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| Officials propose ordinance |
| By James Loewenstein |
| Published: 04/10/2009 |
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WEST BURLINGTON — Following a foiled escape plot at the Bradford County jail, Bradford County officials have proposed that a county ordinance be passed that would expand the categories of contraband that would be illegal to smuggle into the prison. The ordinance was discussed at Thursday’s meeting of the Bradford County Prison Board, where the warden of the Bradford County jail also announced that the jail’s Delta cell block had been temporarily shut down due to the low number of inmates at the jail. While state law already prohibits the smuggling of certain types of substances, such as alcohol or drugs, into a prison, it does not cover all types of contraband, said Bradford County Sheriff Steven Evans, who is the chairman of the Bradford County Prison Board. Among the substances not covered under the state law are cell phones and tobacco, Evans said. Jail inmates use cell phones to “run their empires” outside a prison, said Bradford County jail Warden Donald Stewart. At the Bradford County jail, all of the inmates’ land-line telephone calls are recorded — except calls between an inmate and his lawyer — and this was a key source of evidence in the arrest of 23-year-old Andrea N. Lambert of Waverly, N.Y., who was charged last week with helping an armed robbery suspect with his planned escape from the jail, the warden said. If the inmate who was planning to escape “had used a cell phone, we would have been left out in the dark” about the escape plans, Stewart told the prison board. The other type of telephone call that is not recorded is the free telephone call that an inmate can make when he first arrives at the jail, which he can use to arrange bail or to tell someone that he is jail, Stewart said. The escape plot was foiled following an investigation which involved the Bradford County Sheriff’s Office, Bradford County Detective Gregory Hostettler, and the Bradford County District Attorney’s Office. Lambert, who lives at 114 Chemung St., was arrested within the past week, the warden said. The ordinance, if passed, would help fight the use of cell phones among prisoners, he said. The use of cell phones and tobacco is currently banned in the Bradford County jail, the warden said. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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