COLUMBIA --- South Carolina's state prison inmates could help authorities solve crimes by playing cards behind bars.

Prison officials are discussing a program that allows inmates to buy playing cards with pictures of victims and details on unsolved crimes.

The cards include a toll-free number inmates can use to call in anonymous tips.

Tom Lucas pushed to get the cards into prisons.

His son was killed in an unsolved quadruple killing at a Spartanburg County motorcycle shop in 2003.

Mr. Lucas wants more funding to get the cards into local jails and to print a second deck with 52 more unsolved crimes.

Prison officials say playing cards is a popular pastime behind bars.

In the past year, the 24,000 inmates in South Carolina prisons bought more than 14,000 decks of cards for their own use.