The San Francisco Chronicle
Inmates in the Carandiru Prison, Latin America’s largest, use a celular phone during a 2001 rebellion in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The uprising was part of a state-wide prison riot of about 20,000 inmates in 29 jails. Sixteen prisoners were killed and and 8,000 others taken hostage during the rebellion which authorities said was coordinated by pre-paid cell phones smuggled into jails. (AP photo) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Technology waits for no one, a fact that prison officials have recently discovered. Thanks to corrupt prison workers and visitors, California prisoners have access to thousands of cellular telephones - which they could use to prepare for escapes or organize crimes on the outside. Officials confiscated nearly 3,000 cell phones last year alone.
Until now, prisons could only levy administrative penalties against anyone caught smuggling in a cell phone - a revoked visiting privilege for a visitor here, a cancellation of “good behavior” for a prisoner there. Rogue staff members - responsible for more than half of the smuggled phones, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation - are fired when caught, but clearly the money on the table " you can sell a single cell phone for up to $1,000 to a prisoner,” said Seth Unger, the department’s press secretary is a stronger motivation. What’s a prison to do?
Push for new laws, apparently. State Sen. John J. Benoit, R-Bermuda Dunes Riverside County, has a bill that will criminalize this behavior as a misdemeanor with a $5,000 fine. The bill, which is expected to pass, won’t throw anyone new in jail - an important consideration, considering the overcrowded conditions of our state prisons - but it could extend prisoners’ sentences or make them ineligible for parole.
It’s an acceptable solution to a serious problem, but we’d much rather see the Legislature get more creative. There may be a simpler, cheaper, technological solution: Why not just block cell phone reception around prisons?