After it was disclosed that inmates in Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman used contraband cellphones to expose inhumane treatment in the prison, Andrea Cabral, former secretary of public safety and sheriff of Suffolk County, joined Boston Public Radio on Tuesday to discuss why cell phones are not permitted for use by inmates nationwide.
"Parchman is notorious — the conditions are notoriously horrific and the physical structure is notoriously old and decrepit and deteriorating," she said. "It doesn't mean you don't try to keep cell phones out in the future, what it means is that the public elected officials should be holding places like Parchman to task to correct those issues."
Inmates who use cell phones to reveal inhumane living conditions deserve protections as whistle blowers, Cabral said.
"The fundamental rule that there should be no cell phones in prison, because people will use them to further criminal enterprises, is well taken, the basis for that rule makes a lot of sense," she said. "But if you are running an institution that decade over decade no money has been put into, it is literally a place that would be condemned any place else, and people are using cell phones to document that, they are essentially whistle blowers against the government and deserve protection for that.
"Prison officials need to fix inhumane conditions first and foremost, Cabral said. "You have a much stronger argument against cell phones if you're actually creating a habitable place for people to be incarcerated that is not simply inhumane."
Cabral is the former secretary of public safety and sheriff of Suffolk County. She is currently the CEO of Ascend.
