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| Illinois targets cellphones in prison |
| By qctimes.com - Kurt Erickson |
| Published: 12/09/2011 |
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SPRINGFIELD IL — No cellphones in the cell block. That’s the latest message from state officials, who are poised to start cracking down on people who try to smuggle portable phones into prison. Faced with the prospect that inmates could be using smuggled cellphones to plan escapes or run criminal enterprises, the Illinois Department of Corrections is asking companies how much it would cost to install special equipment at Illinois’ nearly 30 prisons that might detect whether illegal cellphone calls are being made from within the prison walls. The scanning technology is just one front in the state’s battle against cellphones. Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-Chicago, recently introduced legislation that would strip an inmate of up to 90 days of credit against their sentences if they are found in possession of a cellular telephone. The push in Illinois comes just a month after California approved similar measures designed to stop the flow of cellphones into their prison system. The sponsor of that legislation said the number of cellphones confiscated in California prisons grew from 261 in 2006 to more than 10,700 in 2010. In Illinois, however, Corrections’ officials say the number of cellphones flowing into the prison system is a mere trickle. “It is not a common occurrence. The average is about five cell phones confiscated per year, but we are at eight for this year, so it is up a little,” IDOC spokeswoman Sharyn Elman said. It has been a problem elsewhere. A National Institute of Justice report on cellphones in prison cited examples in which phones played a role in potential crimes. In Nevada, the report noted, prison officials fired a dental assistant for helping an inmate get a cellphone to plan a successful escape. In New York, an inmate used a cellphone to orchestrate an attempted escape while on a medical transfer. Read More. |
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