Prison shakedown leads to more than cell phones



By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press
Oct. 27, 2008


HOUSTON — A systemwide shakedown of the huge Texas prison system is 
netting authorities more contraband than just illegal cell phones.
The seizure count of prohibited phones and phone components topped 
120 items Monday as the first full week of the close inspection was 
ending, including 63 phones, 56 chargers and five SIM cards that swap 
information among phones.
But officers also have turned up 61 weapons, 52 instances of tobacco 
products and 14 discoveries of money — all prohibited for the some 
155,000 inmates in the state's 111 prisons.
A statewide lockdown of the system began a week ago, ordered by Gov. 
Rick Perry hours after death row inmate Richard Tabler was caught 
making a call from his cell. The phone had been traced to a series of 
calls that began earlier this month to state Sen. John Whitmire, D-
Houston.
Authorities said Tabler also shared the device with at least nine of 
his fellow condemned prisoners. Investigators determined some 2,800 
calls were made from the phone from inside the Polunsky Unit near 
Livingston.
Tabler was moved Wednesday to a prison medical psychiatric facility 
after officers believed he was attempting to kill himself, and 
Tabler's mother and sister both have been charged with introducing 
contraband into the prison system, a felony, for buying minutes to 
keep the phone active.
Inspections at about 15 units were completed, meaning an easing of 
the lockdown that had confined prisoners to their cells and barred 
visitations of inmates by relatives.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said 
the prisons where the order was lifted primarily were smaller units, 
like substance abuse and medical facilities. At least one women's 
prison, the Mountain View Unit outside Gatesville, also was off 
lockdown, she said, along with intermediate sanction facilities in 
West Texas and North Texas.
Officials had estimated the shakedown in the nation's second-largest 
corrections system could last about three weeks at some of the large 
units, which can hold nearly 3,000 prisoners.
The phones and components were found primarily in housing areas and 
common areas of the prisons.
Of the weapons, the majority were homemade items known as shanks, she 
said.
Authorities believe bribed corrections officers are responsible for a 
number of the contraband items.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6080435.html