[May 15, 2009] EDITORIAL: No cell service Tweet May 15, 2009 (The Frederick News-Post - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Prison inmates have always been ingenious when it comes to communicating with each other and the outside world. That has enabled mob bosses and gang leaders to continue their lives of crime from within even the most secure prison facilities. But whereas felons once may have communicated with their criminal associates outside the walls by smuggling in and out written communications or writing coded letters, today they prefer a more modern tool of the trade -- cell phones. Here's a chilling example. Patrick A. Byers Jr., a Baltimore drug dealer, was recently convicted of murdering a trial witness who has identified him as the shooter in a previous murder. Using a contraband cell phone, Byers planned the assassination of the witness from his Baltimore jail cell. The victim was gunned down a week before Byers' trial was scheduled to begin. Elsewhere, convicts have planned prison escapes using cell phones smuggled in by accomplices on the outside. Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to petition federal regulators to permit Maryland to conduct a cell-phone jamming demonstration at a state prison. He needs special permission, because under current federal law the Federal Communications Commission cannot permit state or local agencies to jam cell-phone signals. In addition to O'Malley's request, U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski is co-sponsoring a bill that would permit state and local jurisdictions to jam cell-phone service at their jails and prisons. Like many electronic consumer devices, cell phones continue to get smaller, making it easier for prisoners to smuggle in and hide the devices. According to a recent Washington Times story on cell phones in prison, Maryland corrections officials confiscated more than 1,000 of the devices in 2008. But prisoners, famous for their resourcefulness, are finding ways to make detection more difficult, including disassembling the phones and dispersing the small components to various locations in their cells or the wider prison. Predictably, the cell-phone industry isn't thrilled with this proposed initiative. The industry's leading trade group, CTIA -- The Wireless Association, expresses concerns about cell-phone jamming in prisons would affect customers who live or work near penal institutions. This is an important public safety issue that needs attention. The FCC should approve the O'Malley request for this demonstration, and Congress should look seriously at Mikulski's legislation. Sound penology has to keep up with the times, and in this case that means ensuring prisoners don't have access to cell-phone communication. Like shivs and other weapons, trying to keep cell phones out of prisoners' hands will never be totally successful. That's why making them useless, like flashlights without batteries, makes sense. To see more of the Frederick News-Post or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.fredericknewspost.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Frederick News-Post, Md. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]