Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, the Cell Phone Contraband Act of 2010 will address an ongoing problem of cell phones being smuggled into prisons by visitors and prison guards. Prison inmate cell phone accessibility has resulted in offenders facilitating and committing crimes with the use of the cell phones. Gangs have also become far more organized because members in prison have cell phone access. S. 1749 amends Federal law to make cell phones and similar devices contraband that Federal prisoners are prohibited from possessing. Some have argued that cell phone smuggling is a direct reaction to the outrageous costs inmates and their families pay for telephone calls while a person is incarcerated. Prisons and jails require that inmates call their families collect or pay for calls with their prison accounts. And, indeed, phone companies charge much more for calls from prisons than they charge for calls made from outside prison. For example, one organization found that a 15-minute collect call made from San Quentin Prison to Oakland, both in California, would cost $5; whereas, the same collect call made from outside the prison would be about $2.55.”