Yolanda Jones
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
NASHVILLE — Jason Lamar White had meth shipped to his girlfriend’s home in Bartlett last year.
And like any nervous buyer tracking an important shipment, he called and texted his girlfriend and his brother several times to see if the “package” was delivered. But unlike most buyers, authorities said White orchestrated this cross-state drug delivery while in a Nashville prison by using a smuggled cellphone.
The use of contraband cellphones by inmates has become a vexing problem for correctional officials and authorities across the country.
In Tennessee, the issue has prompted district attorneys across the state to ask the legislature next year to make it illegal for inmates to be in possession of cellphones -- right now it’s not a crime.
“Currently, under the law, if prison guards catch someone trying to bring a phone into the prison they can be charged with introduction of contraband into a penal facility,” said Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich. “But the hole in the law is that if the prison guards catch the inmate with the phone in prison it is not a crime. So we are trying to tighten that hole in the law, so if an inmate is caught with a phone it is an additional criminal charge that we can prosecute them for.”
Weirich and members of the Tennessee District Attorney Generals Conference have lobbied lawmakers for the last few years to close the loophole in the law.
This year, more than 50 members of Congress wrote to the Federal Communications Commission, calling the security threat posed by contraband cellphones, “an issue of critical importance,” according to the Associated Press.
U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, R-Germantown was among the congressmen who asked the FCC to set up a meeting with state prison officials, the FBI and cellphone companies within 120 days and then report back to them.
“More cellphones in a penal institution than a college sorority house”
Cellphones are smuggled into prisons by employees, family members and friends. They have been thrown over fences to inmates, flown in by drones and hidden in food and packages.
“Most of these guys are just calling their families and friends on the phones, but some of these guys are stone-hardened criminals running criminal enterprises,” said Kevin Tamez of the MPM group, a Philadelphia-based litigation consulting firm that specializes in prison security.
Tamez said the phones are seen as a status symbol for inmates.
“If you don’t have one you are viewed as a loser,” Tamez said. “A lawyer asked us to write a position paper on the prevalence of cellphones and in it we said you can find more cellphones in a penal institution than you can at a college sorority house.
“I have clients who actually call me on a daily basis from the prison. They are pretty prevalent.”
At the Shelby County Jail at 201 Poplar in Memphis, officials said they have confiscated seven cellphones so far this year. Last year, they confiscated 13. No phones were confiscated either year at the women’s facility at Shelby County Jail East or at the juvenile court detention facility, officials said.
But at the Shelby County Correctional Center on Mullins Station, some 726 phones and cellphone accessories, including chargers, have been confiscated at the prison over the last two years.
Officials with the Tennessee Department of Corrections said they HAVE confiscated 1,650 cellphones from facilities statewide as of September. Last year, 2,409 were confiscated, up from the 2,026 seized in 2015.
Using cellphones for criminal activities
The U.S. Department of Justice announced last year that more than 50 people had been charged with using contraband cellphones to run elaborate wire fraud and money laundering schemes from inside prisons in Georgia.
This summer, a South Carolina inmate used a cellphone to have a drone deliver wire cutters which he then used to break out of prison.
In Memphis, Jason White along with his girlfriend, Kristina Cole and his brother Montez Mullins received long prison sentences for a drug conspiracy deal that was organized by White from his cellphone.
White, 35, was serving time at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville last February when authorities said he used a cellphone to send meth in a FedEx package to his girlfriend’s home near a Bartlett Elementary School. White received a 60-year sentence with no parole for the drug conspiracy involving the contraband phone.
“His case is a textbook example of why the Department is working harder than ever with our law enforcement and other correctional partners to combat illicit contraband, including contraband cellphones, which is often a symptom of illegal activity taking place in the community,” said TDOC spokeswoman Alison Randgaard.
David Fathi, director of the ACLU National Prison Project, said that prisons have a legitimate security concern about prisoners having cellphones.
“But prisons themselves help create the demand for contraband by making it very difficult and expensive for prisoners to call their loved ones through legitimate channels,” Fathi said.
Some facilities charge up to $15 for a two-minute call for inmates calling friends and family.
Combating cellphones in prisons
In Mississippi, body scanners are used to spot contraband cellphones. They also use dogs trained to detect cellphones as do prisons in California.
In Tennessee, inmates lose visitation privileges and are fined if they are caught with cellphones.
This summer through a federal grant, the Tennessee Department of Corrections placed eight specialized kiosks in facilities to extract data from the contraband cellphones by using on-site forensic analysis.
The department was one of the first states to implement this forensic program, which speeds up the analysis of the data found on the phones and helps expedite investigations. The department also recently hired a chief interdiction officer who will work with other local, state and federal officials on the issue.
Earlier this year, Tennessee prison officials joined other prisons across the country in asking the FCC to reconsider its stance on cellphone jamming technology. The FCC has previously said that the technology interferes with other calls near the prisons, including those made to 911 or other emergency services.
Newer technology called “inmate call capture system” has been used in states including California, Mississippi and Texas. The “call capture” system does not jam cellphone signals but only passes along authorized calls.
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai earlier this year told the Associated Press that he was willing to work with Congress on the prison cellphone issue. He expressed his concern over the issue in a recent letter to Congressman Kustoff.
In an Oct. 24 letter Pai told Kustoff, “I share your concerns about the proliferation of contraband wireless devices in prisons and the potentially devastating implications for public safety. We continue our efforts to push for even better procedures and solutions for this very serious problem.”
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©2017 The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.)