The Latest: Tagged 'prisons'

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In this handout photo from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Charles Manson, 74, poses for a photo on March 18, 2009 at Corcoran State Prison, California. Manson is serving a life sentence for conspiring to murder seven people during the "Manson family" killings in 1969. The picture was taken as a regular update of the prison's files.

Charles Manson and other California inmates will have a tougher time placing illegal cell phone calls thanks to jamming technology that will be installed by the company that runs prison pay phones.

"This groundbreaking and momentous technology will enable [the prison system] to crack down on the potentially dangerous communications by inmates," Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate told the LA Times.

Global Tel Link plans to invest between $16.5 million and $33 million to ensure that the 33 California prisons would be able to block text messages, phone calls, and web usage to ill-begotten cell phones.

In 2011 over 15,000 illegally attained cell phones were discovered in California prisons. Prison guards found phones in serial killer Manson's cell -- twice.