by Donna Hicks

Created on: September 25, 2010   Last Updated: September 26, 2010

A shakedown is a term used to describe a surprise raid on inmates incarcerated in prison in search of weapons, contraband or perhaps evidence of a new crime. A shakedown may occur for any number of reasons.

The Whole Truth

There are times when inmates at an entire institution may be subjected to a shakedown. In 2008, the entire Texas Correctional System was subjected to a shakedown, after death row inmate Robert Tabler, convicted of four murders, began making threatening telephone calls to a state senator. Several other inmates had also used the same cell phone. Governor Rick Perry ordered any contraband to be weeded out after the threatening calls were made. All prisons, statewide, were on lockdown until shakedowns were completed, according to

CBS-11. Two of Tabler’s relatives were charged in connection with the phone, including ensuring that minutes were kept on the phone. In the Texas Shakedown, as revealed in another CBS-11 report, 120 cell phones were confiscated, as well as cell phone components, 61 weapons, 52 discoveries of tobacco products and 14 discoveries of money were made. The shakedowns were not limited to just male facilities. Women’s correctional facilities were also put on lockdown until shakedowns were completed. The Texas shakedown is one example of how an entire prison, or in this case, the entire prison system statewide, can be subjected to shakedown.

Just a Little Bit

In many cases, only one institution or a certain area or cell block within an institution is subject of a shakedown. In Indiana, the Pendleton Correctional Facility began a shakedown that not only led to contraband, but led to 13 fewer employees at the facility, including nine corrections officers and four others, after inmates were testing positive for drugs. The employees were suspected of conveying contraband, cell phones and even pornography into Pendleton, according to the Indy Channel, and other sources. Only Pendleton was subjected to this particular shakedown.

In A Tennessee Correctional Facility, the Aryan Nation members were suspected of being responsible for a letter sent to the warden, threatening to kill one of his staff if things at the prison were not changed. Apparently, the anonymous letter writer assumed that the warden would then run the prison the way the letter writer mentioned in his letter. A shakedown was ordered of the cell block where Aryan Nation members were housed. It was hoped that a handwriting comparison between the letter and

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