Prisons search yields 13 more cell phones

Prisons search yields 13 more cell phones
Original inmate who had smuggled device transferred to psychiatric unit
By LISA SANDBERG Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — The death row inmate who ignited a growing scandal on prison contraband after he was caught talking on a smuggled cell phone was transferred Wednesday to a prison psychiatric unit after guards discovered a 3-foot strip of sheet tied to a fixture in his cell.
Richard Tabler was restrained and taken in for evaluation after guards also noticed red marks on his neck. No serious injuries were noted. Tabler was later transferred to Jester IV in Richmond from the Livingston prison.
"We don't know if he was going to make a noose. It's a precaution," prison spokesman Jason Clark said of Tabler, 29.
Tabler's threatening calls from a smuggled cell phone to state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, and a reporter prompted the governor this week to order a systemwide lockdown so guards could sweep all 112 prisons for contraband.
The massive search through Texas prisons has turned up 13 more smuggled cell phones and 12 more cell phone chargers in the past 24 hours, including another phone and charger found on death row, Clark said.
The cell phone and charger discovered on death row were found above the ceiling in the men's shower area. That brings the number of cell phones found since Monday on Texas' death row to four. Another 19 cell phones or cell phone parts have been discovered on death row since January.
The prison system remains locked down, with inmates assigned to their cells as correctional officers sweep all prison units for contraband, a process that could take three weeks.
So far, no employees have been arrested in connection with any of the smuggled cell phones found this week.
But felony charges were filed Wednesday against Tabler's 36-year-old sister, Kristina Martinez, of Salado, in connection with carrying a prohibited item into a correctional facility.
John Moriarty, the prison system's inspector general, said Martinez and her mother, Lorraine Tabler, are suspected of paying the minutes on the cell phone Tabler used and apparently lent his prison buddies to make nearly 2,800 calls over the past month.
Lorraine Tabler is similarly charged. Neither woman could be reached for comment.
On Tuesday, an angry Sen. Whitmire called on prison officials to take steps to combat the apparently ubiquitous presence of cell phones, including jamming cell phone frequencies and patting down guards.
Top prison officials countered they weren't sure if such measures were entirely legal. Clark said Wednesday that prison officials were coordinating with federal authorities in an effort to find a way around an obscure Federal Communications Act rule from the 1930s that prohibits states from interfering with federal airways.
Clark said that the FCC gives federal agencies the authority to use jammers but not states or local law enforcement.
Clark said the prison is using patdown searches only in cases where there's suspicion of criminal activity. He added that the prison system was now prohibiting correctional staff from bringing food into units.