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quote:
Originally posted by JB:
Prison staff conducting a shakedown of the row today found a cell phone in the rectum of convicted murderer Henry Skinner, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6113220.html<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Too bad the reporter didn't end their story with AP's tagline.

Exit only
[This message was edited by Greg Gilleland on 11-14-08 at .]

[This message was edited by Greg Gilleland on 11-14-08 at .]
 
Posts: 2578 | Location: The Great State of Texas | Registered: December 26, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Grrrr. Greg, you beat me to the posting. I wonder if it was on vibrate.
 
Posts: 374 | Location: Houston, TX | Registered: July 25, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Dan Bradley:
I wonder if it was on vibrate.


Some things are best left a mystery, Dan.

And I used to fuss at my kid for carrying cell phones in the back pockets of their jeans, which *trust me* results in more frequent repairs/replacement of cell phones. Silly me.

[This message was edited by Greg Gilleland on 11-16-08 at .]
 
Posts: 2578 | Location: The Great State of Texas | Registered: December 26, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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From the San Jose Tattletale police blotter section (apologies to Shannon for violating copyrights)

(aP) Officials, speaking on the condition of anonymoty - annonimitye - anon..., secrecy, have provided new details in the Skinner cellular phone case. It has been learned that the inmate was busy updating his website with a link to some eBay items he was hoping to sell, when the hidden phone started ringing. He asked a passing guard to "get that for me, I'm busy." The obedient public servant, wanting to oblige the inmate in need, cooperated, and of course the phone was found out. As was a fax machine, flat screen television, hand-held GPS unit and a food processor.
 
Posts: 751 | Location: Huntsville, Tx | Registered: January 31, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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That is one call I would not answer.
 
Posts: 1243 | Location: houston, texas, u.s.a. | Registered: October 19, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Those of you who live in the Central Texas penumbra of the Statesman knew this column would be coming when you heard about this case.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/11/18//1118kelso.html

This is a major advancement in cell phone history. See, the Skinner technique wouldn't have been possible 20 years ago � or at least not as easy to pull off. Back then, cell phones were the size of a flashlight. So we can thank the downsizing trend in electronics for this progress.

Sure, I can understand Skinner, since he's on death row, wanting to keep his cell phone handy. Hey, you never know when you'll get that call from the governor.

Let's assume Skinner one day finds himself strapped on the gurney. And one of the prison guards says, "Does anybody but me hear 'The Eyes of Texas'? Where's that coming from?"
 
Posts: 2578 | Location: The Great State of Texas | Registered: December 26, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Two more cell phones were found during regular death row inmate checks and cell searches on Tuesday, officials said.

The first phone was located about midday when officers spotted it in the trash. Officials believe an inmate tried to discard it for fear of being caught, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.

The second phone was found at 2:30 p.m. inside the cell of death row inmate Raphael Holiday as he attempted to flush it down the toilet, Lyons said.


Details.

[This message was edited by JB on 11-19-08 at .]

[This message was edited by JB on 11-19-08 at .]
 
Posts: 7860 | Location: Georgetown, Texas | Registered: January 25, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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AUSTIN � Texas prison officials recovered on death row two more contraband cell phones, one of them with the price tag still attached.

The first phone was located about midday Tuesday when officers spotted it in the trash. Officials believe an inmate tried to discard it for fear of being caught, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.

The second phone was found at 2:30 p.m. inside the cell of death row inmate Raphael Holiday as he attempted to flush it down the toilet, Lyons said.

[... snip ...]

Moer cell phones on death row
 
Posts: 689 | Registered: March 01, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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New contraband sweep on death row
By Mike Ward | Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 02:39 PM
With prison officials embarrassed over the discovery of four more smuggled cell phones on Texas' death row over the past week, a strike force of just over 100 guards from other prisons has been moved in to conduct a new wave of cell searches, officials confirmed this afternoon.

"They're conducting surprise searches - top to bottom [no pun intended] - looking for any contraband, including phones," said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Details.

[If only we could have that kind of teacher/student ratio in the classroom.]
 
Posts: 7860 | Location: Georgetown, Texas | Registered: January 25, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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A few unwelcome phone calls to the right people and this State's security apparatus can get into high gear in a hurry.

But, make a prosecutor ride the elevator with possibly the very same phone caller/defendant, before he is convicted, and that is not enough to earn the prosecutor the right to carry a concealed weapon, in the court house, in many of our districts.

I guess it's "pecking order." You have got your big peckers and you have got your little peckers.

[This message was edited by John Talley on 11-20-08 at .]
 
Posts: 44 | Location: Amarillo, Tx, USA | Registered: March 03, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Another cell phone charger and SIM card that allows a cell phone to make calls were found on Texas' death row this afternoon, the latest discoveries after weeks of similar finds.

Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville, said the contraband was found in the cell of Marlin Enos Nelson, who is facing execution for the August 1987 slaying of James Randle Howard in the Montrose area of Houston.


Details.
 
Posts: 7860 | Location: Georgetown, Texas | Registered: January 25, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by John Talley:
But, make a prosecutor ride the elevator with possibly the very same phone caller/defendant, before he is convicted, and that is not enough to earn the prosecutor the right to carry a concealed weapon, in the court house, in many of our districts.

Ummm ... John, didn't the Legislature pass that bill last session?
 
Posts: 2423 | Location: TDCAA | Registered: March 08, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Shannon Edmonds:
quote:
Originally posted by John Talley:
But, make a prosecutor ride the elevator with possibly the very same phone caller/defendant, before he is convicted, and that is not enough to earn the prosecutor _the right to carry a concealed weapon, in the court house,_ in many of our districts.

Ummm ... John, didn't the Legislature pass that bill last session?


Ummm...Shannon, did you read the story about the Texas DA that has requested an Attorney General's opinion as to whether he can continue to prohibit his employees from carrying, in the court house, as a condition of their continued employment?

Let me suggest that he is not alone in his proscription and that the article will go a long way toward answering your posted question.

[This message was edited by John Talley on 11-21-08 at .]
 
Posts: 44 | Location: Amarillo, Tx, USA | Registered: March 03, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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f you think smuggled cell phones in Texas prisons are easy to track down, think again, say officials involved in the seemingly endless search.

In recent months, phones been found tied inside plastic bags and buried in a jar of peanut butter.

And secreted inside the tiny vent atop a shower stall.

And hidden in a hollowed-out spot in the binding of a law book. Even stuffed inside a sock, pushed way up out of view inside a narrow crack in a concrete wall.

And, in at least two cases, they have been found in a plastic sack inside someone's rectum.


Details.
 
Posts: 7860 | Location: Georgetown, Texas | Registered: January 25, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I'm surprised cell phones even work inside a prison--mine never works at the mall or in elevators and some spots in hotels.

Makes me wonder if there isn't something that could be done to at least block their signals? Don't know that much about technology, but that would make having the phones pointless and negate the need for searches, etc.
 
Posts: 526 | Location: Del Rio, Texas | Registered: April 17, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Originally posted by John Talley:
Ummm...Shannon, did you read the story about the Texas DA that has requested an Attorney General's opinion as to whether he can continue to prohibit his employees from carrying, in the court house, as a condition of their continued employment?

Let me suggest that he is not alone in his proscription and that the article will go a long way toward answering your posted question.


Of course I'm aware of it. I think you missed my point, which was, Why call legislators names if they passed the bill as it was requested by the prosecutors who requested it? It's not their fault there is a disagreement among prosecutors on this issue. The squeaky wheel gets the grease at the Capitol, and they responded to those who were squeaking. It's a simple as that.

Trust me, I find LOTS of things to criticize them about, but on this issue, they just did what they were asked to do.
 
Posts: 2423 | Location: TDCAA | Registered: March 08, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Originally posted by suzannejost:
I'm surprised cell phones even work inside a prison--mine never works at the mall or in elevators and some spots in hotels.

Makes me wonder if there isn't something that could be done to at least block their signals? Don't know that much about technology, but that would make having the phones pointless and negate the need for searches, etc.


It's currently illegal for the state to jam the signals, but that may soon change ...
 
Posts: 2423 | Location: TDCAA | Registered: March 08, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Did anyone else notice that (in the context of the article) it is a "73-year-old federal law" that prevents states from jamming the signals of cell phones? What foresight by the authors of that bill to know that cell phones weren't far off! =P
 
Posts: 1089 | Location: UNT Dallas | Registered: June 29, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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More than 200 cell phones have been confiscated in state prison cellblocks since a system-wide shakedown for contraband ended in November, almost twice as many as were seized during the lockdown.


Details.
 
Posts: 7860 | Location: Georgetown, Texas | Registered: January 25, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Pigeons fly cell phones into Brazilian prison
By STAN LEHMAN
SAO PAULO - Inmates have devised an innovative way to smuggle in cell phones into a prison farm in Brazil: carrier pigeons.

Guards at the Danilio Pinheiro prison near the southeastern city of Sorocaba noticed a pigeon resting on an electric wire with a small cloth bag tied to one of its legs last week.

"The guards nabbed the bird after luring it down with some food and discovered components of a small cell phone inside the bag," police investigator Celso Soramiglio said Tuesday.

Details.

And here is actual footage with inmates discussing the physics of training a bird to transport contraband.
 
Posts: 7860 | Location: Georgetown, Texas | Registered: January 25, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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