Cell Phone Contraband

DATE: October 28, 2008

TO: Senator John Whitmire, ChairCriminal Justice Committee of Texas

TO: Representative Jerry Madden, ChairCorrection Committee of Texas

TO: Correction Committee Members

RE: Cell Phones/Guards

In reference to the below news article, I am disgusted with the continued failure of our Justice System to enforce the full extent of the Law, when the person working in a Public Trust position breaks the law.

The news article states that the guard had a need for money and was a good person. GIVE ME A BREAK!!! The Texas Prisons are full of good people who made a bad choice, they certainly do not get a break.

To stop what goes on daily in the prison system with contraband calls for punishment to fullest extent of the Law. Hard Punishment of a dose of their own environment will help others to remember they were hired in a position of Public Trust and their job description is to “Uphold the Law”, not break it.

This is just a tip of the iceberg as to what goes down daily in the units. If a person thinks for one minute that the guards turned in all the phones they found, they have to be out of touch with reality. Now they have more to bring in and resell later.

Don’t act like this is a surprise. There is not a legislator in Texas who has not received a notice concerning the guards supplying contraband to the Inmates.

Make a difference. Do something different. Enforce the laws concerning “abuse of laws” by guards.

Get the telephone system installed into the units.

Suggestion: Guards need to be tested annually as to their emotional stability. They need a monthly de-stress consulting program for their emotions to enable them to function in a professional manner.

Thank you,

(add full name, address, email, phone)

__________________________________________________

Former guard sentenced for providing inmate cell phone

By COLIN GUY October, 27, 2008

Providing an inmate with a cell phone has earned a former prison guard a cell of her own.

Davisha Maxine Martin, 26, of Port Arthur, who pleaded guilty to providing a prisoner with a cell phone in exchange for money, was sentenced to four years. Criminal District Court Judge John Stevens called the offense a violation of the public's trust.

"You are the people's last line of defense," he told her. "It's hard enough to do the job that has to be done and maintain order in those facilities. What you did was shame that work ethic people work so tirelessly to build up. You've now become the enemy."

Martin's court appearance was held one week after Gov. Rick Perry launched a statewide lockdown of Texas prisons following the discovery that a death row inmate, Richard Tabler, was using a cell phone to threaten a state senator. Tabler and nine other inmates he shared the phone with made over 2,800 calls over the one month period leading up to its discovery, according to The Enterprise's archives.

Since the crackdown started 60 cell phones have been discovered in prisons throughout the state. Authorities discovered 20 cell phones in the Mark W. Stiles Jr. Unit in Mid-County, according to TDCJ spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.

Statewide, authorities have also found 61 weapons, 52 tobacco products and money, which is also prohibited, according to an Associated Press report.

Martin's attorney, Phillip Dowden, said his client, who has no prior convictions, was in need of money because her husband had been in an industrial accident that left them unable to pay some of their bills.

"It was an innocent mind versus a criminal mind and the criminal mind won," he said.

Dowden added that with all of the media attention focused on the plague of contraband cell phones in state prisons that this was the worst possible time for his defendant to be sentenced. He requested the maximum allowable term of probation for Martin, who he said is a good person who made a bad decision.

"We have seen over the last week how much of a problem this has become in our prison system," Jefferson County prosecutor Ramon Rodriguez said, adding that he suggests Martin should serve a significant amount of time in jail prior to any probated sentence. "No matter what the circumstances put her there she was placed in a position of trust and that's why we're here."

Former guard sentenced for providing inmate cell phone
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Sen.John Whitmire,Chair

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Amarillo, TX 79105
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