From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: Detecting Federal Prisoners' Illegal Cell Phone Use

Audio interview by GAO staff with David Maurer, Director, Homeland
Security and Justice

Related GAO Work: GAO-11-893: Bureau of Prisons: Improved Evaluations
and Increased Coordination Could Improve Cell Phone Detection

Released on: September 6, 2011

[ Background Music ]

[ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and
information from the Government Accountability Office. It's September
6th, 2011. The Bureau of Prisons confiscates thousands of cell phones
from federal inmates each year, suggesting that contraband cell phone
use is growing with potentially dangerous consequences. A group led by
Dave Maurer, a Director in GAO's Homeland Security and Justice team,
recently reviewed the issues around federal inmates' cell phone use.
GAO's Jeremy Cluchey sat down with Dave to learn more.

[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] How quickly is cell phone use by federal prisoners
growing?

[ David Maurer: ] We collected some data on that, and what we found was
that from 2008 to 2010, the number of cell phones confiscated in federal
prisons had actually doubled. So it's growing quite dramatically. We
also had some data from selected states. We found in some of the states,
it's an even bigger problem. So for example in California, we found that
from 2008 to 2010 they had found four times as many smuggled cell phones
in that period of time. California's definitely been the leader in this
regard, so they found over 10,000 smuggled cell phones in 2010 alone.

[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] What's the risk of having these cell phones in
federal prisons. What are some of the potential consequences that can
result from prisoners using cell phones illegally while they're
incarcerated?

[ David Maurer: ] One of the major risks is that it allows inmates to
continue the operation of their criminal activities while they're still
incarcerated. They can still communicate with their colleagues outside
the walls of the prison, and we found several examples of this going on.
For example, one individual was running an identity theft ring with some
of his colleagues outside the prison. They were able to rack up over
$250,000 worth of stolen goods by taking advantage of stolen credit
cards, that sort of thing. This was going on while he was still
incarcerated. The Feds found him out, and he was convicted and had 14
years added to his sentence. One of the other risks is that it allows
inmates to communicate with one another, both within the prison as well
as across different prisons within an individual system. This allows
them to pass information about security, information about specific
guards, organize protests, that sort of thing. So it presents a real
problem for safety and security within the walls of the prison.

[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] You identified a few efforts the Bureau of Prisons
has undertaken to combat cell phone smuggling. Can you talk about these?

[ David Maurer: ] Sure. First and foremost, they screen everyone who
comes into a prison, that includes the folks that work there. This isn't
just specific to identifying or getting smuggled cell phones, it's for
all kinds of contraband. That's sort of the first line of defense.
Bureau of Prisons is also taking a look at a variety of technologies
that are available to combat this problem, and in two of their
institutions, they've actually deployed systems that allow them to see
where cell phones are being used inside the system. They're currently
testing those right now.

[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] And what is GAO recommending the Bureau of Prisons
do to further reduce the risks that you talked about?

[ David Maurer: ] We think first and foremost that they need to be a
little more rigorous in how they test this new equipment or this new and
developing technology. We recommended that BOP do this and they
concurred with that. Secondly, we wanted to make sure that if prisons
are given new equipment to be tested, that they actually are required to
comply with this rigorous evaluation testing. The third thing we think
is important for BOP to do is at the regional level, to work with our
counterparts at the state, federal, and local level. There's a lot of
activity at all levels of government right now to address this problem
with cell phone smuggling. A lot of different technologies are being
tested in a lot of different places, and we think it's important for BOP
to coordinate with those folks.

[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] Absent cell phones, your group also looked at other
means that prisoners have for communicating with the outside world
through phone calls. Can you talk a little bit about what you found
there?

[ David Maurer: ] Congress asked us also to look at the costs to inmates
of making phone calls through prison-provided telephone systems. There
is some concern that if the phone rates for making these calls back to
friends and loved ones are too high, it creates an additional incentive
for folks to smuggle cell phones into prisons, so we looked at that. And
what we found is that within the federal system, inmates are charged a
rate which in most cases is lower than what they're charged in state
systems, in some cases significantly lower. Within the federal system,
all of the money that's collected from the charges that inmates pay to
make calls through the system go back into a trust fund. That trust fund
finances the operation of the phone system as well as some other
recreational activities within the prison itself. Some of the people we
talked to felt that this was useful because you want to have prisoners
occupied and employed—things to do with their time. Because if you don't
have something to do for them, they're going to come up with things on
their own and that may not be the best for everyone involved.

[ Background Music ]

[ Narrator: ] To learn more, visit GAO's website at GAO.gov and be sure
to tune in to the next edition of GAO's Watchdog Report for more from
the congressional watchdog, the Government Accountability Office.