London Lass
12-04-2008, 02:45 PM
Prisons seek $66 million to get rid of phones, contraband
Texas prison officials are seeking nearly $66 million in public money — some of it right away — for new security equipment to rid lockups of cell phones and other contraband.
The request, which is more than double the amount officials proposed several months ago, comes just weeks after a systemwide sweep uncovered hundreds of smuggled cell phones, including 18 on death row.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice Executive Director Brad Livingston said Wednesday that given the seriousness of the contraband problem, he would seek $30 million in immediate funding.
The money would go for such things as video surveillance, walk-through metal detectors, X-ray machines and wand detectors. Twenty maximum-security prisons, including the Polunsky Unit, which houses death row, would be equipped with a comprehensive video system.
Oliver Bell, Texas Board of Criminal Justice chair, issued a stern warning to anyone who might be unaware of the security measures instituted in the prisons since October, when 10 death row inmates were found to have made nearly 2,800 calls from a smuggled phone.
One of those inmates, Richard Tabler, who is linked to four slayings, made threatening calls to State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
"We will find (the contraband) wherever it is. We will stop it at the perimeters. We are willing to do every single thing that is legal," Bell said at Wednesday's board meeting.
The funds sought by prison officials would need approval from the governor's office and the Legislative Budget Board, not the full Legislature. So far, the odds of it passing seem good.
Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, said: "Security is paramount. The governor believes this is an imperative step."
Smuggled phones pricey
A systemwide lockdown was ordered after the discovery of cell phones in death row, and in the three-week sweep that followed, 289 cell phones and cell phone parts were discovered, along with 183 weapons.
Brian Olsen, executive director of AFSCME, the union that represents many of the state's correctional officers, said he welcomed more cameras in the prisons but wondered, with the system short at least 2,700 correctional officers, who would monitor the video?
"To me, this is just a stopgap," Olsen said. "We should be giving emergency pay raises to (correctional officers)."
The prison board recently requested 20 percent pay raises for its correctional staff.
Smuggled cell phones fetch hundreds of dollars in prisons, and thousands on death row. Employees are believed to sneak at least some of the phones into prisons. No employees have yet been charged with contraband smuggling since the lockdown began, though investigators are pursuing leads, said the prison system's inspector general, John Moriarty.
Moriarty noted pat-down searches are now conducted on all people seeking entry to the prisons.
Pay phones to be monitored
Well-behaved inmates will soon have access to pay phones, but their calls will be monitored. Officials worry that inmates calling on unmonitored cell phones may order hits from prison or run criminal enterprises.
And prison officials will soon be testing cell phone jamming technology at a jail in Austin. A federal law bars states from using the technology but Texas leaders believe there's momentum in Congress to change the law.
(source: San Antonio Express-News)
http://people.smu.edu/rhalperi/updates.html
Texas prison officials are seeking nearly $66 million in public money — some of it right away — for new security equipment to rid lockups of cell phones and other contraband.
The request, which is more than double the amount officials proposed several months ago, comes just weeks after a systemwide sweep uncovered hundreds of smuggled cell phones, including 18 on death row.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice Executive Director Brad Livingston said Wednesday that given the seriousness of the contraband problem, he would seek $30 million in immediate funding.
The money would go for such things as video surveillance, walk-through metal detectors, X-ray machines and wand detectors. Twenty maximum-security prisons, including the Polunsky Unit, which houses death row, would be equipped with a comprehensive video system.
Oliver Bell, Texas Board of Criminal Justice chair, issued a stern warning to anyone who might be unaware of the security measures instituted in the prisons since October, when 10 death row inmates were found to have made nearly 2,800 calls from a smuggled phone.
One of those inmates, Richard Tabler, who is linked to four slayings, made threatening calls to State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
"We will find (the contraband) wherever it is. We will stop it at the perimeters. We are willing to do every single thing that is legal," Bell said at Wednesday's board meeting.
The funds sought by prison officials would need approval from the governor's office and the Legislative Budget Board, not the full Legislature. So far, the odds of it passing seem good.
Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, said: "Security is paramount. The governor believes this is an imperative step."
Smuggled phones pricey
A systemwide lockdown was ordered after the discovery of cell phones in death row, and in the three-week sweep that followed, 289 cell phones and cell phone parts were discovered, along with 183 weapons.
Brian Olsen, executive director of AFSCME, the union that represents many of the state's correctional officers, said he welcomed more cameras in the prisons but wondered, with the system short at least 2,700 correctional officers, who would monitor the video?
"To me, this is just a stopgap," Olsen said. "We should be giving emergency pay raises to (correctional officers)."
The prison board recently requested 20 percent pay raises for its correctional staff.
Smuggled cell phones fetch hundreds of dollars in prisons, and thousands on death row. Employees are believed to sneak at least some of the phones into prisons. No employees have yet been charged with contraband smuggling since the lockdown began, though investigators are pursuing leads, said the prison system's inspector general, John Moriarty.
Moriarty noted pat-down searches are now conducted on all people seeking entry to the prisons.
Pay phones to be monitored
Well-behaved inmates will soon have access to pay phones, but their calls will be monitored. Officials worry that inmates calling on unmonitored cell phones may order hits from prison or run criminal enterprises.
And prison officials will soon be testing cell phone jamming technology at a jail in Austin. A federal law bars states from using the technology but Texas leaders believe there's momentum in Congress to change the law.
(source: San Antonio Express-News)
http://people.smu.edu/rhalperi/updates.html