Texas Prisons Locked Down After Cell Phone Found
All Texas prisons were locked down and searched for contraband on the orders of Gov. Rick Perry after a cell phone was found on death row. Authorities said death row inmates made thousands of calls on the phone, which was smuggled in by the mother of inmate Richard Tabler.Tabler's 60-year-old mother has been arrested on felony charges of providing a prohibited item to an inmate.
Prison officials said Tabler shared the cell phone with nine other death row inmates who made about 2,600 calls during the past month. The cell phone was discovered after Richard Tabler called a state senator and told him he knew his daughters and where they lived.
Lorraine Tabler was arrested for giving the cell phone to her son and purchasing minutes for it. She was in jail waiting for her bond to be set.
Prisons Searched for Contraband
The telephone was smuggled into the prison with the help of a corrections officer who was bribed. Officials did not release the name of the officer.
Gov. Perry ordered Texas cell blocks searched and any contraband from inmates, staff and visitors seized. Perry said all violators would be prosecuted.
"Let there be no doubt about how seriously we take this security breach," Perry told reporters.
See Also:
Texas Searches Prisons After Death Row Phone Found
Mug Shot of Richard Tabler
Free Newsletter:
Get the Crime & Punishment Newsletter
More Crime News:
Top Stories
Current Investigations and Trials
Unsolved Cases
Photo: Clipart.com
Comments
All this hoorah over a cell phone?!?!? Get real, so some death row killer had a cell phone and shared it with other death row killers ho hum..
N ow if he had some REAL contraband, like a gun, knife, drugs, or the like, then that would be worth getting upset about. But a cell phone? What a laugh, I sure hope you Texans enjoy wasting your tax dollars.
Geez! Use a cell phone, call a state senator, threaten him and his daughters, then ….Call one of your murderous friends to do the deed. And that was the only one of the calls listed in this story. Too Bad they didn’t have your number Dave. Use your brain! Who knows what other damage could be caused by the use of the cell phone.
If security was so lax (or intensional) that they missed the phone it just as well could have been a gun.
Andi what about the injustice the legal system is doing to inmates on deathrow?What about the innocent inmates that have been executed? people should be shouting and screaming about this not cell phones.TROY DAVIS HAS HAD 3 STAYS BUT THEY WONT GIVE HIM A RETRIAL THIS MAN FACES EXECUTION HE IS INNOCENT SCREAM AND SHOUT ABOUT THAT.
Not all friends of deathrow inmates are murderers as you put it either!!!!