This article is about yet another prison guard caught smuggling a contraband cell phone into jail. Given the high price paid by inmates for an illegal cell phone, the corruption of prison guards has become all to commonplace. A reduction of the contraband value of smuggled cell phones through the deployment of the meshDETECT secure prison cell phone solution will change the economics of this problem and reduce prison cell phone smuggling without the high cost of wireless jammers.

A former San Joaquin County jailer arrested for allegedly smuggling a cell phone to an inmate pleaded guilty Thursday to unlawfully accessing a computer database, according to court documents.

The guilty plea of Michael George McCann, 41, almost guarantees his career in law enforcement is over, said San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Donald Vaughn.

“I don’t know of any law enforcement agency anywhere that would hire a convicted felon,” Vaughn said in a telephone interview Thursday afternoon.

McCann was arrested on Jan. 6 after an investigation uncovered he had allegedly smuggled a cell phone into the jail. The prosecution had photographic evidence of McCann meeting an inmate’s significant other at a convenience store and receiving money, Vaughn said.

While he faced multiple charges in connection to the smuggling and unlawful access, the bulk of the charges were thrown out in the interest of justice, according to court documents.

Although he may not serve any time behind bars as part of his plea, Vaughn said he was pleased with the outcome because it shows the public wrongdoing will not be tolerated.

“He’s leaving here as a convicted felon on probation,” he said.

Vaughn would not speculate what McCann’s motive was for accessing the database.

The situation is an unfortunate one because it taints the image of the county and its justice system, the prosecutor said.

“It’s a sad case for all of law enforcement,” he said. “Citizens have to be able to trust law enforcement officers in order for them to do their job; people like McCann really hurt the community.”

McCann had been an employee of the San Joaquin Sheriff’s office since January of 2002, Sheriff’s spokesperson Les Garcia previously said. The department did not comment on McCann’s plea because he is no longer an employee.

Officials also declined comment on if procedures or protocols for correctional officers have changed since McCann’s arrest.

The former correction officer will be sentenced September 23. He could face between 0 days and 1 year in jail, Vaughn said. A probation report will be prepared prior to his sentencing to give the judge an objective look at what his punishment should be, Vaughn said.

“How much time he spends in jail, if any, will be up to the judge,” he said.

McCann’s lawyer, Gary Lacy, could not be reached for comment.

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A secure prison cell phone service would reduce the contraband value of the smuggled cell phones in the Texas prison where this took place.

Janet Watts, 47, Houston, Texas, was sentenced to a term of nineteen years in the state penitentiary in connection with a 2007 scheme where she was involved in sending cash by wire to a prison guard convicted of bringing cell phones into the unit where Watt’s son was in custody.

Over 134 money grams totaling over $16,000 came into Watt’s possession during 2007, most of them traced to friends and family of inmates in the Stiles Unit in Beaumont. Watts, in turn, paid out almost 40 money grams totaling over $13,000 to former TDCJ correctional Davisha Martin, and numerous other money grams to several correctional officers employed at the Stiles Unit.

Martin was caught attempting to smuggle in three cell phones on October 1, 2007. Receipts indicating that Martin received money from Watts were found in Watt’s car, and an investigation by the TDCJ Office of the Investigator General uncovered the extent of the scheme. Martin was prosecuted and served a short prison term before being granted “shock probation” in February of 2009 due to her pregnancy.

Prison Prosecution Unit Prosecutor Mark Mullin said, “This was an important step in addressing a real problem in the Stiles Unit. Prisoners who have cell phones continue to commit crimes. Aiding in the recent escape from the Stiles Unit is just a worst case example. Extortion of inmates and their families, drug deals, prison gang warfare and contract killings, and stalking women and children on the internet are all made possible by a simple cell phone.”

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This article describes the dangers of not replacing smuggled cell phones in prison with a secure prison cell phone service that records all calls, controls the telephone numbers the cell phone can dial and blocks access to the internet.

In most states, if you smuggle a cell phone into a prison, you could end up serving time behind bars yourself. But California has no law to keep contraband cell phones from inmates. A fact that Robert Johnson is very familiar with.

Johnson used to be a prison guard captain in South Carolina. Last year, he was getting ready for work when someone kicked in the front door of his house.

“All of a sudden I hear this ‘boom,'” said Johnson. “I heard somebody yell ‘Police!’ So I come out the bathroom. We meet in the hallway.”

Johnson came face-to-face with a man holding a gun.

“We tussled and somehow I guess he broke away and he raised his .38 and he shot me point blank range in the stomach and chest six times,” said Johnson.

That pistol wasn’t the only weapon aimed at Johnson. The other was the cell phone an inmate used to order the “hit.” Johnson says an inmate had been selling cell phones to other inmates for 800 dollars a pop. Johnson had cracked down on his operation.

“Through a cell phone, he found exactly where I lived at,” said Johnson. “He found the city. He even found my phone number — all through the Internet with his cell phone.”

The suspects face federal charges. Johnson, now 58, spent three months in the hospital. His days as a prison guard are over. Johnson recounted his story at a recent conference hosted by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The Department’s Richard Subia says inmates use cell phones to order hits, run drug rings, and threaten victims, witnesses and judges.

“We’ve found cell phones in walls, put down inside of walls, inside of toilets, in peanut butter, in garlic,” said Subia.

According to Subia, prison staff confiscated 11,000 cell phones from inmates last year. Prison visitors, young and old, smuggled them in. So did prison workers.

“We had an officer that we stopped in one of our northern California prisons who said he made $100,000 in one year for bringing in cell phones,” said Rubia. “One hundred thousand dollars!”

The Department of Corrections fires staff that smuggle unlocked cell phones. But the Attorney General can’t prosecute them or the inmates who use the phones unless a phone was used to commit a crime. State Senator Alex Padilla says that is “not good enough.”

“There are no consequences for the inmates who are caught with cell phones and there is no consequence for either a visitor or an employee who is caught smuggling cell phones in, and that is unacceptable,” said Padilla.

The San Fernando Valley Democrat authored a bill to make it a misdemeanor to smuggle cell phones into prison. Anyone convicted would get six months in jail and up to a $5,000 fine per phone. Padilla’s bill would also extend the sentences of inmates found with contraband phones. But doing that is costly, which is why the Senate Appropriations Committee shelved the measure.

The Department of Finance estimates longer sentences cost up to $50,000 more per year, per inmate. But Senator Padilla argues the state will save money by preventing crimes carried out with wholesale cell phones.

“We don’t suspect, we know that they are being used by inmates to commit and coordinate crimes both inside and outside of prisons,” said Padilla.

The Senate Appropriations Committee put Padilla’s bill “on suspense,” which is a kind of legislative backwater for more costly bills. The committee will reconsider those bills on a single day in May. Most bills on suspense die in committee.

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