By Just A Guy
Editors note: just A guy is an inmate in a California state prison. His reports run twice a week.
By Just A Guy
It’s been about six months since Tim Redmond asked the question, should prisoners be allowed cell phones? Back in April, there was quite a furor about inmates and cell phones, but since that time there hasn’t been much mention of it, so I thought I would chime in on the subject, as it bears discussion and analysis.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation claims that inmates having cell phones is a huge security risk — that we can plan escapes, plan simultaneous riots, or call in hits on people. While all those things are true, they are certainly things that were done in prisons by inmates before cell phones existed! Cell phones just make those things quicker to accomplish.
Those are words meant to scare the public into believing the inmates that do have cell phones all use their phones for negative things.
Another reason that CDCR is against cell phones, just possibly, is that cell phones have things like cameras, video records, and voice recorders. God forbid an inmate take a picture of a cop “sleeping the toughest beat,” or take a video of cops beating someone’s ass, or maybe recording conversations in which the officers or others were threatening or just disrespectful.
Today’s technology even allows for real-time streaming if you have the right type of phone. Can you imagine the doors of possibility that this opens up? Hello, You Tube!
And what about the amount of money that the collect-call phones generate for GTL.
Doesn’t CDCR get $30 million a year from GTL for giving them the contract?
Few folks know that even though the collect call phones we are allowed to use are monitored, there is really no way for the staff to find out who made a call. And this is especially true if you make a three-way call; they can know the number you dialed but not the third-party number. Also, you ever heard of call forwarding? Duh!
What if CDCR contracted with a company like AT&T? Here’s what I propose:
AT&T or the like should be allowed to sell phones to prisoners. There could only be one type of phone, and this found would not have a camera or Internet capability, but would have text. There could be a number of different plans for inmates to choose, from cheapo to unlimited minutes.
The provider would be responsible for the monitoring the calls and text messages. (They could even contract this out.) All cell calls go through supercomputers anyway, and those computers have very complex algorithms that can detect all kinds of stuff, from key words to language spoken. (The Department of Defense uses this technology).
Each phone would be registered to the purchaser so that if anything unlawful was done, it could automatically be attributed to the registered user. If there is someone at CDCR, or any other agency, that is suspicious of, how much easier will it be to track their calls? Using another inmate’s phone would result in your phone privilege being suspended as well as that of the inmate who allowed you to use his or her phone.
Maybe there could be a limit on the number the phones could dial. There would be a limit on hours of operation, say, 6 am to 10 pm. The scenarios are endless on how CDCR could control this.
Imagine — what cell phone company wouldn’t be interested in having its customer base increase by 160,000 users, with no competition?
Before cell phones came to prisons, the collect-call phones we are allowed to use were busy all day and there was a line to use them. Now they are empty all day.
I’ve done the math before, but here is is again: Ninety six collect call phones (in this prison) being used a minimum of 12 hours a day. With calls limited to 15 minutes at a minimum of $3 a call. One phone generates a minimum of $144 a day. Times 96 phones equals a minimum of $13,824 a day, times 365 days a year equals $5 million a year. I wonder what the net profit of that $5 million is? Remember too that there are 33 prisons in California — and even if you cut my numbers in half, it’s still $2.5 million, at just one prison.
You know the very same people who are saying it’s a huge security issue are the ones bringing in the phones — ‘cause I have yet to meet an inmate capable of sticking a cell phone, charger, and headset up his ass, let alone in the visiting room.
By the way, that $29.99 version mobile phone you can buy at Best Buy costs $600 in here. Who do you suppose is making that profit?
And while possession of cell phone in prison is not a crime, it would be great to get some statistics on how many raids are focused on cell phones vs. drugs – — and possession of drugs is a felony.
Look, there are fucking cell-phone sniffing dogs now. It’s safer to be a drug dealer in prison than a cell phone user. because they rarely go for the dealer. Why should they — we’re only hurting ourselves with the drugs anyway.
