MCNEIL ISLAND, Wash. — The McNeil Island Correctional Center was locked down over the weekend for a cell phone search.
A team of 44 officers from other prisons conducted the search for contraband.
The Tacoma News Tribune reports the search was prompted by the Oct. 31 arrest of a guard suspected of smuggling a phone into the prison. Officials say unmonitored phone calls are dangerous in the hands of inmates with drug and gang ties.
The Department of Corrections says the cell-by-cell search of the 1,300-inmate prison found no phones, but a small amount of drugs, a syringe, tattoo equipment, and a pouch of tobacco.
Officials say inmates go to great lengths to hide cell phones and some of them, in prison lingo, are small enough to be “keistered.”
Information from: The News Tribune, http://www.thenewstribune.com
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