It doesn't necessarily have to be cellphones. The reason they are so popular in prison is because of the outlandish fees to make a collect call, and in some cas

It doesn't necessarily have to be cellphones. The reason they are so popular in prison is because of the outlandish fees to make a collect call, and in some cases, those phones are monitored. If you're choices are a collect call with $5 connection fee and $2/min and a $300 cellphone loaded with hours of calltime than it doesn't take a genius to see that the cellphone is going to win whether its for the mob boss or incarcerated shoplifter. A sensible middle ground would be to make collect calls affordable, or even free from a selected list, so that cost works against smuggling in cellphones. Until then, people are going to find more elaborate ways to reach outside. And they've got lots of time on their hands to do it.