No one locked up is supposed to have a cell phone. No imprisoned drug lord is supposed to be able to use a land line to order executions on the outside.
But recent criminal cases and interviews with prison insiders show that a convict behind bars in Maryland still has extraordinary telephonic opportunity to commit more crimes while serving time.
"Cell phone use is very troubling," said Rod J. Rosenstein, the U.S. attorney for Maryland, and its discovery inside prisons "represents a complete security lapse."
On Monday, federal prosecutors in cooperation with the Baltimore state's attorney's office charged 28 alleged gang members, including a reputed city gang leader who commanded the Bloods gang by making calls from prison.
A murder-for-hire in Baltimore County in July was ordered by an inmate using a cell phone from state prison, according to a separate indictment earlier this month.
State prison system officials said yesterday that they could not say whether the number of cell phones smuggled into prison is on the rise or whether most are found during sweeps of cells or discovered on visitors or guards.
One former prison intelligence director estimated that about half the contraband cell phones - worth hundreds of dollars on the inside - are seized from inmates.
The number of inmates with cell phones is "very high," according to Frank Galaski, the recently retired director of intelligence for the state prison system in Maryland. Galaski said the phones are smuggled in by visitors, corrupt guards and outside workers entering the prison.
Adding to the problems, federal prosecutors say, gang members using phones have been known to put orders in code. In the case announced this week, one reputed gang leader at the Western Correctional Institute reportedly used Mafia-like language to try to restructure his drug turf in Baltimore.
State officials said yesterday that 395 cell phones were confiscated last year. Between January and August, the average was about 20 per month, said Rick Binetti, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.
More confiscations
But a crackdown last fall, which included more intensive searches of workers and correctional officers, led to a doubling of cell phone confiscations per month from September to December, Binetti said.
Last month, officials seized 80 cell phones in the state's 25 prison facilities.
