Published: January 12, 2009 09:40 pm      

‘One piece at a time’ cell phone bill killed

CHARLESTON — Keeping a friend on the outside from sneaking in a cell phone to an inmate behind bars, one piece at a time, was the intent of a failed legislative proposal Monday.

The idea backfired, however, when Sen. Jon Blair Hunter, D-Monongalia, worried that the proposal might inadvertently put an innocent person on the wrong side of the law by merely carrying a cell phone into a prison.

Under the proposal, anyone taking a wireless telephone inside a penal institution would face a felony.

Before the vote, Hunter amended the proposal to add the word “intent,” so that no one could be charged unless the goal was to actually put a cell phone into an inmate’s hands.

But Delegate John Ellem, R-Wood, still wasn’t pleased, reminding fellow members of the Legislative Oversight Committee on Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority they had just heard a lengthy discussion on the problems of over-population.

“Now, we’re going to create a new charge of felony,” he said.

With that, the panel agreed to reject the proposal, intended to keep cell phone parts from being smuggled inside.

Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein explained that his agency wanted the addition to the state Code because cell phones in the hands of inmates have proved to be security risks elsewhere.

The panel approved other bills, including one that would make it a felony for one inmate to sexually assault another, but abandoned the 25 years to life sentence in favor of a 15-to-35 one.

For Hunter and the panel’s co-chairman, Sen. Shirley Love, D-Fayette, the Monday meeting was their last, as well as Sen. Andy McKenzie, R-Ohio, now the mayor of Wheeling.

“I was here when the regional jails were built and the transition was made from Moundsville to Mount Olive,” Love said. “I saw a lot of programs expand. There were a lot of complications along the way.”

Love singled out Rubenstein for special praise and told him the committee never meant to have him or others “pinned to the wall” when they were asked to appear.

“If there ever is a Corrections Hall of Fame, you certainly should be inducted,” Love told Rubenstein. “You’re to be admired in our work.”

McKenzie sent a letter commending the committee for its work during his time as a senator.

In his final appearance, Hunter said he was most pleased in his 12 years of service to see the state embark on community corrections as a means of shoring up damaged lives and lessening the load in jails and prisons.

“I think that is going to be one of the most lasting impacts on this state of anything I’ve ever been part of in the Legislature,” Hunter said.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com