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| Department of Corrections seeks legislative changes |
| By tulsaworld.com - BARBARA HOBEROCK |
| Published: 12/01/2011 |
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OKLAHOMA CITY - The Oklahoma Department of Corrections will seek legislative approval to sell the cellular phones it seizes from inmates. The legislative initiative is one of a handful that the agency will pursue when lawmakers return to the state Capitol in February. From January through October, the DOC seized 1,049 cell phones from inmates, prison officials said. "First of all, it is a big problem for us being minimum security," said Rick Moham, deputy warden at Jackie Brannon Correctional Center in McAlester. "The way we are laid out, we don't have fences, of course, so access is pretty good." Since Sept. 1, 75 cell phones have been confiscated at the facility that has a capacity to house 734 offenders. Officials confiscated one package of 22 phones and another package of 19 phones, Moham said. Some offenders use the phones to communicate with family members because they don't want to pay the costs associated with the prison phone system, Moham said. Others use the phones to make money, such as charging other offenders to make calls, he said. A cell phone in prison can go for as much as $500, Moham said. Once an offender has a cell phone behind bars, he or she also can communicate with offenders at other facilities. "It really is a serious matter," said Moham, who has worked for the Department of Corrections for 24 years. Moham said it is a felony for an offender to have a cell phone in prison. Since February 2011, the district attorney for Pittsburg County has filed charges against 33 offenders, Moham said. Prison officials say cell phones are thrown over fences and brought in by visitors and staff. Among its other legislative efforts, the Corrections Department will ask lawmakers to eliminate electrocution as a method of execution because the agency no longer has a working electric chair. The last electrocution was in 1966. Eighty-two offenders were put to death by electrocution, according to the agency's website. Read More. |
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