Tag Archives: meshDETECT

meshDETECT® Awarded Notice Of Allowance From The United States Patent And Trademark Office

meshDETECT® is pleased to announce that it has recently received a notice of allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a patent application entitled, “System and method for controlling, monitoring and recording of wireless telecommunications services in penal institutions” covering its Secure Prison Cell Phone Solutions™. A notice of allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office is a written notification that a patent application has cleared internal review and is pending issuance.

The application broadly covers systems and methods of providing incoming and outgoing telecommunications services to persons incarcerated in penal facilities. A plurality of controls is provided that may reduce contraband devices and encourage good behavior by detainees, penal employees, and others. Portable electronic devices, primarily mobile telephones, are provided to detainees that have exhibited acceptable behavior and are not determined to be security risks.

Contraband mobile telephones have become an increasing problem in prison facilities, further reducing prison facility inmate communications services earnings, compromising safety and presenting opportunities for prison employee corruption. While prison officials have taken steps to reduce contraband cell phones, the expanded capabilities of small portable devices have made such devices more valuable to detainees. This has increased economic incentives for penal employees to facilitate the smuggling and trafficking of these devices in prisons. With a contraband mobile device that has Internet access, a detainee may view telephone directories, maps and photographs for criminal purposes. Gang violence and drug trafficking are increasingly being managed online, allowing persons in penal facilities to continue engaging in criminal activity while incarcerated. Traditional solutions such as blocking or jamming cell phone signals have proven impractical.

meshDETECT® is a technology platform that can be offered in any prison interested in the smart deployment and management of secure prison cell phones – which promotes improved detainee behavior and increases officer safety. Best of all, there is no deployment cost. In fact, meshDETECT is a new source of revenue for prisons.

Prisons longer need to incur the expense and deployment challenges of wireless jamming technology, now that prison cell phone calls can now be monitored and recorded. Legitimate prison cell phone inventories can now replace contraband cell phones.

Control Contraband Cell Phones Without Investment

This presentation on controlling contraband cell phones in prison provides an overview of the problem, of the supply-side strategies currently deployed and of meshDETECT’s secure prison cell phone solution.

To learn more, also download our whitepaper, “Reducing the Demand for Contraband Cell Phones in Correctional Facilities.”

Cellphones Don’t Belong In These Cells

We agree that unmonitored contraband cell phones don’t belong in prison cells, but we believe that a secure prison cell phone solution such as meshDETECT can not only reduce the demand for smuggled cell phones but also enhance safety, decrease recidivism and increase prison revenues.

Download our whitepaper “Reducing the Demand for Contraband Cell Phones in Correctional Facilities” to learn more.

Sarah Pender orchestrated her escape from Rockville Correctional Facility in 2008 using contraband cellphones and a network of accomplices.

Pender, who was featured as one of “America’s Most Wanted’s” Top Ten Fugitives before her capture, showed state prison officials the danger of prisoners using technology behind bars.

Todd Tappy, deputy chief of internal affairs in the Indiana Department of Correction, said cellphones rival weapons as a top threat to safety in Indiana’s prisons.

Prisoners have used cellphones to traffic drugs and tobacco, organize assaults, intimidate witnesses and victims, order people killed or coordinate escapes — as Pender did. Unlike calls made through the prison system, prison officials can’t monitor inmates’ cellphone calls.

“We have serious concerns about their introduction into any of our facilities,” said Traci Billingsley, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons.

More than 1,760 cellphones were confiscated from Indiana state prisons in 2010, Department of Correction data show. The Bureau of Prisons confiscated more than 3,600 cellphones nationwide last year from its federal prisons.

Illinois prison officials, on the other hand, confiscated only five cellphones in 2010, data provided by the Illinois Department of Corrections show.

Stacey Solano, communications manager for the Illinois Department of Corrections, said she couldn’t explain the difference. She said Illinois’ numbers might be so low because of officials’ vigilance in searching prisoners, staff and visitors.

“We do everything we can within our power to make sure cellphones and other contraband don’t make it into our facilities,” Solano said.

The proliferation of cellphones in prisons can have dire consequences.

In South Carolina, an off-duty prison official was shot six times in the chest and stomach last year in his home. He survived the attack, which was ordered by an inmate using a smuggled cellphone.

A New Jersey inmate used a contraband cellphone last year to order the slaying of his former girlfriend in retaliation for her initial cooperation in a police investigation about him.

In Tennessee, a Nashville police officer was shot in 2009 by a man who had escaped from a Mississippi prison with the help of a cellphone.

Tappy said Indiana prisoners buy cellphones for anywhere from $400 to more than $1,000 — depending on the difficulty of getting them into a facility.

Indiana prison officials search prisoners cells, use metal detectors and conduct more thorough searches of their own staff, contractors, visitors and prisoners. Tappy said Indiana also uses dogs trained specifically to sniff out wireless devices.

“It’s dangerous not only to the offenders but to the public,” Tappy said. “We have to do everything we can to keep (cellphones) out of our facilities.”

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Borrowed Cellphone Slams Prison Cell Shut

This article touches on just about all the key issues and challenges facing prisons, detainees and families when talking about the contraband cell phone problem. Key quotes from the article:

Availability – “cellphones are just everywhere in prison nowadays…. It’s easy to borrow one from a guy”. “This year, guards (in California) are on pace to seize about 15,000 phones — nearly one for every 11 inmates.”

Corruption – “Almost as troubling as prisoners gaining access to cellphones is their frequent source: prison employees.”

Bribery – “State investigators found that another guard made $150,000 in a single year delivering cellphones to inmates.”

Crime – “Inmates have used cellphones to run drug rings, intimidate witnesses and order violent attacks on the outside.”

And finally and most importantly, a legislative and operational approach limited only to restricting supply instead of also seeking to co-opt legitimate demand for lawful communication with family by supplying a secure cell phone solution such as meshDETECT. If meshDETECT was available, this inmate could have legitimately called his family to notify him of his parole.

Dwayne Kennedy threw a man from a moving car in 1988, but that’s not what’s keeping him in prison today. It’s not the inmate he stabbed 17 years ago either; the state parole board forgave him that.

Instead, California prison officials are keeping Kennedy locked up for an extra five years — costing taxpayers roughly $250,000 — because guards caught him with a contraband cellphone he says he borrowed to tell his family he had just been granted parole and was coming home.

It was “just stupid on my part for even using it,” Kennedy told a pair of parole commissioners convened in June 2010 to decide his punishment for breaking prison rules. But “cellphones are just everywhere in prison nowadays…. It’s easy to borrow one from a guy,” Kennedy said.

Indeed, Kennedy’s access to the phone underscores a rapidly growing problem for California corrections officials. Just five years ago, only 261 of the devices turned up behind state prison walls. This year, guards are on pace to seize about 15,000 phones — nearly one for every 11 inmates. Almost as troubling as prisoners gaining access to cellphones is their frequent source: prison employees.

Last month, a federal grand jury charged Bobby Joe Kirby, a Northern California prison guard, with wire fraud. Inmates paid him for phones via Western Union and other services, according to the indictment. When Kirby showed up to collect the cash at one location, he had to answer a security question he arranged with the inmates. “What’s your favorite color,” the clerk asked. “Green,” Kirby replied.

State investigators found that another guard made $150,000 in a single year delivering cellphones to inmates. He was fired.

Phones are so prevalent in California prisons that even highly scrutinized inmates can get their hands on them. Charles Manson has been caught with two. Inmates have used cellphones to run drug rings, intimidate witnesses and order violent attacks on the outside. Despite state leaders’ rising anxiety over inmates obtaining phones, smuggling them into prisons wasn’t against the law until this month.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill on Oct. 6 making it a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in a county jail. Brown also issued an executive order that requires prison officials to increase the number of random searches of employees and to determine how much it would cost to send them through airport-style screening on their way into work.

Under the new law, most inmates caught with phones face losing 90 days of credit earned for good behavior.

In Kennedy’s case, using the cellphone derailed his parole bid and effectively lengthened his prison stay by at least five years. That’s because a 2008 ballot measure extended the time inmates serving life sentences must wait for a new hearing when they are denied parole or their parole offer is revoked.

When the two parole commissioners met to decide his punishment for violating the cellphone rule, Kennedy said that he had made the calls because he was “overwhelmed and just happy” that he had been granted parole.

“He was so happy…. We were crying and praying,” recalled his sister, Yolanda Kennedy, one of the people he called.

But months later, parole commissioners John Peck and Dennis Smith found that Kennedy’s willingness to violate the prison rule proved he is an “unreasonable risk of danger to society.” They revoked his parole offer and imposed the five-year wait until his next hearing.

The commissioners’ decision seemed a bit severe to Debbie Mukamal, executive director of Stanford University’s Criminal Justice Center, who noted that the state is under a U.S. Supreme Court order to remove tens of thousands of inmates from its overcrowded prisons.

“I wonder if they’re punishing [cellphone use] more severely because it’s something they feel like they can’t control,” Mukamal said.

Heidi Rummel, a former federal prosecutor who now advocates for inmates’ rights as co-director of USC Law School’s Post-Conviction Justice Project, said there should be some evidence of harm before imposing such a harsh penalty.

“It would seem that why he had the cellphone would be a critical factor in deciding whether it made him a danger to society,” Rummel said.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court and the 2nd District Court of Appeal have rebuffed Kennedy’s efforts to get the decision overturned. His attorney, Keith Wattley, has filed a petition with the state Supreme Court. “There’s never been any allegation he’s done anything illegal with this phone,” Wattley said.

Kennedy, 44, has been in prison since 1990, serving 15 years to life for kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder. He’s now at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blyth. He became eligible for parole in 1999 but a decade passed before parole commissioners found he was no longer a threat to society and recommended his release. They noted that Kennedy had stayed out of trouble for seven years and had a stable home and good job waiting for him on the outside.

The cellphone bust changed everything.

“Frankly, this panel didn’t buy that you were going to call your supporters to thank them,” said Peck, a parole board commissioner and recently retired prison guard who presided over the June 2010 hearing. “There is no way you would put your parole date at risk to make a thank-you call.”

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Cell Phone On Cellblock Means Trouble For Inmate

Even a person with a long history of crimes committed wants to keep in touch with and talk to her children. This person paid to use a smuggled cell phone to call family members. Now due to being caught with the contraband cell phone, she will spend more time in prison. There is a legitimate need for meshDETECT’s secure cell phone service in prisons.

A woman serving time in the Accomack County jail who was caught with a cellphone will serve six months in jail on top of the almost-six-year sentence she was already serving for crimes committed in both Shore counties.

Yolanda Stines, 35, of Painter, did not bring the phones into the jail, said defense attorney Theresa Bliss. They were brought in by an inmate who was serving weekends and used by several of the women in the cellblock, she said.

She said Stines used the telephone to call family members. Bliss told the court that Stine’s family was there to support her, including the aunt whose checks she stole and cashed.

“She’s had an unfortunate history in every sense of the word,” said Bliss of her client.

“This is a security issue and a serious offense that puts people at risk,” said Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Brenner. He told the court about the woman’s criminal history, saying Stines has “two and a half” pages of arrests, beginning when she was a juvenile.

Some of the crimes he listed were grand larceny, conspiracy to rob, forgery of public records and burglary. Some charges are pending in other jurisdictions, he said.

“When you look at her record, there is only one place for a woman like her.”

When asked by Judge Bonwill Shockley if she had anything to say, Stines said she used the phone to call her three children in Pennsylvania.

“I don’t know what is going on with you,” said the judge, sentencing Stines to two years and suspending all but six months.

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Cut Off Cellphones In Prison Cells

This recent editorial on contraband cell phones from the LA Times advocates making the penalties for smuggling cell phones into prisons harsher. And perhaps tougher penalties for those guards and prison staff who are caught smuggling prison cell phones would act as deterrence for some. But with over 10,000 cell phones confiscated in California jails last year alone, it is unlikely a new law will significantly stem the tide of smuggled wireless phones into prisons. A new approach, one that reduces the contraband value of smuggled cell phones, is needed. By offering a secure cell phone service to prisoners, the legitimate use of these illegal phones, calls to friends and family, will be siphoned off. This will reduce the number of cell phones smuggled as well as the amount paid for them. The key to reducing supply is to reduce demand. The meshDETECT secure cell phone solution does exactly that.

It was bad enough when we learned in December that mass murderer and renowned psychopath Charles Manson was sending texts to folks outside prison walls using a flip phone that he kept hidden under his mattress. Now comes word that California inmates may be friending your kids on Facebook.

Officials at the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced this week that they’ve made an arrangement with the popular social-media site to take down pages belonging to inmates that have been updated since the owners went to prison. It seems that convicts are using contraband cellphones with Web browsers to harass their victims or issue threats on Facebook. Prisoners who set up Facebook accounts before being convicted are allowed to keep them, but if they’re updated while the inmate is still doing time, the company has agreed to take action.

That’s nice. But what’s to stop inmates from jumping to Google+ or Twitter? The problem doesn’t lie with the myriad websites where prisoners can go to plot violent crimes, conduct drug deals, order gang actions, plan escapes or engage in other mischief; it’s within the prisons themselves. More than 10,000 contraband cellphones were confiscated in California prisons last year, up from 1,400 in 2007.

A case making its way through federal court in Sacramento shows at least one way these phones are finding their way to inmates. Prison guard Bobby Joe Kirby is accused of collecting thousands of dollars in wire transfers from prisoners and their associates in exchange for smuggling cellphones and tobacco products into a correctional center in Susanville. Kirby is facing wire fraud charges, but in other cases in which guards or prison employees have been caught smuggling phones, they’ve gotten off with a slap on the wrist.

Two bills aim to solve this problem. The first, from state Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), would make it a misdemeanor to smuggle a cellphone into a state prison, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine. In one of the occasional logical breakdowns that characterized his tenure, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill last year because he thought it wasn’t tough enough — Schwarzenegger wanted the crime to be a felony. Maybe it should be, but it makes little sense to reject a measure that would at least make penalties stiffer than they are now; moreover, Democrats in the Legislature have wisely put a moratorium on drafting new felony laws until the state’s prison overcrowding crisis is solved. The other bill, from Sen. Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara), would permit random monthly searches of prison employees for contraband. Both bills passed the Senate unanimously; the Assembly should follow suit, and Gov. Jerry Brown should sign them.

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Jailer Pleads Guilty in Cell Phone Smuggling Case

This article is about yet another prison guard caught smuggling a contraband cell phone into jail. Given the high price paid by inmates for an illegal cell phone, the corruption of prison guards has become all to commonplace. A reduction of the contraband value of smuggled cell phones through the deployment of the meshDETECT secure prison cell phone solution will change the economics of this problem and reduce prison cell phone smuggling without the high cost of wireless jammers.

A former San Joaquin County jailer arrested for allegedly smuggling a cell phone to an inmate pleaded guilty Thursday to unlawfully accessing a computer database, according to court documents.

The guilty plea of Michael George McCann, 41, almost guarantees his career in law enforcement is over, said San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Donald Vaughn.

“I don’t know of any law enforcement agency anywhere that would hire a convicted felon,” Vaughn said in a telephone interview Thursday afternoon.

McCann was arrested on Jan. 6 after an investigation uncovered he had allegedly smuggled a cell phone into the jail. The prosecution had photographic evidence of McCann meeting an inmate’s significant other at a convenience store and receiving money, Vaughn said.

While he faced multiple charges in connection to the smuggling and unlawful access, the bulk of the charges were thrown out in the interest of justice, according to court documents.

Although he may not serve any time behind bars as part of his plea, Vaughn said he was pleased with the outcome because it shows the public wrongdoing will not be tolerated.

“He’s leaving here as a convicted felon on probation,” he said.

Vaughn would not speculate what McCann’s motive was for accessing the database.

The situation is an unfortunate one because it taints the image of the county and its justice system, the prosecutor said.

“It’s a sad case for all of law enforcement,” he said. “Citizens have to be able to trust law enforcement officers in order for them to do their job; people like McCann really hurt the community.”

McCann had been an employee of the San Joaquin Sheriff’s office since January of 2002, Sheriff’s spokesperson Les Garcia previously said. The department did not comment on McCann’s plea because he is no longer an employee.

Officials also declined comment on if procedures or protocols for correctional officers have changed since McCann’s arrest.

The former correction officer will be sentenced September 23. He could face between 0 days and 1 year in jail, Vaughn said. A probation report will be prepared prior to his sentencing to give the judge an objective look at what his punishment should be, Vaughn said.

“How much time he spends in jail, if any, will be up to the judge,” he said.

McCann’s lawyer, Gary Lacy, could not be reached for comment.

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Cellphone War

The National Geographic’s Hard Time TV series most recent episode is about smuggled prison cell phones. It’s called Cellphone War and below are some facts from the show. The meshDETECT secure cell phone service addresses the legitimate inmate desire for family contact and therefore reduces the contraband value of smuggled prison cell phones.

CELL PHONE WAR FACTS:

Did you know that the ownership of a cell phone behind bars is prohibited in both state and federal facilities in the United States? Could you survive hard time without yours?

Cell phones allow inmates to contact friends and family but also gives them the ability to orchestrate crimes.

A system called Cell Hound is currently being tested to detect cell phone activity within prisons, allowing administrators to pinpoint the location of a phone being used.

Prison officials believe that the only surefire way to combat cell phone usage is to use signal jammers within the prison walls — an action that is prohibited by law.

Smuggling cell phones is a problem that occurs not only in the United States but also worldwide.
Cell phones can enter the system with the help of visitors as well as prison employees.

In prison, cell phones can range from $300 to $1,000.

One prison in Georgia is one of the few in the country that allows the use of a cell phone detection system. Its use allows officials not only to detect cell phones, but to find any other contraband that is stored within the device such as tobacco, weapons or narcotics.

Cell phone detection systems can differentiate between signals in “safe” areas and calls placed from inside designated off-limits areas, such as cell blocks.

President Obama signed a law in 2010 which makes cell phone possession a felony in federal prisons, punishable by up to one extra year on an inmate’s original sentence.

In the first four months of 2010, the Federal Bureau of Prisons workers confiscated over 1,000 cell phones.

States are stiffening penalties for officers who help prisoners get cell phones.

Texas officials claim they have the nation’s worst contraband cell phone problem, punishing inmates with sentences of up to 40 years for cell phone ownership.

Maryland and Virginia are the first states to train dogs to detect cell phones.

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Smuggled Cell Phones A Prisoner’s Most Dangerous Weapon

This article is a discussion of the problem of contraband cell phones in Ohio prisons. Same issues as everywhere else with the same lack of solutions. However, a secure cell phone service is a solution to the contraband prison cell phone problem. With meshDETECT, the demand for illegal wireless devices is reduced, thereby reducing the contraband value of smuggled cell phones for those who supply them. That means less reward for the same risk and eventually supply will be minimized.

California prison officials have twice caught Charles Manson — the cult leader who masterminded a 1960s murder rampage — with a smuggled mobile phone after he chatted with folks across the country.

In Texas, prison officials seized a smuggled phone after a death row inmate called a state senator looking for help with his appeal.

And in South Carolina, after a prison official was ambushed at his home and nearly killed, authorities determined prisoners used a smuggled phone to organize the attack.

Smartphones, cellphones and other mobile devices are the most dangerous tools in prison, and officials haven’t found a way to keep them out, said Martin Horn, a former commissioner of New York City’s corrections department who now teaches at John Jay College.

“The purpose of imprisonment is to separate criminals from society, and these phones wipe that away,” Horn said. “You can access anything on the Internet, and that presents an enormous and growing challenge.”

In the first four months of 2010, Federal Bureau of Prisons workers confiscated 1,188 cellphones. Many state prisons also were overwhelmed. Guards in California’s prisons, for example, seized more than 8,500 smuggled phones in 2010.

That dwarfs Ohio’s numbers — about 100 phones seized in prison last year — but the trend is picking up here. Between January and May, Ohio authorities reported seizing about 100 phones, said Vinko Kucinic, the chief security threat investigator at the Ohio Department of Corrections.

How do the phones — considered contraband — make it inside?

• Friends or family of inmates stuff phones inside footballs and hike the balls over fences into prison yards for inmates to pick up.

•Visitors hide the phones in diapers a baby is wearing or in a body cavity.

•Corrupt prison guards bring them in, including a California guard who told state investigators he made more than $100,000 in one year from smuggling phones.

For guards, it’s a low-risk, high-profit venture, Horn said.

Smuggling cocaine or heroin to inmates is dangerous because if you’re caught — on or off prison grounds — you’re breaking the law.

But carrying a phone isn’t illegal to start with. And if a guard leaves a phone on a windowsill and an inmate picks it up, it’s often difficult for prison authorities to prove smuggling, Horn said.

Inmates often pay from $300 to $1,500 for a smuggled phone, Horn and other prison security experts say.

In Ohio prisons, inmates hide phones in hollowed-out books or secret compartments in their cells. They also hide shared phones in public spaces where inmates gather, Kucinic said.

How Dimorio McDowell — the federal inmate who ran an organized retail theft operation in Northeast Ohio from his New Jersey prison cell — received his phones or how he hid them from guards is unclear.

Prison officials at Fort Dix declined to answer questions, saying details could compromise security.

Many prison officials say it’s impossible to keep phones away from the 2 million inmates in the U.S. The solution, some have suggested, is to jam phone signals in prisons, making the phones useless.

But the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry says that would be illegal under the Federal Communications Act of 1934 — which prohibits blocking signals.

Mississippi found a compromise — managed access. A computer network there tracks all calls and texts coming in and going out of prisons.

If someone tries to use an unauthorized phone, calls and texts are blocked. In the first six months, the system blocked nearly 650,000 calls at one prison.

But managed access has its drawbacks, Horn cautioned. It’s expensive and, eventually, it will be hacked.

“Just because you’re a prison inmate doesn’t mean you’re stupid,” Horn said. “They’ll figure out a way to get around it.”

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Inmate Phone Cards Generate $156,000 A Year

This article discusses the methods by which prisoners can currently make telephone calls in a Dayton, OH county jail. An interesting quote from the article is, “Monies made from jail commissary sales, including calling cards, are utilized to support the current jail inmate population.” The meshDETECT secure prison cell phone service is another means by which prisoners can stay in contact with friends and family. It also provides a revenue stream for cash-strapped prison systems while reducing the demand for contraband cell phones.

Sale of pre-paid telephone cards to inmates in the Montgomery County Jail, along with charges for outgoing collect calls, generate hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for jail services, according to officials.

Whether inmates have money or not, they’re allowed the traditional “one” telephone call to arrange bail or to post bond.

“We give them as many calls as they need to let people know where they are,” Major Daryl Wilson, of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said.

After the initial booking, inmates must pay for their telephone calls.

They can opt to use the jail telephone to make a collect call to a landline, which costs $2.25 for the initial call, then 25 cents for every minute thereafter. This charge offsets the cost for an operator and pays for repairs to the “heavy duty telephones” used by the inmates, Wilson said.

Any additional revenue goes into the county general fund. Wilson estimated the collect-call charge would generate about $200,000 in 2011.

Collect calls can’t be made to cell phones, so the jail offers a second option.

If inmates want to call cell phones, they or a relative may purchase a $10 pre-paid, Global Tel-Link, Corp. calling card from the jail commissary. These cards also may be used to call land lines, Wilson said. Each card is good for up to three 15 minute telephone calls.

Three days after inmates are booked in the jail, they may ask for cash in their possession at the time of their arrest to be transferred into a commissary account. Aramark Correctional Services, the vendor providing food service at the jail, also runs they commissary where the calling cards are purchased. Montgomery County gets 42 percent of the revenue from those sales, with the balance going to Aramark, Wilson said.

The calling cards generate about $3,000 a week for the jail, or $156,000 a year.

“Monies made from jail commissary sales, including calling cards, are utilized to support the current jail inmate population,” Wilson said. “We can’t go out and buy new cruisers with that money. It can’t go out to pay salaries. It has to be spent on the inmates, according to Ohio law.”

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