Prisoner gets 40 more years for cellphone possession
by Evan Blass 
posted May 1st 2006 at 11:30AM
In a decision being touted by
prosecutors as a major victory in the war on inmate cellphone usage, jurors slapped Texan Michael Manor with a
surprising 40-year sentence for what they considered the very serious crime of possessing a cellphone in prison. Manor,
who was already serving 32 years on auto theft charges, was not even charged with using the phone for criminal
purposes; rather, the long sentence comes as a result of a new zero-tolerance cellphone policy in the Texas prison
system, where the offense was recently given third-degree felony status. Corrections offers are also a target of the
crackdown, with prosecutors promising to bring offenders in front of juries instead of offering them probation,
although there are concerns that the stricter penalties may actually make smuggling appear more lucrative.[Via textually]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Birki69 @ May 1st 2006 1:17PM
all americans that are always wondering why europeans dislike or laugh about americans: it's because of things like this.
its nothing against your citizens, its just so awful to see that a country with "the bomb" has politics that do things like this.
We are just affraid that the big red button in the oval office one day will be pushed, because some european politician told bush to go f*ck himself.
Tracy L @ May 1st 2006 1:34PM
This doesn't seem like a situation of punishment matching the crime. I mean people serve less than 20 years for murder. That's okay, but God forbid he have a cellphone!
Reminds me of lyrics from Les Mis: "5 years because you stole a loaf of bread. 14 more because you tried to run."
Shak @ May 1st 2006 2:18PM
Oh - so wait, you get 40 years for carrying a cellphone in prison, but its perfectly acceptible to rape other inmates?
Joe Mobile @ May 1st 2006 2:32PM
Hey Birki,
That's fine - keep looking down your Eurosnob nose at us. Were still here scratching our heads about the French govt telling Apple to open their DRM. If they don't like the closed iPod ecosystem, then simply don't buy the stupid thing. Plenty of stupid people on both sides, but you obviously have a self-esteem problem...
apt @ May 1st 2006 3:13PM
+1 for close mindedness
Has anyone ever thought that maybe there was a reason that possession of a cellular phone was given such status? Maybe the fact that it could be used for planning some other things?
Why would a prisoner have a legitmate use for a cell phone?
I'm not a prison warden or anything, so I don't know how prisons work. Maybe a warden or someone who works in a prison can help us out here.
Think before you speak, guys.
Birki69 @ May 1st 2006 3:13PM
@Joe Mobile: what are you talking about? i said that many people in europe dislike the US (as I said "not its citizens") becaus of its unbearable politics, so either your saying that you like this law, or you like DRM'd media. If thats not your point than everything in your posting was sensless. I never said "europe is the greatest region on earth" or something like that.
Pablo @ May 1st 2006 3:20PM
Briki,
Your comments have little, if not nothing, to do with the story and you haven't even justified your argument. You do look like a snob based on your comments, though i don't entirely disagree with you.
i think tracy hit the nail on the head: the punishment for a cell is greater than his original sentence for stealing a car.
Brian from Texas @ May 1st 2006 3:24PM
What your forgetting is that like our state of Texas, everything here is bigger, including our cell phones. That thing he had was the size of a cinder block and could have been used to kill someone.
Keith @ May 1st 2006 3:31PM
It's not really that hard to figure out - the entire concept of incarcerating someone as a punishment is to cut them off from society. The introduction of a cell phone into this environment counteracts the entire reason for putting an inmate into jail in the first place. Despite what some of our more 'enlightened' world neighbors may believe, our system of justice believes in jail as a penalty - not an overglorified 'time-out'.
Rusty @ May 1st 2006 3:32PM
The reason they don't want inmates to have cell phones is real easy. The staff cannot monitor the inmates behavior. All calls into and out of prisons are monitored, especially gang members. A lot of inmates are "coding" their snail mail to people on the outside and then the code is decyphered on the other end. This way, a gang leader on the inside can keep his "organization" running while locked up.
All mail is read before it is mailed, and inbound mail is checked also. A few years ago, LSD & acid blotters were being sent into jails by soaking greeting cards etc in the solution, letting them dry and passing them into the jail. The recepiant would then cut up tiny squares and sell it on the inside.
BIG profit!
The only reason I know such things is that I've worked in law enforcement for over 20 years.
They have nothing but time on their hands to think up
new ways to beat the system. It's a never ending battle.
Alex @ May 1st 2006 3:38PM
Are they crazy?! For what so sentence?! Killers get much short sentence. He killed many people? I think it's not fair
Joe Mobile @ May 1st 2006 5:08PM
Birki,
My point was that both laws are seemingly silly. Plenty of political nonsense on both sides of the pond. And yes, "europeans dislike or laugh about americans" smacks of elitism. Definitely sounds like a self-esteem problem to me...
Aussie @ May 1st 2006 6:21PM
As an australian nothing scares me more than our prime minister getting us tied up more an more with america, because america is a scarily-powerful dominant meme producer. The things they do arent always good, but they almost always get copied by australian politicians/businesses/teenagers/etc. I am not saying this is america's fault, I am not claiming responsibility for australia, but this is the kind of thing that makes me worried about disproportionate response from your politicians.
Just pointing out that although this may not seem to affect anyone outside of texas, anything that america does affects the rest of the world too.
Chris @ May 1st 2006 11:21PM
About time they make cellphones illegal. Well, this law apparently only applies to jail, but its certainly a start.
Rusty @ May 1st 2006 11:29PM
lol #14......yeah, kind of like a plane crash full of
lawyers....a good start ;)
I think the world wide stress level would go down if they popped a nuke right over the globe...the EMP would knock everything with a chip offline and get us back to knowing our neighbors LOL...
minus_273 @ May 2nd 2006 9:20AM
Birki:
sounds like someone has a real inferiority complex. You alsoyou ignorance. You cant criticize the US (by which i assume you mean the gov) and not its citizens. the citizens are the government you moron. Everyone running the government was put there by citizens. There are elections at local levels for almost every post from sewage collector to sherrif. So what you meant to say was you hate americans. doesnt sound so great when you put it that way now does it?
Tracy L @ May 2nd 2006 10:12AM
Prisoners could "plan something"? Well good! Then we record the cellphone conversations and go arrest their buddies on the outside. And don't tell me they can't do this. Just put a cell tower INSIDE the prison that the prison has full control over.
I disagree with Keith's comment that we put people in jail to "isolate" them from society. That does no good. We put them in jail to protect US from them, AND as punishment. But I don't think isolating them is punishment; it's more like sending them to private school with really screwed up teachers. If the intent is ever to return them to society, we want them to see some example of how us normal people actually live.
As I implied, the punishment should fit the crime. That means I think possession of a cell phone should be a small penalty. But it also means I think the death penalty should be enforced more. (I don't want to be accused of being a hypocrite.)
mike @ May 2nd 2006 3:44PM
Cellular phones possess a GREAT RISK in prisons to the employees and immediate community. When a number of prisoners are able to coordinate an uprising, as has been done in Equador, Colombia and Yemen, with cellular phones, they can effectively overtake the prison, escape and cause harm on the outside world.
Furthermore, a prisoner with a cell phone is able "to conduct his business affairs" without hindrance or monitoring. That is why the Bureau of Prisons has the following regulation:
Institutional Supplement No. PHL 5267.07 of 07 AUG 2003 on Visiting Regulations, Paragraph 22 at Page 18 (http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/phl/PHL_visit_hours.pdf ) that prohibits cellular telephones in the Visiting Room of a Federal prison.
You folk's are right that it would be cheaper to the tax payers to install jammers instead of lodging an inmate for another forty years. MUCH CHEAPER!!!!