An inmate set to be paroled will now serve an extra five years for using a cell phone.
Dwayne Kennedy had just received parole, when he says he decided to borrow a contraband cellphone to call his family to let them know that he would be coming home, the Los Angeles Times reports.
"He was so happy.... We were crying and praying," said his sister Yolanda Kennedy, one of the people he called, told the Times.
Using a law signed by Governor Brown in October, state parole commissioners John Peck and Dennis Smith decided that Kennedy's willingness to use an illegal cell phone and violate the rules shows an "unreasonable risk of danger to society," the LA Times reported.
The law was made in an attempt to curb the use of illegal cellphones in California's prison. According to the LA Times the state expects to seize nearly 15,000 cellphones this year. Under the new law, inmates caught with cellphones face losing 90 days of credit earned for good behavior.
Reportedly Kennedy was jailed in 1988 after throwing a man from a moving car. According to the LA Times, commissioners overlooked an incident between Kennedy and another inmate, whom Kennedy stabbed 17 years earlier and decided to release him on parole.
The LA Times says it will cost an additional $250,000 to keep Kennedy in jail for the next 5 years.
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