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California also will test a device to detect cell phones passing by, letting guards know which prisoners to search for phones so small they can now be concealed in wristwatches. Installing the managed access equipment would cost about $1 million per prison, Thornton said. The state has 33 adult prisons, so the expense could be considerable as California struggles with a nearly $27 billion budget shortfall through June 2012. Amit Malhotra, vice president of marketing for Tecore Inc., the Maryland-based company installing Mississippi's system, said that state pays for the technology through the fees inmates pay to make telephone calls using land lines, with no cost to taxpayers and no increase in inmates' phone fees. Alternatives like installing enough metal detectors to scan every prison employee would also cost millions of dollars, Thornton said. Visitors already are screened. State Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, said it makes no sense to require screening at airports, sports stadiums, many government buildings and even many high schools, yet not for prison employees. He has introduced two bills that add penalties for inmates, employees or visitors smuggling cell phones. Currently, possessing a cell phone violates prison rules, but is not illegal in California. A third bill, by Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-Santa Clara, would require the department to conduct random searches of employees and contractors who enter prisons. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association does not oppose either random or daily employee searches. But that would do nothing to block the sacks of phones that guards have found tossed over prison walls, said spokesman JeVaughn Baker. And Terry Bittner, director of security products for New York-based ITT Corp., cautioned that even if calls are blocked, inmates can smuggle tiny smart-phone data cards full of messages, photos and video unless officials seize the phones themselves. Baker estimated it could cost $20 million annually to screen every employee, let alone the cost of the equipment or the overtime if employees get backed up during shift changes. Legislative analysts last year said even random searches could cost $1.3 million annually, including $1 million in overtime for delaying employees getting to and from their posts. "We don't oppose the idea," Baker said. "Can the state afford to do it?"
[Associated
Press;
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