Officials are blaming a staffing shortage for allowing an Oregon jail inmate to run an identity theft operation from behind bars.
The (Portland) Oregonian said Wednesday Shawn "Sammy Straight Razor" McGinnis allegedly used the Multnomah County jail's inmate phone system to arrange conference calls with people trading in personal information.
The alleged trading went on for nearly a year because the jail staff does not have enough deputies to listen in on inmate calls and only tapes them.
McGinnis, who has since been sentenced to a federal prison on an unrelated gun charge, would call someone on the outside who would then conference in other individuals who bought and sold stolen identification information.
"He's like a criminal commodities broker," summed up Deputy Paul McRedmond, a department spokesman.
The county grand jury is considering a raft of charges that the Oregonian said involves about 87 crimes in three Oregon counties.
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