How Cell Phones Play Huge Role In Prison Escapes

The manhunt surrounding escaped New York prisoners David Sweat and Richard Matt may be over, but questions surrounding how they coordinated their escape still remain. According to other inmates at the Clinton Correctional Facility, Matt and Sweat were seen with cell phones before their escape. While officials have no proof whether this is true, it is known that the phone of the female prison employee who aided their escape was used to call numbers connected to the escapees. It’s likely she either made calls for them, or let them use her phone.

It wouldn’t be the first time contraband cell phones have helped inmates make successful escape attempts.

• In 2005 Tennessee inmate George Hyatte used a cell phone to coordinate an attack at the Roane County Courthouse. Hyatte’s wife shot two transport officers during a court hearing, killing one of them and wounding the other.
• In 2008 Sarah Jo Pender escaped from the Rockville Correctional Center in Indiana using a cell phone provided by a prison guard.
• In 2011 Texas inmate David Pucket escaped from the Stiles Unit maximum-security facility and escaped to Nebraska on a Greyhound bus. Pucket made hundreds of calls to a girlfriend located there while in prison on his contraband cell phone.

Cell phones are a huge problem for prisons, because they allow inmates unsupervised contact with the outside world. Besides planning escape attempts, criminals behind bars have used cell phones to run their criminal empires, intimidate witnesses, order hits on enemies and rivals, and communicate with other inmates.

Cell phones make their way into prisons through the efforts of accomplices and corrupt staff. Once the phone is in an inmate’s hands, accomplices on the outside top up the balance. Visitors smuggle phones on their person, while accomplices send them through the mail or throw them over the prison walls. Some use more unusual methods of delivery like flying them in using drones or carrier pigeons.

Many more phones are smuggled in by people on the prison payroll. In many states prison employee wages start at around $22,000 a year, so smuggling phones can boost a corrupt employee’s pay significantly. A prepaid feature phone that sells for less than $10 at the local electronics store can fetch up to $500 behind bars. A smartphone can go for up to $2,000. The motivation is usually money, but some inmates like Matt and Sweat cultivate a personal relationship with a staff member.

Prisons use many methods of keeping cell phones under control. The newest method uses a wireless network that mimics a cellular tower and only allows calls from authorized phones. Unfortunately, this type of system could not have prevented the New York prisoner escape because the employee’s phone was authorized. Prison officials must still keep phones out of inmates’ hands to ensure public safety. For that, there are many handheld and installed cell phone detection devices that help officers enforce a no cell phone policy. And until the contraband cell phone problem gets under control, we can expect more escape attempts and danger aimed at the guards, prison and public populations.