Tag Archives: contraband cell phone

Jailed Terrorist Not Allowed To Skype

This news item is interesting in that it highlights not only the potential risk of unfettered technology access for high-security prisoners, but also the impact of the high cost of prison telecommunications services.

Evidently, other prisons within the UK do allow the use of Skype by prisoners, however. Increasingly, prisoners are getting access to various consumer technologies, such as email, MP3 players, etc., albeit in a customized and controlled versions. We believe that a secure prison cell phone solution will be part of that offering over time as prisons and jails seek to reduce the demand for contraband cell phones.

London: In what could be regarded as the height of whining, a Bangladeshi terrorist, who plotted to blow up a passenger jet, has complained that that he is not allowed to use Skype to make low-cost phone calls from a high-security UK jail.

Rajib Karim, 32, wants to use the system, which offers cheap international calls from phones as well as free video link-ups, to contact friends and family in Bangladesh. But officials at maximum security HMP Frankland in Durham barred the move saying it would pose a serious security risk.

“This guy planned on killing hundreds of people. He is a former British Airways software engineer who knows a lot about computers and telecommunications.

“The last thing he should be given access to is a computer or method of free communication,” The Daily Mail quoted an unnamed source as saying.

Karim was jailed for 30 years last year after being found guilty of planning a 9/11-style terror attack with former al- Qaeda warlord Anwar al-Awlaki.

The father-of-two claims using a prison payphone costs him too much money.

In a letter written to Inside Time, a newspaper for prisoners, he said: “The international call rates cost a lot using the prison PIN system and the Skype option looked like a perfect solution.

“The best part was that it was legal and no breach of prison rules as the call was made to a direct number and was not being redirected.

“But when I recently tried making my first call I was told by staff here at HMP Frankland that I am not allowed to make any calls through Skype”.

The report said he “tried to explain” how other prisons in the UK reportedly allow inmates to use the service, but said, “The response was a firm ‘no’ as HMP Frankland is part of the high security estate”.

Karim’s complaint has been passed on to the National Offender Management Service (NOMS).

He was imprisoned for 30 years last year after Woolwich Crown Court heard he wanted to use his position at British Airways to plant a bomb on a plane as part of a “chilling” conspiracy with al-Awlaki, a notorious radical preacher associated with al-Qaeda.

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Law To Prohibit Contraband Cell Phone Use Advances

An update on the progress of a proposed law in Michigan to add tougher penalties to the law prohibiting contraband cell phone use by prisoners. The article states, “Roesler said the main concern with inmates possessing a cellphone has more to do with security than the inmate being able to call out of the jail. With the cell phones now, they act as cameras and computers as a way to communicate and receive information. They can receive intelligence information and take pictures of corrections officers and witnesses. It could be a major security breach.”

Contraband cell phone use can be reduced by offering an alternative such as the meshDETECT secure prison cell phone solution. These phones have no cameras or internet access.

Two proposed bills — worked on by Muskegon County’s sheriff and state senator, and which would raise the penalties for possession and use of cellphones by inmates — is working its way through the Legislature.

The bills would amend current law to prohibit state prisoners and county jail inmates from possessing a cellphone and prohibit anyone from furnishing them with a cellphone.

Under the bills, violators of the ban would face a felony charge punishable by up to five years in prison, a maximum fine of $1,000 or both. Currently, inmates found in possession of cellphones face confiscation of the devices and losses of privileges.

The legislation currently is before the House Judiciary Committee. The state Senate passed the bills, Senate Bills No. 551 and No. 552, on votes of 34-3 in September, sending them to the House.

Muskegon County Sheriff Dean Roesler and state Sen. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart, collaborated on the proposed legislation. Hansen is the primary sponsor of the bills.

Roesler said the main concern with inmates possessing a cellphone has more to do with security than the inmate being able to call out of the jail.

“With the cell phones now, they act as cameras and computers as a way to communicate and receive information,” Roesler said. “They can receive intelligence information and take pictures of corrections officers and witnesses. It could be a major security breach.”

Hansen called cellphone use by inmates and prisoners “a real safety concern.”

“They could call witnesses outside the jail or prison, coordinate a guard’s movements,” Hansen said. “There could be some real danger.”

The language of the proposed legislation prohibits use by inmates and prisoners of all wireless communication devices.

In addition, the proposed legislation calls for cellphones and other devices confiscated as contraband to be donated to Cell Phones For Soldiers Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing deployed and returning troops cost-free methods to communicate with family while serving in the U.S. military.

Roesler said he was pleased to learn the bills passed the Senate and anticipated the potential benefits of the proposed changes to the law.

Currently, “an inmate bringing or possessing a cellphone in the jail would only have administrative sanctions, a loss of privileges, like TV or trustee status,” he said, pointing to the criminal charges proposed with the legislation being considered.

Hansen said he will push for the bills’ consideration by the state House.

“We’ll keep working on it because it’s common sense,” Hansen said. “What do you do if you’re in the sheriff’s position, because you don’t have any punishment.”

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Prison Cell Phone Jamming Not Working

An article describing some of the technical problems with contraband cell phone jamming in a prison. Unlike the managed access systems used in the United States, this Cayman Islands implementation blocks all cellular signals. Except, it doesn’t.

According to the article, “Government officials confirmed Wednesday the cell jamming equipment had not been working in all areas of the prison or at certain times, largely due to the proximity of a telecommunications tower next to the Northward site.

“What we’ve been told is that the tower and cell phone jamming technology are essentially cancelling each other out,” said Eric Bush, portfolio of internal and external affairs deputy chief officer. “We have experienced what they call ‘signal bleeding’ – that’s when the tower signal overpowers the jamming equipment.”

Her Majesty’s Prison Service in the Cayman Islands has been using cell phone jamming equipment at Northward men’s prison since late 2009, according to the government’s Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs.

It just doesn’t work properly.

Portfolio officials made comments on the issue following a recommendation by Complaints Commissioner Nicola Williams that the prison service install and implement cell phone jamming equipment in response to dozens of the devices being found at Northward last year.

“Since, realistically, it is virtually impossible to stop cell phone and BlackBerry use in prisons, this is a sensible, viable and – in the long-term – cheaper alternative which would avoid regular and repeated use of strip searching as a means of retrieval,” Ms Williams said, following a review of an incident where three teenage female prisoners at Fairbanks women’s prison were strip-searched in an operation that recovered two cell phones from the prison dorm.

According to information obtained through an open records request, a cell phone jamming system was installed and has been operational at Northward men’s prison since December 2009. The technology was in use during 2010, when some 74 cell phones were found at the men’s lockup.

Government officials confirmed Wednesday the cell jamming equipment had not been working in all areas of the prison or at certain times, largely due to the proximity of a telecommunications tower next to the Northward site.

“What we’ve been told is that the tower and cell phone jamming technology are essentially cancelling each other out,” said Eric Bush, portfolio of internal and external affairs deputy chief officer. “We have experienced what they call ‘signal bleeding’ – that’s when the tower signal overpowers the jamming equipment.”

Prison officials are reluctant to discuss the specific nature of the problems caused by the dueling technologies, but Mr. Bush said it was clear the cell jamming equipment purchased in 2009 wasn’t working the way government wanted it to.

“We want to effectively nullify cell phones within the prison service,” he said. “I want to make them useless.”

The government has engaged in discussions with the cell phone jamming providers and also intends to speak with both LIME and Digicel, which use the Northward telecom tower facilities. Mr. Bush said the government was hopeful a resolution could be worked out, once all parties were in agreement.

Ms Williams said in her earlier recommendation that land line phones would remain unaffected by cell phone jamming equipment.

“The minor inconvenience it would cause to staff who wanted to use cell phones and BlackBerrys for personal use would be far outweighed by the benefits,” Ms Williams stated in her recommendations to the government. “Phone-jamming equipment is currently used in prisons in many countries including; France, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, and Sweden and is currently being considered for use in prisons in Germany and the United Kingdom.”

The prisons service has a detailed policy on when and how strip searches should be used. Among those instances include when contraband is believed to be stashed in the prison, which Ms Williams said can be problematic if officers are determined to have used unreasonable force is searching for a cell phone or sim card.

To the average person who doesn’t spend a lot of time in prison, cell phones might seem a harmless device. However, Mr. Bush, whose portfolio has responsibility for law enforcement in the Cayman Islands, said prison officers work in a different world.

“In the hands of individuals [a cellphone] can be used as a method or tool to orchestrate chaos and murder,” Mr. Bush said.

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Contraband Cell Phones Prison System’s Greatest Threat?

A very interesting interview with the Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner, Brian Owens on the problem of contraband cell phones in prisons.

Provocative quotes from the interview:

“Cell phones in prison are simply a matter of power, money and gangs.”

“Illegal cell-phone use in Georgia prisons has developed to “epidemic” proportions and is now the system’s greatest safety threat.”

Interestingly, the interview did not include any discussion of deploying demand-side solutions such as a secure prison cell phone solution to reduce the contraband value of smuggled cell phones.


Might Prison-Friendly Cell Phones Be A Wiser Response To Contraband Phones Smuggled Behind Bars?

Might prison-friendly cell phones be a wiser response to contraband phones smuggled behind bars? So writes Douglas A. Berman the Robert J. Watkins/Procter & Gamble Professor of Law at Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University on his blog Sentencing Law And Policy.

Professor Berman, who attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School and who’s principal teaching and research focus is in the area of criminal law and criminal sentencing, states in his blog post on the recent GAO report on smuggled cell phones in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, “Though I fully understand the problems that contraband cell phones can pose in prisons, I do not understand why anyone would be confident that this new federal criminal law would be likely to be effective at addressing these problems (or would even ever get seriously enforced by federal prosecutors).”

“As the title of my post hints, I think trying to provide inmates with controlled and closely monitored access to a prison-friendly cell phone may be a much more effective way to deal with a problem that seem likely to get even more profound if and when smart-phones and tablets and other small electronics become even cheaper and easier to pass to inmates who may just want no more than a cheap and easy way to keep up with the outside world.”

We couldn’t agree more.


Is a Cell Phone Dangerous Contraband In Prison?

This article on the trial of five prison escapees raises the issue of whether a contraband prison cell phone can be considered dangerous contraband. Certainly a smuggled cell phone can be used to plan crimes or harass witnesses, but is the contraband cell phone, in and off itself, dangerous? The defense attorney states, “a cell phone, something that you give your children, something that our middle schools are filled with, is not in it of itself dangerous, even in the confines of the county jail.” While the prosecutor states that, “the circumstances in which the phone was used makes it dangerous.” Either way, prison officials need a more effective means to reduce the contraband value of smuggled cell phones in prisons.

The five men charged in connection with the March 31st Monroe County Jail break were back in court for pretrial hearings Thursday.

Attorneys for accused jail escapees Joseph Mitchell and Eddie Palmer raised questions about the legality of using recorded phone calls from jail as evidence at trial.

They also asked Judge James Piampiano to consider whether law enforcement officers acted outside the scope of signed warrants while conducting and seizing their clients’ property.

Inmate James Thomas is charged with felony possessing dangerous contraband.

Local lawyer Rudolf LePore is charged with felony introducing dangerous contraband. The charges specifically relate to a cell phone and charger that were brought into the jail and used by the escapees.

It is still unclear who provided the escapees with the saw blades.

Thomas and LePore’s attorneys argued the cell phone should not be considered dangerous.

“We’re saying that a cell phone, something that you give your children, something that our middle schools are filled with, is not in it of itself dangerous, even in the confines of the county jail. And secondly, we think there’s a constitutional question about that, that there’s no notice out there for anyone. Again, everybody would know that you can’t bring a knife into a jail, but a cell phone, being the same level of offense as a knife that’s a step removed under the law and its our position that this should be reduced to a misdemeanor,” LePore’s attorney Peter Pullano said.

Assistant District Attorney Matthew Schwartz disagreed. He the circumstances in which the phone was used makes it dangerous.

The fifth defendant in this case, Mathias Smith, also appeared in court Thursday. He is charged with hindering the prosecution by allegedly sheltering Mitchell and Palmer in Sodus while they we on the run.

All five defendants are scheduled to be back in court at the end of the month for Judge Piampiano’s decisions on the issues raised.

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