Mother of Richard Tabler TX DR Charged w/Paying Cell Phone Mins on Illegal Cell

[iamjumbo]

LMAO!!  This has to be a first.  She is going to jail BECAUSE she PAID the phone bill! 

no.  she is going to jail for bribing the guard and a few other felonies, as well as being garbage

[kat_the_rat]

Has the Guard been charged as well?  I hope so and I hope he has lost his job as well     

Kat

[iamjumbo]

I'm not going to excuse any staff involved in this. But if you see it from a pure practical point of view it's pretty much so that you'll get what you pay for. The lower you pay this people, the lower the status of their job is regarded in the outside society - the lower the quality of the staff will be. Thankfully there are a lot of decent persons willing to do a good job even for a small amount of money and little if any thankfulness. But others will fall for various temptations. Perhaps only to look in another direction when asked (but that can be bad enough). In other cases though they will be deeply involved in shit that may jeopardize the life and health of fellow staff or even people in the outside world.

Tougher control systems and harder punishment can help a bit. But I believe that to solve this problem you have to put more money into the prison system. Better wages, better education for the staff and other stuff as well.

Let's not forget the other roll of contraband either: By allowing it to some extent the prison staff can "buy" themselves a calmer working environment. It's no surprise that prison staff all over the world will look beside the rules in some cases. This can be particularly true in otherwise especially rough environments like DR. Here there might be another ways of dealing with the situation if we can set aside our lust of giving the prisoners a really hard time. I don't think that any prisoner "deserves" to have a TV f.e. But the calmer working enviroment for prison staff that TV:s might lead to is something I think that the staff deserves.

for the most part, you're right.  law enforcement folks should be paid a lot more than they are.
however, it doesn't matter how much you are paid.  taking a bribe is nothing more than demonstrating your inherent worthlessness.  if you would take a bribe, for anything, it is because you have no character and are morally bankrupt.  the money has nothing to do with anything

[iamjumbo]

I'm not going to excuse any staff involved in this. But if you see it from a pure practical point of view it's pretty much so that you'll get what you pay for. The lower you pay this people, the lower the status of their job is regarded in the outside society - the lower the quality of the staff will be. Thankfully there are a lot of decent persons willing to do a good job even for a small amount of money and little if any thankfulness. But others will fall for various temptations. Perhaps only to look in another direction when asked (but that can be bad enough). In other cases though they will be deeply involved in shit that may jeopardize the life and health of fellow staff or even people in the outside world.

Tougher control systems and harder punishment can help a bit. But I believe that to solve this problem you have to put more money into the prison system. Better wages, better education for the staff and other stuff as well.

Let's not forget the other roll of contraband either: By allowing it to some extent the prison staff can "buy" themselves a calmer working environment. It's no surprise that prison staff all over the world will look beside the rules in some cases. This can be particularly true in otherwise especially rough environments like DR. Here there might be another ways of dealing with the situation if we can set aside our lust of giving the prisoners a really hard time. I don't think that any prisoner "deserves" to have a TV f.e. But the calmer working environment for prison staff that TV:s might lead to is something I think that the staff deserves.

No Henrik, in your world you buy them ice cream and candy and sing them to sleep at night. I see everything you said which is a typical anti response and I mentioned it off thread to someone that would be the anti way of looking at this. What you do in actuality Henrik is find out the offenders who used the freaking phone are, you level them to the lowest privilege level for 6 months, you bust mommy's ass for paying the phone bill, you track the rest of the calls and then you ban the hell out of everyone from the visitor's list that was included in those phone calls. That's what you do. You also find out who provided the phone and charge them as well.
I see Henrik you "conveniently" failed to mention the threats made to outside persons and their families. Just something else that proves my point. Hope you weren't on the phone call list. 

obviously, this trash have no right to have a phone at all.  there MIGHT be a smidgen of justification if they were calling people, but, these worthless pieces of shyt were using them to call garbage that they had no right to be talking to even if they weren't on death row. 
they should not have any contact with ANYONE, in any way, for the duration, except the imbecillic attorneys

[iamjumbo]

Apparently somebody paid a guard to bring it in if I am reading the articles correctly. I will speculate Tabler drops the dime on who did it since his mommy is in deep deep kimchi. With them calling senators and threatening them you can guarantee all hell broke loose there.

most of the contraband is brought in by guards.  their lunch bags and so forth are looked in when they go to work and leave, but they are not searched.  they need to be, with at least a captain supervising

[Granny B]

Prison officials expand contraband search
By Mike Ward

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Saturday, October 25, 2008

At first, everyone going into Texas prisons was being searched as part of a massive contraband sweep. On Friday afternoon, officials ordered everyone leaving to be searched, too.

The reason: At one Beaumont prison, officials reportedly found guards carrying out cell phone chargers — presumably to keep inmates from getting caught with them.

"The warden there instituted searches for everyone going in and out ... and we're making that systemwide now until the lockdown is over," said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

"We don't want any (contraband) coming in. We don't want anything going out."

Effective late Friday afternoon, anyone entering or leaving Texas' 112 state prisons and parole lockups had to undergo pat searches and a run through a metal detector — an unprecedented security step.

Initial reports from prison officials indicated that at least two cell phone chargers were found on correctional officers leaving the Stiles Unit outside Beaumont overnight Thursday. Lyons confirmed that prison was the first to order the searches for those leaving, but said she had no details.

With more than 2,800 convicts and 776 employees, the Stiles Unit has the worst problem with smuggled cell phones. Since January, 180 cell phones have been seized there, of the more than 600 statewide, according to agency statistics.

Several weeks ago, correctional officers found more than 60 cell phones when they looked inside a new compressor as it was delivered.

The latest step came as prison officials reported that 40 smuggled cell phones, 36 chargers and 5 SIM (cell phone) cards have been confiscated since the sweep began.

The contraband sweep began late Monday and all state prisons were ordered locked down after death row inmate Richard Lee Tabler was busted for having a cell phone used to make 2,800 calls in a month.

Tabler, 29, said he paid $2,100 to get the phone smuggled in. Authorities are investigating who smuggled in the phone.

Tabler's calls included several to state Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who heads a legislative committee that oversees prisons. Investigators suspect at least nine other convicted murderers on death row also made calls from the phone.

Tabler's mother and sisters have been arrested on charges they bought minutes for his phone to allow him to make calls.

If convicted, they face up to two years in a state jail.

Friday's expansion of the searches came as employee complaints mounted.

At some prisons, officials who didn't have permission to speak publicly said the pat searches are triggering dozens of grievances and formal complaints, including some in which female employees alleged that male searchers improperly touched their breasts. At others, employees have complained they are not being allowed to bring in lunches and other personal items they had previously, said Brian Olsen, executive director of a labor union that represents some Texas correctional officers.

At the prison system's headquarters just north of Huntsville, the lockdown meant that trustees and porters who serve as janitors, office helpers and errand runners are not around.

By Friday, that had some employees complaining that the lockdown was hampering normal operations, an assertion prison officials dismissed.

mward@statesman.com; 445-1718

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/10/25/1025deathrow.html

[Jeff1857]

A systemwide shakedown of the huge Texas prison system is netting authorities more contraband than just illegal cell phones.

The seizure count of prohibited phones and phone components topped 120 items Monday as the first full week of the close inspection was ending, including 63 phones, 56 chargers and five SIM cards that swap information among phones.

But officers reported that they also have turned up 61 weapons, 52 instances of tobacco products and 14 discoveries of money — all prohibited for the estimated 155,000 inmates in the state's 111 prisons.

A statewide lockdown of the system began a week ago, ordered by Gov. Rick Perry hours after death row inmate Richard Tabler was caught making a call from his cell. The phone had been traced to a series of calls that began earlier this month to state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston.

Authorities said Tabler also shared the device with at least nine of his fellow condemned prisoners. Investigators determined that some 2,800 calls were made from the phone from inside the Polunsky Unit near Livingston.

Tabler was moved Wednesday to a prison medical psychiatric facility after officers believed he was attempting to kill himself. His mother and sister have been charged with introducing contraband into the prison system, a felony, for buying minutes to keep the phone active.

Inspections at about 15 units were completed, meaning an easing of the lockdown that had confined prisoners to their cells and barred visitations by inmates' relatives.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said the prisons where the order was lifted primarily were smaller units, such as substance abuse and medical facilities. At least one women's prison, the Mountain View Unit outside Gatesville, also was off lockdown, she said, along with intermediate sanction facilities in West Texas and North Texas.

Officials had estimated the shakedown in the nation's second-largest corrections system could last about three weeks at some of the large units, which can hold nearly 3,000 prisoners.

The phones and components were found primarily in housing areas and common areas of the prisons.

Of the weapons, the majority were homemade items known as shanks, Lyons said.

Authorities believe bribed corrections officers are responsible for a number of the contraband items.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6081509.html

[ExTxDRCO]

Before we blame the officers we should wait what they´ll find out. In Germany had been cases, that guards had been forced to commit illegal things by friends of inmates.

Best

Michael


Well Michael, The Inmates are not going to the store and buying them.. As for being Forced. I doubt it. It's just Greed on the CO's part. Once they start the inmates have leverage against the CO's.

[Michael]

Hi ExTxDRCO,

maybe the situation over the pond differs from the situation in Germany. We had some cases whre COs have beem forced to bring drugs/weapons/.... into the prison. The problem is that we have a mafia problem. What would you do if a russian man brings you a pcture of your daughter or son?
Maybe you loo away at the time drugs fly over the fences/walls or something like that.

I see the situation is not comparable to the US, because in Germany they´re well paid.

Best

Michael

[JeffB]

We had some cases whre COs have beem forced to bring drugs/weapons/.... into the prison. The problem is that we have a mafia problem. What would you do if a russian man brings you a pcture of your daughter or son?

Wow, is that right Michael?  I didn't know that Germany has a mafia problem.  You can damn well bet that if some Russian dude brings me a picture of my daughter, I'm going along with his program...   

[Hutchsmash]

Yup JeffB its pretty bad over here.  I've seen Russian mafia types in local Zansi bars and a buddy got robbed and beaten by a Russian gang at a local festival last year...

[Michael]

Yup JeffB its pretty bad over here.  I've seen Russian mafia types in local Zansi bars and a buddy got robbed and beaten by a Russian gang at a local festival last year...

You describe the things we see.. but this is the typical rude lifestyle of violent persons from the east.  The Mafia we can´t see is much more dangerous.

We can offer you mostly russian, lebanese, vietnamese, arab and albanian Mafia. The italian Mafia uses Germany mainly as a recreation area. You don´t see them but if you´re important for them they get  in contact with you. Just small signs and you know what to do. If I´m honest - if these guys need drungs inside the prison... I don´t think I´ll put my kids in danger.

I wonder that the mafia and gangs over the pond did not choose this way to bring things into the prison.

Best

Michael

[iamjumbo]

Man what an article... thanks Granny for posting it.. Corrections Officers are part of the contraband problem not only in major facilities, but most of them nationwide. It's called manipulation. I just went through a class on it in the Corrections Academy, and it's very subtle and the inmates pick their vicitims very carefully. It's quite interesting. Anyway, low pay will definitely turn a CO unless they follow policy and procedures of their institution. All say "It won't happen to me", but eventually the inmates will try, but it up to the CO to take quick action to stop it. As for those who are caught, they pay the price. COs must always be vigilant of what is going on.
 I'm going to copy this article and bring it to class on Monday.  Oh by the way I made a B on my mid term exams. We are now working on cuffing, body restraints, pat/frisk search, cell search, law, my very favourite... Defensive Tactics... 

After working at TDCJ for the past 18 years, I have just about seen it all.
Yes the CO's are the problem.. The Inmates cannot go to 7-11 and buy a TracPhone (The most confiscated). Someone has to bring it in. Unfortunately there are a few that will do anything for money.
In 1999 we caught a CO III at Polunsky trying to smuggle some .38 cal ammunition into the unit. Found the handgun in a medium security cellblock. S&W model 36.
We have had a No Tobacco policy since 1995, My last day at TDCJ I busted an Inmate in AdSeg (Maximum Security) with a pack of Marlboros. Go Figure.

there are morally bankrupt individuals in every profession.  when california prisons went non smoking, cigarettes went to forty bucks a pack, ten bucks for a lighter.  the cos lunch bags are looked into on the way in, but not searched, and the cos are not searched.  the only way to stop the contraband is to search every co on the way in, with at least a captain present.

[Granny B]

Prison officials looking at cell phone tracking technology
By Mike Ward

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Thursday, October 30, 2008

Stung by revelations this month that death row inmates used a smuggled cell phone to log thousands of calls, prison officials confirmed Wednesday that they are actively reviewing technology to curb the problem.

The possible solution: high-tech gear that could pinpoint the location in a prison where a smuggled phone is being used.

The development came as officials released an updated tally from a recent contraband sweep during a lockdown of Texas' 112 state prisons: Seventy-one cell phones were confiscated — including five from death row — along with 65 chargers.

By early Wednesday, the lockdown had been lifted at just over a third of state prisons — after the contraband search was completed.

Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the agency is evaluating specialized equipment that can detect the locations of cell phones in prison cells.

"We're evaluating a range of technologies from a number of vendors," she said

Neither the names of the companies nor the types of technology being examined by prison officials were made public.

"No decisions have been made," Lyons said.

Tom Matthews, a spokesman for Embarq, a phone company that in August won a multimillion-dollar contract to install pay phones in Texas prisons, said cell-detection equipment tracks the radio signals that cell phones emit when they are used. Embarq has not offered such a system to Texas.

John Moriarty, the prison system's independent inspector general, said many detection systems are on the market. Some are hard-wired antennas that intercept cell signals; others use portable equipment to locate the origin of the signal, he said.

This month, prison investigators busted condemned Bell County murderer Richard Lee Tabler, 29, after linking him to a cell phone that logged more than 2,800 calls in one month. Authorities suspect that he let other death row convicts borrow the phone and make calls.

Among the calls made by Tabler were several to state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate committee that oversees the prison system.

"It's amazing we didn't ask about this equipment earlier to curb a problem that is now all too obvious to all of us," Whitmire said. "The prison officials either knew they had a problem and covered it up, or they didn't know they had a problem. Neither answer is good."

When the controversy about cell phones erupted, prison officials were ironing out final details for installing pay phones in state prisons beginning early next year — making Texas the last state in the nation to allow convicts routine phone access.

Lyons said the pay phone system could be operational as early as February. A partnership of Embarq and Securus Technologies was selected in August to install as many as 4,000 phones that will be used by most of the state's 155,000 imprisoned felons.

mward@statesman.com; 445-1718
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/10/30/1030cellphones.html?cxntlid=inform_artr

[TDCJDR]

Before we blame the officers we should wait what they´ll find out. In Germany had been cases, that guards had been forced to commit illegal things by friends of inmates.

Best

Michael


Well Michael, The Inmates are not going to the store and buying them.. As for being Forced. I doubt it. It's just Greed on the CO's part. Once they start the inmates have leverage against the CO's.

Sorry to smudge those rose colored glasses that you're wearing Michael, but ExTxDRCO is right......Tabler has already provided names of 6 dirty officers and that includes 3 of Rank.....  We won't be hearing too much yet as the investigation is ongoing; however, I got the names straight from the horse's mouth.   Tabler is also giving up his fellow inmates.   It's been rather busy on 12 building this week and it looks to be even busier next week.....(excluding the scheduled vaccinations!)