Law enforcement officials say violence within Georgia prisons has left 12 inmates and a guard dead in 10 months.

Officials say smuggled cell phones allow inmate gangs to communicate and plan attacks. As many as 10,000 cell phones have been confiscated in a year.

Two corrections officers at Hays State Prison were attacked last month, but survived.

The Department of Corrections said it takes inmate attacks seriously and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation investigates them.

Sara Totonchi of the Southern Center for Human Rights said gangs are running the dorms in prisons and they do it with cell phones.

Georgia prisons had two killings in 2008, four in 2009, seven each in 2010 and 2011, 10 including an officer in 2012, and three this year.

Tags: prisoners, georgia prisons, cell phones, Hays State Prison, inmate deaths, homicides, prison homicides