As for calling the shots from inside prison, I don't see why life-term prisoners get access to communication from outside. Like, part of being in prison for the rest of your life is society saying "we don't want anything to do with you anymore and we don't want you to influence anyone outside your four walls." It's a big screw-you to a human who is essentially social.
Within the prison you've gotta have contact among prisoners, and reading materials, etc. Otherwise you're driving people insane and psychologically torturing them. But apparently there is still isolation punishment which is legal, although I don't know how long they're allowed to do it for.
I'm not saying keep the guy from talking with other people. But put up a barrier between the prison and the outside world that keeps objects and information from being passed. If someone is a bad enough guy that he's locked up until he dies, no parole or early release etc. because his sentence is like 50,000 years, I don't see why he should get XBoxes and cigarettes and letters from his kids. Those are things he would want, certainly, but at this point what he wants is unimportant. His basic human needs should be provided for but stopping well short of any luxury.
A guard caught smuggling in contraband or smuggling out messages would be fired on the spot and the black mark on his record would prevent him from ever holding a security clearance or working for the government again. And you'd have reasonably good selection criteria for your guards, pay them well, and limit guard contact with inmates in general.