INMATES USE SMUGGLED CELLPHONES TO MAINTAIN A FOOT ON THE OUTSIDE

One early clue that Texas prisons had a new contraband problem was a
letter, intercepted in a routine mail check, from a mother telling her
inmate son that she was putting more minutes on his cellphone.

Then there was the mother who wrote the warden complaining about the
poor reception for her son's cellphone.

But Texas officials say they learned the seriousness of cellphones'
being smuggled into prisons only during a recent undercover
investigation of a violent gang, the Texas Syndicate, when electronic
surveillance showed that a gang member was making and receiving calls
on his cellphone from the Darrington prison, near Houston.

When investigators raided the inmate's cell, he flushed the phone down
the toilet. But the prison has traps in its sewers, and when the
authorities checked the traps, they found multiple phones.

Prison officials across the country say inmates' possession of
cellphones is a growing and serious problem. In recent months it has
led to arrests or convictions of scores of inmates and of prison staff
members who have smuggled phones to inmates.

The authorities say they are concerned that inmates are using the
phones to buy drugs, intimidate witnesses, plot escapes or oversee
organized crime back home.

Most prisons and jails in the United States have policies forbidding
inmates to have cellphones. At least three states have taken the
enforcement a step further by making it a crime for an inmate to have
a cellphone.

Under a law enacted last year in Texas, it is a felony punishable by
up to 10 years in prison for an inmate to possess a cellphone or for a
person to give one to an inmate. The inspector general of the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice is now prosecuting 50 cases of
cellphone use by inmates, some involving multiple defendants.

Iowa and Pennsylvania have recently enacted similar
laws.

"If these guys were just calling their girlfriends, it wouldn't be
such a problem, but we are concerned about cellphones being used for
drug deals and arranging crimes," said a senior law enforcement
official involved in the indictment this spring of three Philadelphia
jail guards accused of smuggling in cellphones, cigarettes and drugs
in exchange for money. The official spoke on condition of anonymity
because the investigation is continuing.

The Philadelphia authorities were alerted to the cellphone problem
when a sweep of the city's three jails in 2002 turned up 61 illegal
phones, the plea agreement said.

"I'm not really surprised at inmates getting cellphones," said Joseph
D. Lehman, the secretary of corrections in Washington State. "When
people invent more ways to communicate, we shouldn't be surprised when
inmates find ways to use the new technology. It's a continuing challenge."

In the past two years, three cellphones have been found in
Washington's prisons, Mr. Lehman said. One was found when an escaped
inmate was captured in a wooded area near his prison. The phone may
have played a role in the escape, Mr. Lehman said.

Like several other states, Washington is looking into new technology
that can determine if a cellphone is being used in a prison, then
monitor it and jam its signal, Mr. Lehman said.

But there are problems with trying to jam inmates' illegal phones,
several prison officials said, because the technology is also likely
to jam radios used by the prison and block cellphone signals in the
surrounding area.

As bad as the problem is becoming in the United States, it is worse in
many foreign countries. Two years ago, in Brazil, inmates using
cellphones organized simultaneous riots in 29 prisons in which 15
people were killed and 8,000 guards and relatives visiting the prisons
were held hostage.

Last year, an inmate was charged with running a drug ring from a
prison in Ontario, Canada, and there have been reports of inmates
illegally acquiring cellphones in Britain, Sweden, Thailand and India.

Several states, including Arizona and Oregon, say they have not found
any inmates with cellphones, a fact they attribute to strict policies
of searching all visitors, and even staff members, with metal
detectors every time they enter a prison.

In New York City jails, inmates are regularly told to put their
belongings and mattresses in the corridors to be run through a
portable X-ray machine.

Martin Horn, the commissioner of corrections and probation for New
York City, said, "In any prison where there is a strong and effective
search procedure," including searches of the cells where inmates
sleep, "you are more likely to catch contraband like
cellphones."

In the 18 months Mr. Horn has been in the job, he said, only one New
York City inmate has been found with a cellphone, and it had been
smuggled in by a guard.

Cellphones are harder to smuggle in than drugs, both because they
contain metal and because of their size, Mr. Horn said. So the person
doing the smuggling is more likely to be a guard or other staff
member. "Often it is nurses," Mr. Horn said, "because they are
manipulated into a romantic relationship with an inmate."

In the Texas case, at the Darrington prison, it was a guard doing the
smuggling, said John Moriarty, the inspector general of the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice. In April, the guard, Eula May Johnson,
22, was secretly videotaped in her truck in a Houston shopping center
agreeing to smuggle a cellphone and a quarter-ounce of heroin to a
gang member in exchange for $250 in cash.

When she was arrested just after making the deal, she was found in
possession of the phone, the drugs and the cash, Mr. Moriarty said.
She was "a major supplier" of cellphones to the Texas Syndicate gang
members locked up at Darrington, he said.

But Ms. Johnson's lawyer, Charles Gaston, said she was "entrapped" and
the victim of a prison system that did not want to go after
higher-level officials.

"She was a poorly educated black girl, whose only qualification was a
high school diploma, making only $9 an hour," Mr. Gaston said. "The
pay is so bad, it's obvious she is going to take the money."

One reason Texas may have a worse problem with cellphones than other
states is that inmates in Texas do not have regular access to phone
banks to call family members or lawyers, Mr. Moriarty said. Inmates
can make only one call every 30 days, provided they have no
disciplinary problems and receive permission from prison officials.

"That puts a real premium on cellphones as contraband in Texas," said
Steve Martin, a former guard and general counsel for the Texas prison
system who is now a prison consultant in Austin.

And phones keep getting in. Earlier this month, after a tip from an
inmate informant, a prison officer at Darrington opened a large jar of
white sandwich spread and found a cellphone and a charger inside,
sealed in a plastic bag.