My dad was a correctional officer out there for a long time and one of the prisoners he guarded was Manson.  He told me that he ate raw coffee and said "helps the headache," watched TV and mumbled to himself.  Whacked out fucker.

The reason he makes weapons, uses a cellphone and keeps various contraband is that he doesn't WANT to leave.  He's hoping the guards will catch him and report his misbehavior as bad marks against him.  He couldn't hack it on the outside and he knows it; why else would he do stupid shit to fuck up his hearing?  He's completely institutionalized.  Every time he's had a chance to finally get out, he plain and simply told the parole board, in his own screwy way, that he'll just end up right back in a cell somehow.  Yeah, don't ask me how I know that.