Cell Phone Contraband a Prison Problem

JACKSON TOWNSHIP -- Authorities are looking into whether a worker at a prison in New York State may have helped inmates escape by giving them a cell phone.

In state prisons in Pennsylvania, cell phones are considered contraband and inmates are not supposed to have them, but three dozen cell phones were confiscated at one state prison in Luzerne County over the past two years.

More than 2,000 inmates are locked up in cells at the state prison near Dallas, but it's a cell phone problem that workers inside the prison have been struggling to deal with.

Department of Corrections records obtained by Newswatch 16 show dozens of cell phones are being confiscated at the state prison near Dallas. In fact, in 2013, almost half of all cell phones confiscated in state prisons came from the facility in Jackson Township.

"There's a reason why they screen their phone calls, and this is not screening. They can text, and nobody even knows they're on the phone," said Becky Colby.

To folks in Jackson Township, the problem is a concern. Becky Colby questions why prison security doesn't catch the contraband.

"From the inside, how are they getting them? Unless someone on the inside is giving them to them, I just don't know how they would get them."

The prison superintendent declined our request for an interview but did tell Newswatch 16 in an email that cell phones are usually brought in by visitors, or sometimes, staff.

"They really do present a range of problems for prisons."

Wilkes University criminology professor Dr. Craig Wiernik says inmates could use cell phones to call family, but could also use them to harass victims or carry out illegal activity.

"The problems come in when you are trying to run your drug empire, trying to run your criminal organization from the inside," said Wiernik.

Wiernik says no one yet has come up with the perfect solution.

"Drugs have been getting into prisons forever, so is this going to be the new normal that we're going to have to deal with?"

Cell Phone Finds in state prisons, according to the DOC: