Texas Wants $66m For Cell-Phone Detection
State prison officials, moving to address the headline-grabbing security breach caused by smuggled cell phones, on Wednesday proposed spending nearly $66 million on high-tech gear to curb contraband.
The plan is more than twice as costly as an earlier-announced plan to beef up security at Texas’ 112 state prisons and is larger than several past programs to build prisons. Smuggled cell phones have been an issue since October, when death row convict Richard Lee Tabler was busted for possessing a phone on which more than 2,800 calls had been made in one month — including calls to a state senator.
“We have a responsibility to Texans to stop this … right now and right here,” Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told the nine-member Board of Criminal Justice, which was meeting Wednesday at an Austin hotel. Board Chairman Oliver Bell said, “The games are over. We’ve just given everyone 66 million reasons about why we’re very serious about this.” In August, prison officials had included in their budget request to the Legislature about $30 million for additional cameras and security equipment. That request would have been considered by legislative leaders beginning in January, but the new proposal seeks immediate funding through the Legislative Budget Board that handles emergency issues while the Legislature is not in session.
Under the new proposal, intensive high-tech screening equipment — much like the machines used at airports — would be installed at Texas’ 20 largest maximum-security prisons, along with networks of surveillance cameras to allow round-the-clock monitoring of cellblocks. Two mobile contraband screening units would be purchased to allow for surprise sweeps. Livingston said the 2,900-inmate Polunsky Unit, where death row is located, and 18 other maximum-security prisons would get “complete video surveillance.” In addition, the remaining 92 prisons, parole-violator lockups, and prerelease and treatment prisons would be equipped with walk-through metal detectors and parcel screening devices — similar to those at courthouses — along with additional surveillance cameras …
“The Legislature has no choice but to approve this if we want a safe and secure prison system,” said Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, who is a member of the budget board. “It’s shocking, though, that only now do they ask for this much money and only because of life-taking threats by a death row inmate who got a cell phone.” House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, said he supports the proposal despite its cost. “They’ve got a lot of security to beef up,” he said.
There is a lot more on this at the Austin American-Statesman.