Texas prisons on lockdown after death row inmate's threatening calls from smuggled cell phone

HOUSTON – The Texas prison system is enforcing a lockdown after authorities learned a condemned killer made threatening calls to a Texas state senator from a cell phone smuggled into death row.

Gov. Rick Perry on Monday ordered the lockdown of the state's 111 prisons and a systemwide search for contraband.

The condemned inmate's 60-year-old mother was arrested and accused of buying minutes for the phone, and investigators said more arrests were expected. Perry's office said the phone was smuggled into prison by a bribed corrections officer and inmates made thousands of calls.

Authorities learned about the phone after inmate Richard Tabler called Sen. John Whitmire and told him he knew the names of the legislator's daughters and where they lived, said John Moriarty, the prison system's inspector general.

Tabler shared the phone with nine inmates on his cell block, and prison officials said about 2,800 calls were made on it during the past 30 days.

"Let there be no doubt about how seriously we take this security breach," Perry said, directing prison officials to impose the lockdown that will keep the state's 155,000 inmates from receiving visits and tighten security checks for all prison employees.

Richard Tabler's call to Whitmire on Oct. 7 prompted the investigation. The prisoner's calls continued intermittently, the latest coming Sunday, according to investigators. In the calls, Tabler told Whitmire he knew the lawmaker's daughters, their ages and their addresses.

Tabler has been on death row since last year for a shooting spree in which two men and two teenage girls were killed in central Texas during Thanksgiving weekend 2004. The four victims had ties to a strip club there.

Early this month, Tabler was in court telling a judge he wanted to end appeals and volunteer for execution.

Lorraine Tabler was apprehended Monday at Austin's airport as she arrived for a scheduled visit with her son.

She was held on felony charges of providing a prohibited item to an inmate.

Source: Associated Press