Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Cell Phone Contraband Act. The illegal use of wireless phones in prisons is a serious problem. Smuggled cell phones are used by prisoners to maintain connections with their criminal enterprises beyond prison walls and even to commit crimes from within prison. A recent Washington Post article reported the following incidents: A drug dealer behind bars in Maryland used a phone to arrange to have a witness assassinated outside his home last summer. In Kansas, a convicted killer sneaked out of prison after planning the 2006 escape using a cell phone smuggled by an accomplice. The following year, two inmates escaped another Kansas prison with the help of a former guard and a smuggled cell phone. California prison officials confiscated about 2,800 cell phones statewide in 2008, double the number discovered the year before. The Cell Phone Contraband Act makes it a crime for Federal prisoners to possess cell phones while incarcerated. The bill also directs the GAO to study the cost and use of landlines and smuggled cell phones in Federal and selected State prisons and jails. The study will additionally examine selected State and Federal efforts to prevent the smuggling of cell phones and other wireless devices into prisons, including efforts made to minimize trafficking of cell phones by prison guards and other officials. This is a commonsense bill to ensure that when criminals are locked up, their ability to harm citizens is completely cut off.…”