Cellphones hot contraband items in Ohio prisons

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Ohio corrections officials are finding that cellphones are increasingly popular contraband items for prison inmates.

The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reports that state prison records show corrections officers have seized 319 cellphones in the year’s first seven months. That compares with 340 for all of last year, and is a jump from 126 seized in 2010.

New and smaller kinds of cellphones are making it easier for them to be smuggled into and hidden in prison. Authorities say inmates can use cellphones to plan escapes or assaults and to run crime operations from inside the prison.

Ohio corrections officials have begun using cellphone detectors that can track phone use.