just have to be enhanced more.”

With phones costing $500 on the prison black market, some officers have allegedly sought a cut of the action.

On Sept. 23, authorities announced the indictment of former corrections officer Luis Roman, saying he circumvented security by stashing phones and drugs under his protective vest or in his boots, then used a network of inmates to distribute them inside the prison.

Lanigan said officers can make $40,000 a year smuggling contraband into prisons, calling it an “inducement” for corruption.

“I can’t stand here and say we don’t have corrupt employees,” he said.

Jim McGonigal, president of the New Jersey Law Enforcement Supervisors Association, which represents corrections sergeants, said pursuing high-profile cases against officers helps deter future corruption.

“We have to send a message to the staff: If you do something stupid like this, there’s going to be consequences,” he said. “I don’t mean taking away your pension. I mean serious jail time.”

Corrections started tracking phone seizures separately in August 2008. Over the next year, 266 phones were found in prisons, according to officials. Then, from August 2009 to July 2010, 339 phones were found, a 50 percent increase.
Corrections spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer said more seizures are the result of more searches.

“The searches will continue to be vigorous and frequent, the prosecutions for corrupted staff, visitors and inmates will go on, and we are not ruling anything out in our pursuit to rid the prisons of cell phones,” she said.

Lanigan says the ultimate solution is to legalize jamming cell phone signals in prisons, now banned by the Federal Communications Commission. He is one of many prison officials across the country who, along with elected leaders including Gov. Chris Christie, are pushing a bill in Congress to change that.

The bill has already cleared the U.S. Senate, but the version in the House of Representatives is still in committee.

A group advocating for cell phone companies has opposed the bill, and companies that sell alternate technologies criticize jamming as clumsy and raise concerns it could block legitimate communication near the prison.

Some prison systems have implemented other measures.

Mississippi recently became the first state to install antennas that intercept cell phone communications within a prison. When someone tries to send a text message or make a call, the antenna catches the signal and checks a database to see if it came from a registered number.

Authorized calls are rerouted to commercial carriers, while unauthorized calls are stopped. In one month, the state blocked 216,320 communication attempts, Mississippi officials said.

Fedkenheuer said the technology may not be the right fit for New Jersey because there’s no need to allow authorized calls all cell phones are banned from state prisons.

There are other methods to detect and locate phones in prisons. For example, New Jersey was the first state to train dogs to hunt phones.

Others, like Schober’s company, are pushing high-tech options. Schober said his handheld devices can detect the signals cell phones send when turned on or transmitting data. A directional antenna helps locate the phone. He said his company has sold about two dozen devices in New Jersey, but won’t say who bought them.

Lanigan believes jamming prison phones is the future. It’s the best way, he is fond of saying, to turn a cell phone into a “4-ounce piece of garbage.”

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This article discusses the problem of illegal prison cell phones in the State of Texas. As with most states, the initial approach to deal with the problem is to try jamming contraband prison cell phones. The cost of this approach has yet to be quantified however.

State corrections officials said Friday that a test of cell phone detection technology at a Southeast Texas prison where an inmate used a contraband phone when he escaped last month has encouraged them to move forward with plans to install the devices around the sprawling system to thwart the illegal activity.

A Coral Springs, Fla.-based business, cellAntenna, recently spent more than two days at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Stiles Unit, outside Beaumont, and showed how its technology could find phones inside the prison, said Rick Thaler, director of the Texas prisons.

“The next step in the process is putting out a request to vendors in the field that offer similar technology so they can put forth their proposal as to their services and what they can provide us,” Thaler said.

There was no immediate cost estimate.

“Part of that is contingent on how many devices you put at a facility,” Thaler said. “The more you put in, the more you can hone in on the particular location or at least a particular building that the phone is used in.”

He said it was realistic to believe the technology could be in place by the end of the year.

“We’re trying to move forward as rapidly as possible with the request,” Thaler said. “Hopefully it’s another tool we’ll have in the near future.”

Illegal cell phone use has been a problem for years now in Texas, which has the nation’s second-largest prison system, and other corrections agencies nationwide. Technology to disrupt phone calls, known as jamming, also is available, but its use is illegal under a 1934 federal law.

The managed access cellAntenna uses, which is legal, “allows them to divert cell phone signals and send them on a detour essentially to a dead end so the calls are not completed,” said Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas criminal justice department.

Livingston last month ordered a demonstration of the technology after 27-year-old convict David Puckett escaped from the Stiles Unit. He was captured five days later in Omaha, Neb. John Moriarty, the agency’s inspector general, said Puckett’s possession of a cell phone behind bars was “a major component of the escape.”

“We did a forensic examination on the phone he was caught with and there were 300-plus calls to a woman who assisted him,” Moriarty said. “It just shows you how the security procedures set up in the prisons are totally circumvented.”

Moriarty and Livingston blamed friends and families and even some employees for smuggling the phones or arranging for drops outside the prison where inmates on work details can retrieve them.

“There’s a host of reasons,” Livingston said. “You really can’t pinpoint one in particular.”

He said comprehensive video surveillance has eased the contraband problem at the Polunsky Unit outside Livingston, where a couple years ago an inmate used a smuggled phone to call and threaten a state legislator. Similar video security is being installed at the Stiles Unit.

“We feel once completed, it will make a big difference in the nature of all contraband,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can on a number of fronts to battle this.”

“I think the technology is there to deal with the problem,” Moriarty said. “It depends on how much money you want to spend.”

Texas Department of Criminal Justice Chairman Oliver Bell, at a prison board meeting Friday, called security “the most important core function we have in the agency.”

He said the term “zero tolerance” didn’t allow for exceeding expectations, yet for the agency the only acceptable goal was zero.

“We have people on the other side of walls who have 24-7, 365 — time — to mess us up,” Bell said. “Our job is to stay a couple minutes ahead of them.”

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