DO YOU FEEL SAFER THIS MORNING? – AT 3:03 A.M. ET:  Just to assure you that the most dangerous among us are under constant watch, constant guard, deprived of the privileges routinely granted to their legitimate fellow citizens.  Ah, the inspiration:

Reporting from Sacramento — Contraband cellphones are becoming so prevalent in California prisons that guards can't keep them out of the hands of the most notorious and violent inmates: Even Charles Manson, orchestrator of one of the most notorious killing rampages in U.S. history, was caught with an LG flip phone under his prison mattress.

This will do wonders for LG's reputation.  Is an endorsement deal in the works?

Manson made calls and sent text messages to people in California, New Jersey, Florida and British Columbia before officers discovered the phone, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections.

Now wait.  How did he get a cell phone account?  Do his minutes roll over from one month to the next? 

Asked whether Manson had used the device to direct anyone to commit a crime or to leave a threatening message, Thornton said, "I don't know, but it's troubling that he had a cellphone since he's a person who got other people to murder on his behalf."

Although officials say inmates use smuggled cellphones for all manner of criminal activity, including running drug rings from behind bars, intimidating witnesses and planning escapes, it is not a crime to possess one in a California prison.

I've worked among Hollywood agents and producers.  The word crime has a somewhat flexible meaning out there.

Prisoner-rights advocates argue that cellphones let prisoners avoid high fees for making collect calls from prison pay phones — the only allowed method of phone communication, with all calls monitored — and help them maintain crucial bonds with family and friends while they serve time.

But family contact can cut two ways, prison officials say. In September, an inmate at Avenal State Prison in Central California had been calling his 75-year-old mother to get her to collect drug debts owed by customers on the street. After guards found the phone, police raided the woman's La Puente home and found more than $24,000 cash, said Doug Snell, a corrections department spokesman.

That's a heartwarming story.  Family businesses are the rock of America.

COMMENT:  Hey look, it's a prison.  They are called cell phones.  Maybe this was just a misunderstanding.

December 3, 2010