By Julie Small
Four years ago, California's Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation confiscated 14-hundred cell phones from inmates and
staff.
Last year, they seized 10-thousand. Corrections
spokeswoman Terry Thornton says prison officials are looking at new
technology that can block individual cell phone signals.
Terry Thornton: "Basically, you create this list of approved phone numbers and any text or call that's coming from a phone other than what's on that list doesn't get through."
Terry Thornton: "Basically, you create this list of approved phone numbers and any text or call that's coming from a phone other than what's on that list doesn't get through."
One Mississippi prison uses the signal-blocking technology.
Corrections officials in California will test it out this
spring in a couple of prisons here.
They also hope to use some low tech-solutions to combat the
problem.
Corrections officials can discipline employees that violate
department policy against unauthorized cell phones in prison.
They can reduce good time credits for inmates caught with
phones. And they can prosecute an inmate caught with a cell
phone - but only if they can prove it was used it to commit a
crime.
That's why Corrections officials want state lawmakers to make
it a crime to have a cell phone inside a prison.