CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that it is not a crime under state law for a county jail inmate to possess a cellphone in a jail cell.

But Clark County Deputy District Attorney Steve Owens said the ruling handed down Thursday doesn't block jails from imposing rules administratively to prohibit inmates from possessing the phones.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Jose Hernandez told the Las Vegas Review-Journal (http://bit.ly/VHdI8I ) that it is policy for jailers to automatically confiscate cellphones before inmates enter their cells for security reasons.

Some inmates around the country have used cellphones to call their partners in crime or to run phone scams.

Justices, in a 3-0 decision, threw out state charges filed by the Pershing County sheriff's department against a jail inmate after a cellphone was found in a box under his bed.

The department alleged the inmate broke a state law that prohibits all prisoners, including county jail inmates, from possessing "any key, lock, bolt cutters, saw" or other tool that could be used for the purpose of escaping.

Justices concluded that a cellphone was not a kind of device that could be used to escape from a jail or prison.

"It would be virtually impossible to use a cellphone to forcibly break out of, or physically free oneself from a jail cell," wrote Justice Nancy Saitta in the decision signed by Justices Kris Pickering and James Hardesty.

The court found that another state law forbids prison inmates from possessing "a portable communications device," but that prohibition does not apply to inmates of county jails.

"By its plain and unambiguous language, (state law) does not prohibit county jail inmates from possessing cellphones," justices wrote.

Owens said the decision means counties can't charge a county jail inmate who has a cellphone with a crime under state law.

"Some legislation must be passed that pertains to jails before you can do that," he said.