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 The alarming threat of contraband in Texas
prisons
By Texas State Senator John
Whitmire
While illegal contraband has always been an issue in the Texas prison system, the fastest growing and most alarming trend is inmates’ frequent and easy access to cell phones within the prison walls. Having a death row inmate, convicted of two senseless murders, call me several times from a cell phone while incarcerated on Texas’ death row was a rude awakening to the seriousness of the problem. These calls were made from the Polunsky Unit’s death row section which is supposed to be the securest part of the Texas prison system.
On Oct. 7, 2008, my senate office received a phone call from an individual claiming to be a personal friend of mine. When I returned the call, the person admitted he was a death row inmate and that his name was Richard Tabler. Not being convinced or thinking it was even possible for a death row inmate to make such a call, Tabler proved his identity by holding the phone so that I could hear the unforgettable sounds of a prison in the background, the clanging of steel doors and hollering of voices.
Convinced that I was actually having phone conversations with an inmate from a cell phone on death row, I immediately contacted the Inspector General for the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, who heads up the division which investigates crimes in prison.
We agreed that I would continue to accept these calls while an investigation was opened. In subsequent phone conversations, Tabler mentioned my daughters, where they lived, and other details about my family so that I was well aware of the information and knowledge Tabler had at his disposal.
Tabler was convicted for possession of a cell phone on death row. In addition, his mother and sister were convicted of the felony criminal offense of assisting an inmate to obtain a contraband cell phone in prison.
The investigation also uncovered that as many as nine other death row inmates had made more than 2,800 phone calls from the same cell phone during one month alone and that some of these inmates where identified as members of prison gangs including the Texas Syndicate, Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, and the Crips.
Unfortunately, we learned this was not the first cell phone confiscated from death row. As it turned out, it was the nineteenth cell phone uncovered that year with a total of 670 cell phones found system wide in 2008.
No one should ever have to go through what I went through and no one should ever be worried about being threatened by a person in prison. Convicted criminals should not have the means to carry out additional crimes from prison.
And even more alarming, convicted criminals should never have the tools to harass the judge or jury that convicted them, threaten a witness to their crime, or cause any additional harm or anguish to their victims.
I am encouraged by United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s federal legislation to allow prison officials to jam cell phone signals within prison walls. This is a huge step in the right direction to take cell phones out of prisoners’ arsenal.
As I write this today, a convicted child molester is on the loose after using a smuggled handgun to escape from two prison guards during a transport between two prison units. Inmates continued access to contraband in prison is a very real and present danger.
We must insist that the Texas prison system do everything in its power to stop all contraband including drugs, cell phones and weapons from entering our prisons. The citizens of Texas deserve and demand it.
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