Cell
phones smugglers in Florida prisons may end up spending up to five
years in one under a new law enacted October 1, 2008 that makes the
introduction of cell phones into
prison a third degree felony.
Cell phones smuggled into Florida
prisons help inmates with everything from dealing drugs to plotting
escapes. To sniff out the contraband devices, Florida has a special dog
on duty.
"Just like a drug dog is trained to smell drugs, Razor is trained to
smell cell phones," Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl
Plessinger said.
Razor, a 14-month-old Malinois (Belgian Shepard), was donated
to the Department of Corrections by the Animal Welfare Foundation of
Winter Garden. Razor is Florida Department of Correction's first cell phone detecting dog.
“Cell phones in prison pose a significant threat to
prison security, because they are used by inmates to coordinate escape
attempts, intimidate witnesses, introduce contraband like drugs and
weapons into the prison and engage in numerous other illegal
activities,” said Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Walter
McNeil. “This legislation is a good first step in reducing
those
problems within our institutions.”
In the fiscal year 2007-08, 336 cell phones were confiscated from Florida’s prison
population. As cell phone technology improves and they become smaller
and easier to hide, the problem has become a prison security concern
nationwide.
Because cell phones keep getting smaller they are easy to hide in thing like the slipper shown at left.
Editors Note: The cell phone in the shoe appears to be a the Motorola, prepaid phone, the Go Phone Motorola C168i. We’re wondering if Razor finds MotoRAZRs faster. Because he’s dog, he probably doesn’t mind that his name is spelled differently