REGION: Jails call on cellphone-sniffing dogs
- PHOTO GALLERY CHINO: California Institution for Men K-9 team.
Inland prisons and jails have a new tool to keep smuggled cellphones out of the hands of inmates.
Sniffing dogs are now on duty.
Contraband in lockups is not a new problem, and Inland corrections officials have used drug-sniffing dogs for years. But in the past decade, cellphones have changed the game.
Authorities discover thousands of contraband cellphones at prisons across the country every year — more than 12,000 this year in California alone.
Inmates aren’t using the phones just to call home.
Corrections officials say cellphones have been used to facilitate drug deals, order gang hits, harass crime victims and thwart prison security.
Inmates have used cellphones with Internet access to search the Megan’s Law database and then attack sex offenders in prison.
Unlike calls from land lines, contraband cellphone conversations cannot be monitored by corrections officials.
Phones reach inmates in many ways, said Paul Verke, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Visitors smuggle them, sometimes in body cavities. Prison workers have brought them in. They also have been stashed in shipping boxes among other goods and even thrown over prison walls. And pick-ups have been coordinated with inmate work crews.
“You take a cellphone away from an inmate today and it seems like tomorrow he’s got another one,” said Sgt. Wayne Conrad, the department’s statewide canine coordinator.
Conrad said dogs make finding contraband cellphones quicker by targeting specific areas for staff to search. Dogs have discovered hundreds of phones in the department’s prisons since the program launched in 2008. In the past year, cellphone-sniffing Belgian malinois — also known as Belgian shepherds — have been placed at state facilities in Chino, Norco and Blythe.
Riverside County sheriff’s officials said cellphones have not been a significant problem in the jails. Deputies found one, in July 2010, during a routine search, jail officials said. But the Sheriff’s Department is taking measures to deter inmates from trying to obtain them.
When the department purchased a contraband dog last year, officials also trained it to detect cellphones. Since December 2010, the yellow Labrador retriever has been traveling to the county’s five jails in search of drugs, tobacco, cellphones and “pruno” — a foul alcoholic concoction brewed by inmates using fruit and sugary items.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has found very few contraband cellphones and has no dogs assigned to its jails or trained to detect cellphones, sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said.
Correctional Officer Paul Diaz, who is based at the California Institution for Men in Chino, became a K-9 handler this year. He called it baffling but said there’s something about the odor of a cellphone that draws his dog.
“He will not find a DVD player. He will not find a Walkman. He will not find a TV,” Diaz said.
Being able to tell the difference is important in the prisons, where many inmates have televisions and other electronics in their cells.
Prison and jail officials won’t say what gives cellphones their unique odor. But some trainers have said the battery is among the components dogs detect.
When the dogs detect contraband they paw furiously at the source of the scent and bark. Their reward is play — a game of tug with the handler.
Though the Riverside County jailhouse dog, Zuki, has yet to encounter a contraband cellphone, she found drugs, tobacco and more than three gallons of pruno during her first six months on the job, said her handler, Deputy Brent Cisneros.
Unlike the prison dogs’ aggressive alerts, Zuki sits when she finds contraband.
When they arrive for searches at conservation camps, the facilities that house inmate fire and other work crews, Conrad said “You can actually see the phones flying out the windows.”
And when the dogs make their way into a cell block, toilets flush all down the line, the handlers said.
Conrad said the Department of Corrections has had drug-sniffing dogs for decades but acquired its first cellphone sniffing dog in January 2008. A Temecula breeder sold the Belgian malinois to the department for $350 — far less than it was worth — and after a few months of training, it went to work, Conrad said. It was quickly joined by a second dog donated by the same breeder. Since then, all of the department’s cellphone dogs have been donated or purchased for a small fee, Conrad said.
Correctional Officer Paul Diaz said he has seen phones and other contraband hidden in every nook and cranny of a cell block, both inside the cells and in common areas. Inmates try to be creative with their hiding places, he said, wrapping contraband in cellophane and stuffing it in a jar of peanut butter, for instance, or tucking it in light fixtures.
In prison, Conrad said, a $49 cellphone can sell for $300 to $800. A Blackberry or smart phone can go as high as $1,500, he said.
In 2007, staff discovered nearly 1,400 contraband cellphones, according to department officials. By last year, that number had grown to 10,760.
This year, through October, 12,625 cellphones were found in prisons and conservation camps. At the California Institution for Men in Chino, 126 cellphones were found, some of them by Diaz and his Belgian malinois that began working there in May.
Corrections officials said they hope a bill Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in October will help stem the tide. In the past, inmates could lose privileges and employees could be fired if caught with contraband cellphones. The new law will make possessing a cellphone in prison or trying to bring a phone into a prison a misdemeanor. It carries a fine of $5,000 per device. Inmates also can lose up to 90 days’ credit on their prison sentence.
Though sniffing dogs have proven effective at finding cellphones, Conrad said taking away the phones alone will not solve the problem. The enforcement needs teeth — a criminal penalty — to deter cellphone smuggling.
“These prisons are like small cities,” Conrad said. “They’re going to get in.”
Sniffing dogs are now on duty.
Contraband in lockups is not a new problem, and Inland corrections officials have used drug-sniffing dogs for years. But in the past decade, cellphones have changed the game.
Authorities discover thousands of contraband cellphones at prisons across the country every year — more than 12,000 this year in California alone.
Inmates aren’t using the phones just to call home.
Corrections officials say cellphones have been used to facilitate drug deals, order gang hits, harass crime victims and thwart prison security.
Inmates have used cellphones with Internet access to search the Megan’s Law database and then attack sex offenders in prison.
Unlike calls from land lines, contraband cellphone conversations cannot be monitored by corrections officials.
Phones reach inmates in many ways, said Paul Verke, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Visitors smuggle them, sometimes in body cavities. Prison workers have brought them in. They also have been stashed in shipping boxes among other goods and even thrown over prison walls. And pick-ups have been coordinated with inmate work crews.
“You take a cellphone away from an inmate today and it seems like tomorrow he’s got another one,” said Sgt. Wayne Conrad, the department’s statewide canine coordinator.
Conrad said dogs make finding contraband cellphones quicker by targeting specific areas for staff to search. Dogs have discovered hundreds of phones in the department’s prisons since the program launched in 2008. In the past year, cellphone-sniffing Belgian malinois — also known as Belgian shepherds — have been placed at state facilities in Chino, Norco and Blythe.
Riverside County sheriff’s officials said cellphones have not been a significant problem in the jails. Deputies found one, in July 2010, during a routine search, jail officials said. But the Sheriff’s Department is taking measures to deter inmates from trying to obtain them.
When the department purchased a contraband dog last year, officials also trained it to detect cellphones. Since December 2010, the yellow Labrador retriever has been traveling to the county’s five jails in search of drugs, tobacco, cellphones and “pruno” — a foul alcoholic concoction brewed by inmates using fruit and sugary items.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has found very few contraband cellphones and has no dogs assigned to its jails or trained to detect cellphones, sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said.
FINE-TUNED NOSES
K-9 handlers say dogs trained to find cellphones can distinguish between the scent of a cellphone and other electronics.Correctional Officer Paul Diaz, who is based at the California Institution for Men in Chino, became a K-9 handler this year. He called it baffling but said there’s something about the odor of a cellphone that draws his dog.
“He will not find a DVD player. He will not find a Walkman. He will not find a TV,” Diaz said.
Being able to tell the difference is important in the prisons, where many inmates have televisions and other electronics in their cells.
Prison and jail officials won’t say what gives cellphones their unique odor. But some trainers have said the battery is among the components dogs detect.
When the dogs detect contraband they paw furiously at the source of the scent and bark. Their reward is play — a game of tug with the handler.
Though the Riverside County jailhouse dog, Zuki, has yet to encounter a contraband cellphone, she found drugs, tobacco and more than three gallons of pruno during her first six months on the job, said her handler, Deputy Brent Cisneros.
Unlike the prison dogs’ aggressive alerts, Zuki sits when she finds contraband.
FLOOD OF PHONES
K-9 handlers said the element of surprise is key to catching inmates with phones.When they arrive for searches at conservation camps, the facilities that house inmate fire and other work crews, Conrad said “You can actually see the phones flying out the windows.”
And when the dogs make their way into a cell block, toilets flush all down the line, the handlers said.
Conrad said the Department of Corrections has had drug-sniffing dogs for decades but acquired its first cellphone sniffing dog in January 2008. A Temecula breeder sold the Belgian malinois to the department for $350 — far less than it was worth — and after a few months of training, it went to work, Conrad said. It was quickly joined by a second dog donated by the same breeder. Since then, all of the department’s cellphone dogs have been donated or purchased for a small fee, Conrad said.
Correctional Officer Paul Diaz said he has seen phones and other contraband hidden in every nook and cranny of a cell block, both inside the cells and in common areas. Inmates try to be creative with their hiding places, he said, wrapping contraband in cellophane and stuffing it in a jar of peanut butter, for instance, or tucking it in light fixtures.
In prison, Conrad said, a $49 cellphone can sell for $300 to $800. A Blackberry or smart phone can go as high as $1,500, he said.
In 2007, staff discovered nearly 1,400 contraband cellphones, according to department officials. By last year, that number had grown to 10,760.
This year, through October, 12,625 cellphones were found in prisons and conservation camps. At the California Institution for Men in Chino, 126 cellphones were found, some of them by Diaz and his Belgian malinois that began working there in May.
Corrections officials said they hope a bill Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in October will help stem the tide. In the past, inmates could lose privileges and employees could be fired if caught with contraband cellphones. The new law will make possessing a cellphone in prison or trying to bring a phone into a prison a misdemeanor. It carries a fine of $5,000 per device. Inmates also can lose up to 90 days’ credit on their prison sentence.
Though sniffing dogs have proven effective at finding cellphones, Conrad said taking away the phones alone will not solve the problem. The enforcement needs teeth — a criminal penalty — to deter cellphone smuggling.
“These prisons are like small cities,” Conrad said. “They’re going to get in.”
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