Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017 • Prison struggles to control inmates’ cellphone use
Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017, edition of the Lassen County Times.
Cellphones — a little piece of technology most of us find indispensable here in the 21st century. But what about inmates in California prisons?
Melissa Downing, formerexecutive director of Lassen Family Services, Inc., receives 600 cell phones from former California Correctional Center Chief Deputy Warden Matt Mullin back in March 2014. The contraband cellular phones were confiscated from inmates at the California Correctional Center in Susanville, as well as from inmates located in the 18 Northern California fire camps.After an employee at the California Correctional Center in Susanville was charged with conspiracy and smuggling cellphones into the prison, the issue became topic of local conversation.
Vicki Waters, a press officer with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said, “Contraband cellphone usage is a problem that CDCR takes very seriously. Cellphone use by inmates can pose a security risk. Modern cell phones can record video images, record conversations, provide Internet capability and may be used to commit crimes. CDCR has identified occasions throughout the state when cellphones were used to aid in the commission of various breaches of safety and security. Those cases are thoroughly investigated, and if warranted, recommended for prosecution.”
Conspiracy to bring a cellphone into a state prison is a felony, but furnishing a cellphone to an inmate is a misdemeanor.
In November 2012, the California Correctional Center and High Desert State Prison donated more than 1,600 confiscated cellular phones to the Soaring Eagle Blue Star Mothers to be sold and the proceeds used to purchase prepaid calling cards for use by warfighters. Pictured with some of the cell phones are former Acting CCC Warden R.L. Gower, Soaring Eagle Blue Star Moms’ Shannon Martin, Darla Brown, Christine Boyd and former HDSP Chief Deputy Warden Fred Foulk.According to Waters, it is also “a misdemeanor offense for an inmate to possess a cell phone in prison. Penalties for inmates also include up to 90 days good-time credit forfeiture. In addition, anyone attempting to introduce an unauthorized wireless device into prison is subject to a misdemeanor prosecution and/or a $5,000 fine per device.”
According to a COMPSTAT report from CDCR, 13-month statistics on the number of cellphones discovered in possession by inmates is staggering — 1,657 cellphones over the 13-month period.
The statistics cover the period from May 2016 to May 2017 at the California Correctional Center, the California Institute for Men (Chino), the California Men’s Colony (San Luis Obispo), the California Rehabilitation Center (Norco), Deuel Vocational Institution (Tracy), North Kern State Prison (Delano), the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility (San Diego), Sierra Conservation Center (Jamestown), San Quentin State Prison (San Francisco) and the Wasco State Prison-Reception
Center (Wasco).
The local news
According to a CDCR statistical report covering the first three months of 2017 at CCC, 127 cellphones were seized from inmates in January, 113 cellphones were seized in February and 168 cellphones were seized in March.
Jim Crandall, an administrative assistant at CCC, declined to comment on any specific case of cellphones being smuggled into the institution, especially the most recent one.
“I don’t know anything more than what I read in the paper,” Crandall said of the recent charges against a CCC employee.
But what about inmates with cellphones in general?
“We do find cellphones out here at CCC,” Crandall said. “It’s a camp institution. They do get them … Because of our mission, with the firehouse and all that stuff, a low-level institution; they’re going to have easier access to get this kind of stuff, unfortunately. It’s just the name of the game.”
He said the inmate firefighters are not the only ones who get caught with cellphones — they make their way inside the prison, too.
What do the inmates do with cellphones? Some allege they continue their criminal activities and may even target correctional officers and their families.
“Pretty much anything you or I would use a cellphone for is what an inmate would use a cellphone for,” Crandall said. “Yes, there’s a possibility they could be continuing criminal activity with it.”
Crandall said he hadn’t heard about any incidents locally in which an inmate took action against a correctional officer or family, and he said the officers do a good job with security at the facility.
