Recommended Reading: Cell Phone Extortion in Alabama Prisons

"Jeff Dunn, Alabama’s corrections commissioner, said the state’s prisons have tried to cut down on contraband, using surprise searches and phone-sniffing dogs, but phones keep getting in.

The state’s longtime failure to stem their proliferation has allowed inmates to use the devices to threaten and extort families of vulnerable prisoners. The typical threat — pay or your loved one gets hurt or even killed — is delivered by call or text. Images of the threat being carried out sometimes follow."

                                                                                             (N.Y. Times story)