| | |  Americas & Beyond | November 2008 
X-Ray Reveals Cell Phone in Death Row Inmate's Rectum
 Peggy Fikac - Houston Chronicle
go to original
| | (The Sidney Morning Herald) | | |
Austin — Another day, another cell phone found on Texas' death row.
Prison staff conducting a shakedown of the row Friday found a cell phone secreted in the rectum of convicted murderer Henry Skinner at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.
They first found two SIM cards, or memory chips, in Skinner's Bible, she said. Because they suspected he also had a cell phone, they took him to the infirmary, did an X-ray and found the cell phone.
'Just very alarming'
The matter was turned over to the prison system's inspector general, John Moriarty, for investigation. It was the second cell phone found on death row in a matter of days, and the 14th since last month.
"It's just very alarming. It's very disturbing, and we must be diligent and just demand that it be fixed once and for all," said Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, who has been the target of a death threat by a different death-row inmate, Richard Tabler.
"I think I've reached the conclusion the people that operate that system need to be held accountable," Whitmire said. "Somebody was definitely negligent in keeping contraband out of our prison system."
A spokeswoman for GOP Gov. Rick Perry, however, said the fact the contraband was discovered shows the effectiveness of the system. Perry appoints the board members who oversee the prison system.
"The fact they found the phones is proof positive the processes they now have in place to identify and apprehend contraband are working," said Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle.
After the lockdown
Prison officials have said it's difficult to keep contraband out of the hands of inmates, who are allowed visitors and a number of possessions.
A prison lockdown was instituted in October after officials found 10 death row inmates had made nearly 2,800 calls from a cell phone linked to Tabler, who had himself called Whitmire.
A lockdown means all programs cease, offenders are confined to their housing areas, visitations are suspended and inmates' property is searched. Before the latest discoveries, the lockdown had yielded on death row alone 12 cell phones, nine chargers, three cell phone batteries, seven SIM cards and two weapons, Lyons said.
Hours after the lockdown was lifted Wednesday, officials found a cell phone and other contraband in the possession of death row inmate Mark Stroman.
Concern over that discovery was heightened when officials Thursday said Tabler had made death threats against Whitmire and Austin American-Statesman reporter Mike Ward, who also had received calls from the inmate. A death row cell phone could be used to order a hit by someone on the outside.
Skinner, the most recent inmate to be found with a phone, was sent to death row in the murder of his girlfriend and her two sons at their Pampa home in 1993.
pfikac(at)express-news.net |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us