Charles Manson's Cell Phone Shocks Calif. Prison

California prison officials want to stop prison inmates like convicted murderer Charles Manson from reaching out and touching people with smuggled cell phones.

Prison guards confiscated the flip phone for the man behind one of the most infamous killing sprees in U.S. history after he placed calls and sent text messages to people in California, Florida, New Jersey and British Columbia, Canada, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

"It's troubling that he had a cell phone since he's a person who got other people to murder on his behalf," a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections told the Times.

The spokeswoman, Terry Thornton, also told the Times she didn't know if Manson ordered anyone during a call to commit a crime.

Authorities have urged the Federal Communications Commission to grant them authority to jam cell phone signals at prisons, but telecommunications lobbyists have told the agency that jamming would also block non-inmates near prisons from making calls.

Officials told the Times that prison inmates use the phones to run drug rings, intimidate witnesses and plan escapes yet being in possession of a cell phone isn't a crime in the Golden State.

President Obama signed into law during the summer a bill making smuggling cell phones into federal prisons a crime, but that law doesn't apply to state prisons, the Times reported. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill in September that would have fined people providing cell phones to prisoners $5,000, the Times reported.

In California prisons, authorities told the Times the number of cell phones confiscated has been on the rise from 1,400 in 2007, when confiscations were first recorded, to 8,675 thus far in 2010.

[DAN2311]

The prison system will never be completely fixed, because there will always be ONE individual who corrupt. The best that the prisons can do is find the person who gave Charles the phone and hold him accountable for his actions. Even with The Terminator putting that $5,000 fine for giving inmates cell phone, people are still going to sneak stuff in.

[jeffclayton1]

Manson is in prison thanks to former LA County Deputy District Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. (he actually got a death penalty sentence against Manson, which was reduced to Life without parole when CA stopped using the death penalty).

Bugliosi is a very serious man. To see what Bugliosi is doing these days please go to:

www.prosecutionofbush.com

[DAN2311]

California still has the death penalty. Its weird because their so liberal.

[berbecbunch]

Did anyone ever realize his name, "MANSON",is backward masking for "son of man"?

[skepticalJM]

Remember, ole Charlie gets Health Care, but us citizens don't.

[DAN2311]

and its coming out of our pockets

[Rajah88]

I am amazed another prisoner has not beaten Manson to a pulp by now.

[cohnman]

As hard as it is for me to think this is true, no one can even get close to him, hes a white power leader, like a hero to these guys, i was told if they let him out tomorow, there would be literaly hundreds to escort him away from the prison? Why they let this guy live is beyond me? Hey Charlie, can you hear me now?

[Segiris]

Manson is in permanant ADSEP (Adminstrative Seperation), they do this for a variety of different inmats, child molests, occultists, political criminals, ect -- they do it for that exact reason, if released in general population he would be as good as dead.

[diane22t22]

it's all such a mess, and scary too, Charlie ain't looking good. It's so out of control.

[darwufche]

I guess we don't want CA prison officials in charge of airport security.

[cowboyblondie]

So if we can make free citizens go through body scanners and "invasive" pat-downs to travel on a plane, why can't we make everyone (visitors, guards, nurses, administrators, vendors) and everything (food, laundry, supplies) go through the same measures before entering the prison each and every time?

[DAN2311]

There will always be a way, and prisoners have all the time in the world to think about how they'll get stuff in. what else would you do with life in prison.

[run2jazz2]

If a prisoner is isolated from the outside it has to be the guards which are bringing contraband like weapons, drugs and money into the prisons. Charles Manson and others are not going down to T-Mobile or Sprint to buy these phones.

[ninersfan1]

"Ignorance is bliss". Prisoners are NOT isolated from the outside world. You have obviously never been in or around a prison. I'm sure there are some guards that bring in contraband for inmates for their own personal benefit (usually money), but the majority of contraband comes from the inmates' visitors. Perhaps a little research would be advised before you post ignorant comments like you did.

[baukunin]

Phones come in through a variety of means. Certainly there are those that are brought in by corrupt correctional officers. There are many other ways to get them, however. Visitors bring them in, secreted in body cavities (I'm being polite here). They're thrown over the fence in lesser security prisons. They're shipped in to warehouses where inmates work, secreted in legitimate freight.

There are no honest correctional officers who will tolerate any smuggling. Background screening at the Department of Corrections eliminates the majority of those who are unsuitable for the work because they have terrible credit histories (so might be motivated to bring in a $100 pack of cigarettes, which quickly escalates to drugs, phones, etc.) or are psychologically unfit (vulnerable to a charismatic prisoner thanks to being drawn into an intense personal or sexual relationship with a prisoner), or is simply too stupid not to be taken in by some kind of scam.

Non-security personnel are also a source of contraband. They don't receive the same level of training and screening as do correctional officers.

The California prison system is grossly underfunded and understaffed. As a result, accommodations in procedures have to be made that can compromise security. The chances that they will get the sort of full body screeners recently introduced into airports is slim to nonexistent.

There are also many for-profit prisons in California and a good deal of inmate traffic between public and private pens. It is much easier to introduce contraband into those, and they can be transported into state prisons when the inmates go back and forth. The private prison guards turn over at a phenomenal rate, four to fifteen times higher than public prison correctional officers. They typically have little background screening, get paid very poorly, and supervision is grossly incompetent. Nothing matters except corporate profits and multi-million dollar executive salaries. They get special treatment thanks to bribes and lavish campaign contributions. Schwartzenegger, for instance, got $5,000 from GEO Group when he first ran, plus $48,000 more three days after he was elected to help pay off his campaign debt to himself. He reciprocated by making GEO insider Donna Arduin his Finance Director and the profiteers got the key to the state cash register. Cornell Corrections, recently bought by GEO, did a half hour "mockumentary" that vilified the sitting governor and had it playing all around the state shortly before the narrow recall rejection of Gray Davis that allowed Schwartzenegger to become governor.

Schwartzenegger, as the article indicates, vetoed the bill that would have at least fined those who were complicit in the introduction of cell phones into California prisons. The telecom industry big dogs, thanks to powerful lobbyists and huge campaign contributions, often more than any other group in some states such as Alaska, pretty much control our legislative agenda.

Remember also, that these profiteers have the "Gang of Five" on the Supreme Court on their sides.

[Birdman04]

If they truly wanted to stop the smuggling of contraband and drugs it could easily be done. This smuggling can not be done with out cooperation from guards and administration personnel. Hello......anyone home?