SC inmates help rescue prison guard by using their illegal cell phones

Inmates help rescue guard using illegal cell phone

The Lee Correctional Institution located in South Carolina is in the news because SC inmates helped rescue a guard that was taken hostage by using their illegal cell phones.

We know that prison inmates are not supposed to have cell phones but somehow they do and, in this case, it helped police in their efforts to rescue a prison guard.

On  Thursday evening at approximately 5 pm, South Carolina’s The State reports that some of the inmates in the Chesterfield Dorm at Lee Correctional, which houses approximately 120 inmates, decided to attack a prison guard, perhaps in an ill-fated escape attempt.

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The inmates, using what is believed to be homemade knives, forced one of the guards into the broom closet.

Apparently at the time of day, there are only one or two guards on duty in that area so it probably wasn’t too difficult to overpower the guard.

Surprisingly, some of the inmates contacted the main prison line, using their contraband cellphones, and reported the situation as well as where the guard was being kept.

Turns out the information provided by the inmates who used their cell phones was correct and the guard was rescued.

Department of Corrections spokesman Clark Newsom told The State that the effort by inmates was disorganized and that other inmates wanted to end it.

The rescued guard did not appear to be injured but was taken to a local hospital as a precaution.

Lee Correctional Institution has another hostage situation back in June and that guard also was not injured.

How do prison inmates obtain cell phones?

SC inmates help rescue prison guard by using their illegal cell phones and people want to know how the prison inmates get access to cell phones.Aren’t they incarcerated?

Most people think that once someone is locked up that everything they do is controlled and that there is no way they can obtain contraband.  That is very far from the truth.

Drugs, cell phones and even weapons can be obtained in many prisons in the United States.

There are networks in prison just as there are on the outside.

Prison visitors and corrupt prison guards are though to be two of the biggest sources responsible for smuggling cell phones into prisons.

Some families have been known to smuggle cell phones into the prison to provide phones to their family members as a way to reduce the collect call chargers they would have to pay if the inmate used the jail’s authorized phone.

Other inmates use cell phones to continue to run their oftentimes illegal business’.

in 2008, 2,800 phones were confiscated from inmates in California

There is technology that can detect who is using cell phones in prison but it is costly.

According to the Post-Gazette, companies such as EVI Technology and AirPatrol make systems that use radio frequency sensors hooked up to a computer that displays a map of the prison. If someone is using a phone, a technician at the computer will see a flashing blip on the screen.

Until more states elect to use the advanced technologies available to combat cell phones ownership in prisons, the number of inmates will illegal cell phones will increase.

For the Lee Correctional Institution, the illegal cell phone that the inmates had may have saved a guard’s life.

Related articles

• Officer taken hostage at SC prison is freed
• Prison Guard Held Hostage for Hours

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