Jack Dolan reports for the LA Times:
Prison employees, roughly half of whom are unionized guards, are the main source of smuggled phones that inmates use to run drugs and other crimes [and to call family and friends for perfectly legal purposes], according to legislative analysts who examined the problem last year.
Well, duh.
I used to get lots of collect calls from California prisons. Now I get cell phone calls. Since I’m a reporter and also personally curious, I have inevitably asked my callers how people get the phones. Thus far, there has only been one answer. “Guards sell ’em to you if you’ve got the money.”
Certainly some people have friends and family smuggle the phones in, but that is less frequent, according to my personal survey.
That’s also what the legislative study of the matter showed.
So if prison officials are worried about uncontrolled calls going out over prison walls for nefarious purposes why don’t they start searching guards on their way in or, at the very least, have them walk though some kind of detecting device?
Simple. It’s about money. It seems that the CCPOA—the guard’s union—will not permit its rank and file to be searched without being paid extra for the 60 seconds or whatever the search would add to the officers paid “walk time”—AKA the time it takes said correctional officers to walk from the front gate to the inside the prison proper. And the state can’t afford the millions in increased salaries that would evidently result.
Naturally the CCPOA spokesman has affected great shock that the legislature thinks guards are the main sources of the phones.
(Sigh.)
“The phones can fetch as much as $1,000 each behind prison walls, according to a recent state inspector general’s report, which detailed how a corrections officer made $150,000 in a single year smuggling phones to inmates. He was fired but was not prosecuted…”
This beggars the imagination. The Prison Guards’ Union has clearly risen to the level of the Banksters in absolute hubris and impunity.
So screw the law Reg? Would you say that if it were your SEIU pals putting up the same resistance to work without pay? The law is what it is, the state knows that and trying to get around it by making the guards look like the bag guys is politics, nothing more.
Course if I was running the union I’d give them the time for free. I’d do that as soon as they showed some proof the guards were the main culprits in the phone issue. They haven’t shown anything yet and unlike Celeste I don’t take the words of a bunch of cons (same answer from all the cons, gee who would have guessed)as gospel.
The facts don’t back up the states claim to this point, anyone who thinks it has is dreaming.
Good lord. A real “union man” when it comes to anything-goes-for-cops-and-prison-guards.
The self-absorbtion is amazing. Also, I didn’t mention “work without pay” but the fact that someone was running what is obviously a criminal enterprise and getting away with it. I find it hard to believe that no laws were broken when a prison guard makes $150,000 selling contraband to inmates. If that’s the case, as I said it beggars the imagination. Surefire will excuse anything if a cop does it. Pathological hubris. Exactly the kind of personality who should never be allowed into these professions.
You’re full of shit Reg. Its work without pay, give us your “free” time so we can check you out though we haven’t shown you’re responsible for a thing. I said I’d give them the time once they showed some facts the guards were the problem, that’s being a real union man? Celeste and her source have provided nothing but one guard who got fired and con talk, you buy that than you’re crazy.
“someone was running what is obviously a criminal enterprise and getting away with it”. Now you’re making new laws up huh Reg? That’s why the Police Officers Bill of Rights was enacted in the first place, to defend the rights of officers against people like you.
(The phones can fetch as much as $1,000 each behind prison walls, according to a recent state inspector general’s report, which detailed how a corrections officer made $150,000 in a single year smuggling phones to inmates. He was fired but was not prosecuted because it is not against the law to take cellphones into prison, although it is a violation of prison rules to possess them behind bars.)
The officer was fired and I’d be happy to see the IRS go after him for all that money he made but he didn’t break any law in selling the phones, he broke policy. Like I said if these were your SEIU pals making a few bucks on the side you wouldn’t even post.
I didn’t excuse shit and didn’t need to drop to your gutter level in making up facts to fit your cop hate agenda like you did.
You don’t know shit about the law or me; you’re just a liar that got his ass handed to him again. I forgot more about the law writing this than you’ll ever know, you’re a 100% poser. I was allowed in the profession and am way more honest than your lying ass has ever been, and was always honest, you on the other hand show yourself to be anything but with your own lying words.
Make up a new law and post on it Reg, it should be entertaining.
By the way Celeste, I “sigh” every time I see you take the word of people in prison as gospel.
Criminal enterprise?
“he didn’t break any law in selling the phones, he broke policy.”
I think we better chalk this round up for SF. I’ve never heard of a law against selling phones.
I’ll bet a guard could get rich selling IN N OUT Double Doubles in the joint. Is that against the law, or would that be a criminal enterprise?
lol.
Selling contraband (it’s illegal for the prisoners to have the phones) to prisoners is not illegal?
That there’s not a law that mentiions cell phones doesn’t mean there aren’t likely statutes that could be applied. But if not, as I said, it beggars the imagination. You guys defend this shit. And you’re still yammering about something I didn’t comment on – which of course is also evident of what a sense of entitlement cops and guards have.
You’re a pathological case. You’ll defend anything. And I have no connection to the SEIU, which actually organizes people who have little or no defense.
I’m not surprised at your attitude of entitlement and arrogance. Although I find it despicable. Taxpayers hate creeps like you.
“I’ve never heard of a law against selling phones.”
You’re an idiot. This is about a prison guard selling things to prisoners – which should be illegal as a general activity because it’s corrupting of the profession – that can be used for illegal communications. It’s against the regs for prisoners to possess them. If that’s not illegal, it should be. But you’re welcome to defend the guard and the system. It’s what I expect from phony “conservatives.” But, yes – a guard selliing ANYTHING to prisoners should be illegal. That’s elementary IMHO, unless you want a profession that’s as riddled as corruption as this one clearly is. Wanting extra pay to walk through a metal detector on the way in to work is an example of just how off the rails these shitheads are.
Pathetic…
If municipal workers at City Hall wanted extra pay to go through a security system I would consider them equally off the rails and intent on screwing the taxpayers. People – like myself – who don’t work on the taxpayers dime consider this kind of shit ridiculous and an abuse of the public trust.
Motherfuckers should be glad to have a job…
“I forgot more about the law…”
No doubt.
“You don’t know anything about me…”
Actually, reading the arrogant, abusive and often simply idiotic garbage you post here, I know more about you than I care to. These semi-coherent rantings were a perfect example of your pathologies.
Also, the fact that you’re totally a whiner and a child is shown by your complaint that this is about Celeste “taking the word of people in prison as gospel”, when in fact it’s based on a Senate Public Safety Committee report. Also a prison guard who was caught runnning a contraband operation. Which, as I said, SHOULD be against the law if it isn’t. Or can’t you read ?
Whining and childish. And don’t accuse me of lying unless you’ve got something. My comments were based on your nonsense like “they haven’t shown anything yet”, when in fact they clearly have. My suggestion is you go find an honest prison guard – as my friend who ran an educational program in San Quentin tid – and ask them how this shit (in this case it was specifically cell phones, because he’d been getting lots of calls) gets in. The response was that 20% of the guards weren’t trustworthy. So go shove your whiny crap. You’re delusional or utterly dishonest.
“someone was running what is obviously a criminal enterprise”
Wow. Seven posts in 21 minutes. Impressive.
Got it. If, in your opinion it SHOULD be against the law, it’s obviously a criminal enterprise. lol. You should have just left well enough alone. You don’t have to go all serial poster on us just because you screwed up and made a blunder. It happens.
For the record, I think this guy should be fired and the IRS should get him from that end. NOT PAYING TAXES IS A CRIME.
That’s how they got Capone, I’m sure they could get this guy.
That Reg is an obsessive compulsive and pretty much a serial liar, though most likely a harmless one, and that he’s a truly psychotic old man is all over his postings. He keeps posting because he suddenly remembers he forgot to say this that and the other thing but still screws up and resorts to making shit up. It’s his way. he will never admit he’s wrong, not enough man juice on board the old guy.
I already said the IRS should nail the guard but with an actual crime, not what should be a crime but isn’t. I mean what’s the statute number that Reg is relying on except the one in his imagination.
Blame Arnold, don’t blame me, he could have signed the bill that made this a crime but didn’t think it was tough enough. Nobody has said it shouldn’t be illegal but Reg wants to put people in jail for things he thinks should be illegal but aren’t. Fuck the process of making some type of activity a crime, just throw all the cop type scum in jail. That’s the real answer for Reg and fuck due process while you’re at it, just gets in the way.
I hope I don’t get charged with elder abuse (an actual crime) for smacking you around again Reg.
By the way, have Celeste print that report and show us the proof Reg. Did you read it, because there’s no way you did, and their supposed evidence was slim to say the least. I’m not even saying guards aren’t a problem, “some” are, but to the extent claimed here certainly hasn’t been shown.
You’ve lost your ability to reasonably debate Reg, you’re just a screaming baffled old man who is so fucking arrogant that you can’t believe someone would dare to challenge your point of view. You are pitiful to the soul and no longer a challenge. You should go play at Coopers, even though many there feel like I do about your washed up game.
I wonder how much a guard could make selling KY? How many years would he get for that/
But then again, why would a guard try to sell Kentucky?
Get your mind out of the gutter!!!