~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the New York Times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Outlawed, Cellphones Are Thriving in Prisons

ATLANTA — A counterfeiter at a Georgia state prison ticks off the remaining days of his three-year sentence on his Facebook page. He has 91 digital “friends.” Like many of his fellow inmates, he plays the online games FarmVille and Street Wars.

He does it all on a Samsung smartphone, which he says he bought from a guard. And he used the same phone to help organize a short strike among inmates at several Georgia prisons last month.

Technology is changing life inside prisons across the country at the same rapid-fire pace it is changing life outside. A smartphone hidden under a mattress is the modern-day file inside a cake.

“This kind of thing was bound to happen,” said Martin F. Horn, a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “The physical boundaries that we thought protected us no longer work.”

Although prison officials have long battled illegal cellphones, smartphones have changed the game. With Internet access, a prisoner can call up phone directories, maps and photographs for criminal purposes, corrections officials and prison security experts say. Gang violence and drug trafficking, they say, are increasingly being orchestrated online, allowing inmates to keep up criminal behavior even as they serve time.

“The smartphone is the most lethal weapon you can get inside a prison,” said Terry L. Bittner, director of security products with the ITT Corporation, one of a handful of companies that create cellphone-detection systems for prisons. “The smartphone is the equivalent of the old Swiss Army knife. You can do a lot of other things with it.”

The Georgia prison strike, for instance, was about things prisoners often complain about: They are not paid for their labor. Visitation rules are too strict. Meals are bad.

But the technology they used to voice their concerns was new.

Inmates punched in text messages and assembled e-mail lists to coordinate simultaneous protests, including work stoppages, with inmates at other prisons. Under pseudonyms, they shared hour-by-hour updates with followers on Facebook and Twitter. They communicated with their advocates, conducted news media interviews and monitored coverage of the strike.

In Oklahoma, a convicted killer was caught in November posting photographs on his Facebook page of drugs, knives and alcohol that had been smuggled into his cell. In 2009, gang members in a Maryland prison were caught using their smartphones to approve targets for robberies and even to order seafood and cigars.

Even closely watched prisoners are sneaking phones in. Last month, California prison guards said they had found a flip phone under Charles Manson's mattress.

The logical solution would be to keep all cellphones out of prison. But that is a war that is being lost, corrections officials say. Prisoners agree.

“Almost everybody has a phone,” said Mike, 33, an inmate at Smith State Prison in Georgia who, like other prisoners interviewed for this article, asked that his full name not be used for fear of retaliation. “Almost every phone is a smartphone. Almost everybody with a smartphone has a Facebook.”

Cellphones are prohibited in all state and federal prisons in the United States, often even for top corrections officials. Punishment for a prisoner found with one varies. In some states, it is an infraction that affects parole or time off for good behavior. In others, it results in new criminal charges.

President Obama signed a law in August making possession of a phone or a wireless device in a federal prison a felony, punishable by up to a year of extra sentencing.

Still, they get in. By the thousands. In the first four months of 2010, Federal Bureau of Prisons workers confiscated 1,188 cellphones, according to Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who sponsored the federal measure. In California last year, officers discovered nearly 9,000 phones.

Payments for cellphones range from $300 to $1,000, depending on the type of phone and the service plan. Monthly fees are generally paid by inmates' relatives. Phones are smuggled in by guards, visitors and inmates convicted of misdemeanors with lower security restrictions.

But that is not the only way. In South Carolina, where most prisons are rural and staff members have to pass through X-ray machines and metal detectors, smugglers resort to an old-fashioned method — tossing phones over fences.

They stuff smartphones into footballs or launch them from a device called a potato cannon or spud gun, which shoots a projectile through a pipe. Packages are sometimes camouflaged with a coating of grass, which makes them hard for guards to detect. The drops are coordinated through texts or calls between inmates and people outside, said Jon Ozmint, director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, which confiscates as many as 2,000 cellphones a year.

Even if officers intercept 75 percent of the packages, Mr. Ozmint said, that is still a lot of contraband getting in.

“It is impossible to have enough staff to watch the two million people we have locked up in the country at this time,” he said. “In a perfect world, yes, we would find all the phones. But this isn't a perfect world.”

The solution, Mr. Ozmint and others say, is to simply jam cellphone signals in prisons. He and prison officials from 29 other states petitioned the Federal Communications Commission last year for permission to install technology that would render cellphones useless. But there is no support from the cellphone industry.

“It's illegal, plain and simple,” said Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association. He cited the Communications Act of 1934, which prohibits the blocking of radio signals — or, in this case, cellphone signals — from authorized users.

Although supporters of jamming disagree, Mr. Guttman-McCabe argues that the technology is not yet good enough to prevent legal cellphones nearby but not inside prison walls to be jammed. Nor does the technology assure that every inch inside a prison is blocked, he said.

The solution may be a new system introduced in Mississippi. It is being tested in several other states and has the cellphone industry's support. Called managed access, the system establishes a network around a prison that detects every call and text. Callers using cellphones that are not on an approved list receive a message saying the device is illegal and will no longer function.

At the Mississippi State Penitentiary, which houses about 3,000 inmates, 643,388 calls and texts going in and out were intercepted from July 31 to Dec. 1, 2010. The system was so successful that Mississippi is installing it at the state's two other penitentiaries.

Finding the actual cellphones inside a prison is another solution, and several states are testing systems. For example, Maryland and New Jersey are using dogs that can sniff out the ionization of cellphone batteries.

“An effective, reliable cellphone-detection capability, that's the holy grail,” said Mr. Horn, the criminal justice professor and expert on the use of illegal digital technology inside prisons.

The recent rise in smartphones raises larger issues for prisoners and their advocates, who say the phones are not necessarily used for criminal purposes. In some prisons, a traditional phone call is prohibitive, costing $1 per minute in many states. And cellphones can help some offenders stay better connected with their families.

Mike, the Georgia inmate who was part of the recent strike, said he used his to stay in touch with his son.

“When he gets off the school bus, I'm on the phone and I talk to him,” he said in an interview on his contraband cellphone. “When he goes to bed, I'm on the phone and I talk to him.”

Some groups are encouraging prisons to embrace new technology while managing risks. Inmates are more likely to successfully re-enter society if they maintain relationships with friends and families, said David Fathi, director of the National Prison Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.

“It shows that even if they are closed institutions, prisons are still part of the larger society,” Mr. Fathi said. “They can't be forever walled off from technological changes.”

And in a world where hundreds of apps are introduced each day by developers hoping to tap new markets, a pool of prisoners with smartphones can seem an attractive new market, despite the implications.

“It's a pure business opportunity,” said Hal Goldstein, the publisher of iPhone Life magazine. He predicted that games would be big, but so would the ability to download news and books.

“People outside of prison become addicted to their phones,” Mr. Goldstein said. “Can you imagine if you had nothing but time on your hands?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/us/03prisoners.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Obama Signs Bill to Help 9/11 Workers

HONOLULU — President Obama took time out of his Hawaiian vacation on Sunday to sign into law one of the surprise accomplishments of the lame-duck Congress: a measure covering the cost of medical care for rescue workers and others sickened by toxic fumes and dust after the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

To become law, the bill required Mr. Obama's signature before he returned to Washington on Tuesday, so he signed it at his rented vacation home in the town of Kailua, near Honolulu. There was no signing ceremony, as there would probably have been had the president been at the White House. Instead, Mr. Obama's official photographer recorded the moment, and the White House said it would release a picture.

The $4.3 billion bill became a major point of contention in the waning days of the Congressional session. Republican senators blocked a more expensive House version, and as it appeared that the measure was going to die, the comedian Jon Stewart took up the cause, using his Comedy Central television program to advocate passage. Ultimately, the Senate approved the less expensive measure; the House quickly followed suit and sent the bill to the president.

Yet Congress did not send the president the enrolled bill — the final, official copy, printed on parchment paper and signed by House and Senate officials — before he left for Hawaii on Dec. 23, according to Bill Burton, White House deputy press secretary.

Mr. Obama had a 10-day window to sign it, so the official copy was flown to Hawaii, carried by a White House staff member who was traveling here anyway, Mr. Burton said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/nyregion/03health.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Crude Videos Aboard an Aircraft Carrier

The videos resemble something a college fraternity could have put together as a joke and posted on YouTube. There are scenes showing women showering together, frequent sexual references and a number of antigay slurs and vulgarities.

But instead of a college joke or an amateur YouTube production, the videos — created about four years ago and now becoming public — appear to be the work of a man who is currently the commanding officer of the Navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Enterprise, based in Norfolk and weeks away from deploying. The man, Capt. Owen Honors, reportedly not only orchestrated the making of the raunchy videos, but also starred in them and filmed them aboard the Enterprise with government equipment while the carrier was deployed during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The videos were splashed across the Internet over the weekend, and are now at the center of a Navy investigation.

According to The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, which obtained the videos and posted them on its Web site, Captain Honors made the videos in 2006 and 2007 to entertain and boost the morale of sailors aboard the carrier. The videos were filmed with cameras and equipment from the carrier's public affairs office, and were shown at least once a week on closed-circuit television throughout the ship. Captain Honors at the time was the carrier's executive officer, or “XO,” but he later became its commanding officer.

In scenes from one of the videos, Captain Honors states that his goal is to entertain the crew, then goes on to curse and make lewd gestures. At one point he turns to the camera and says, “Let's get to my favorite topic — something foreign to the gay kid over there — chicks in the shower.”

The video then shows two female sailors showering together with a cardboard cutout of Captain Honors, and two male officers also taking a shower together. The videos are rife with sexual subject matter and crude scenes. Throughout the video, Captain Honors uses an antigay slur to refer to some members of the crew and makes light of the fact that the material apparently offended some sailors.

“Over the years I've gotten several complaints about inappropriate material during these videos, never to me personally, but gutlessly through other channels,” he says at one point. “This evening, all of you bleeding hearts, why don't just go ahead and hug yourself for the next 20 minutes or so, because there's a really good chance you're going to be offended.”

Captain Honors could not be reached for comment on Sunday. But in a written statement, the Navy said the videos were “clearly inappropriate.”

“Production of videos, like the ones produced four to five years ago on U.S.S. Enterprise and now being written about in The Virginian-Pilot, were not acceptable then and are not acceptable in today's Navy,” the Navy's statement said. “The Navy does not endorse or condone these kinds of actions.”

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/crude-videos-aboard-an-aircraft-carrier/?pagemode=print

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OPINION

Chewing Gum for Terrorists

Washington

DID former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Tom Ridge, a former homeland security secretary, and Frances Townsend, a former national security adviser, all commit a federal crime last month in Paris when they spoke in support of the Mujahedeen Khalq at a conference organized by the Iranian opposition group's advocates? Free speech, right? Not necessarily.

The problem is that the United States government has labeled the Mujahedeen Khalq a “foreign terrorist organization,” making it a crime to provide it, directly or indirectly, with any material support. And, according to the Justice Department under Mr. Mukasey himself, as well as under the current attorney general, Eric Holder, material support includes not only cash and other tangible aid, but also speech coordinated with a “foreign terrorist organization” for its benefit. It is therefore a felony, the government has argued, to file an amicus brief on behalf of a “terrorist” group, to engage in public advocacy to challenge a group's “terrorist” designation or even to encourage peaceful avenues for redress of grievances.

Don't get me wrong. I believe Mr. Mukasey and his compatriots had every right to say what they did. Indeed, I argued just that in the Supreme Court, on behalf of the Los Angeles-based Humanitarian Law Project, which fought for more than a decade in American courts for its right to teach the Kurdistan Workers' Party in Turkey how to bring human rights claims before the United Nations, and to assist them in peace overtures to the Turkish government.

But in June, the Supreme Court ruled against us, stating that all such speech could be prohibited, because it might indirectly support the group's terrorist activity. Chief Justice John Roberts reasoned that a terrorist group might use human rights advocacy training to file harassing claims, that it might use peacemaking assistance as a cover while re-arming itself, and that such speech could contribute to the group's “legitimacy,” and thus increase its ability to obtain support elsewhere that could be turned to terrorist ends. Under the court's decision, former President Jimmy Carter's election monitoring team could be prosecuted for meeting with and advising Hezbollah during the 2009 Lebanese elections.

The government has similarly argued that providing legitimate humanitarian aid to victims of war or natural disasters is a crime if provided to or coordinated with a group labeled as a “foreign terrorist organization” — even if there is no other way to get the aid to the region in need. Yet The Times recently reported that the Treasury Department, under a provision ostensibly intended for humanitarian aid, was secretly granting licenses to American businesses to sell billions of dollars worth of food and goods to the very countries we have blockaded for their support of terrorism. Some of the “humanitarian aid” exempted? Cigarettes, popcorn and chewing gum.

Under current law, it seems, the right to make profits is more sacrosanct than the right to petition for peace, and the need to placate American businesses more compelling than the need to provide food and shelter to earthquake victims and war refugees.

Congress should reform the laws governing material support of terrorism. It should make clear that speech advocating only lawful, nonviolent activities — as Michael Mukasey and Rudolph Giuliani did in Paris — is not a crime. The First Amendment protects even speech advocating criminal activity, unless it is intended and likely to incite imminent lawless conduct. The risk that speech advocating peace and human rights would further terrorism is so remote that it cannot outweigh the indispensable value of protecting dissent.

At the same time, Congress also needs to reform the humanitarian aid exemption. It should state clearly that corporate interests in making profits from cigarettes are not sufficient to warrant exemptions from sanctions on state sponsors of terrorism. But Congress should also protect the provision of legitimate humanitarian aid — food, water, medical aid and shelter — in response to wars or natural disasters. Genuine humanitarian aid and free speech can and should be preserved without undermining our interests in security.

David Cole is a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/opinion/03cole.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Google News

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Man accused of killing deputy sparked similar confrontation in 2001

Michael L. Ferryman, 57, who officials said fatally shot Deputy Suzanne Waughtel Hopper and then died during a shootout with officers, also fired shots at deputies in Morgan County in 2001.

No one was hurt in the incident near Malta, and Ferryman was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a psychiatric facility in Columbus.

Authorities identified Ferryman yesterday as the man who fired a shotgun at close range and killed Hopper, 40, who had responded to reports of gunfire at a trailer park in Enon, a village west of Springfield. During the shootout that followed, a township police officer was wounded, and Ferryman died.

"It's a loss for this community," said Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly, who became choked up during a news conference yesterday.

He said the state Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation is handling the investigation, including securing the crime scene and probing the deaths of Ferryman and Hopper.

Morgan County Prosecutor Mark Howdyshell said, "You've got to be kidding me" when he was told by The Dispatch yesterday that Ferryman had killed the Clark County deputy.

On Sept. 5, 2001, Ferryman was sharing a camper with his girlfriend Maria Holsinger-Blessing on AEP recreation grounds when they became upset with other campers who had taken firewood from a community pile. The Morgan County sheriff's office was called about shots being fired at other campers, according to Associated Press reports.

When deputies approached the couple's campsite, shots rang out. At least 16 shots were fired at deputies as the couple barricaded themselves inside their camper.

It took 26 hours of negotiations before Ferryman and Holsinger-Blessing surrendered the next afternoon. Both were charged with felonious assault, news reports said.

Ferryman was first found mentally incompetent to stand trial, Howdyshell said. In January 2002, Ferryman was committed for a year to Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare on the Hilltop in Columbus, according to the Zanesville Times-Recorder .

When Ferryman went to trial, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity, said Howdyshell, who then was assistant county prosecutor.

A few weeks ago, Howdyshell said he was talking with a state mental-health official about another case when Ferryman's name came up. Howdyshell said he knew that Ferryman had been in a halfway house in Springfield and had been under supervised release.

Saturday's shootout is reminiscent of Ferryman's altercation with Morgan County authorities.

Hopper and a sergeant were the first to respond to the call about 11:45 a.m. at 2401 Enon Rd. in the Enon Beach campground, about 50 miles west of Columbus.

Hopper and the sergeant interviewed people who said shots had been fired into their trailer. Hopper was examining footprints outside another trailer when the door opened. She only had time to call the sergeant's name before she was shot once with a shotgun, Kelly said.

Ferryman returned to his trailer and refused to come out. About 50 law-enforcement officers and two special-response teams from neighboring areas came to help, Kelly said.

A gunfight broke out after numerous attempts to coax Ferryman from his trailer failed, and Jeremy Blum, an officer with the German Township Police Department, was shot in the shoulder. Kelly said Blum has a collapsed lung but was in fair condition at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton.

Once the gunfire subsided, officers found Ferryman dead. Kelly wouldn't say whether the wound was self-inflicted or occurred during the shootout. Eight of his deputies are on leave because they were involved in the shootout.

Hopper, a mother of two who was recently married, had received several commendations since joining the sheriff's office in 1999. Her personnel file is full of positive evaluations and letters from families she's helped.

Ken McGarvey, who lived next to Hopper, said she went beyond her duties by bringing food and clothing to families she had helped earlier. He called her a strong-minded woman who was dedicated to helping others.

"She didn't have an opportunity to defend herself. If that was the case, she would have won," he said.

Yesterday, a handful of deputies lined up outside Clark County offices in downtown Springfield to salute Hopper, whose body was being transported from the Montgomery County coroner's office.

The hearse was flanked by sheriff's, Enon police and Mad River Township fire vehicles. Streets were temporarily blocked while it made its way to the Littleton & Rue Funeral Home. "It's a small, small token," Kelly said

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/01/03/suspect-had-assault-record.html?sid=101

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New DE Law (Blue Alert System)

A new law is in effect in Delaware today to aide in catching criminals who remain at large after killing or injuring a police officer.

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell signed House Bill 448, known at the Blue Alert System, last August, one year after Georgetown Policeman Chad Spicer was fatally shot and his partner was wounded during a traffic stop.

The Blue Alert System is modeled after the nationwide Amber Alert System for missing children. When a Blue Alert is activated, news releases will be sent immediately to any and all news organizations alerting the public if a suspect who hurt a police officer is still at-large.

http://www.wgmd.com/?p=15105

.