According to this article from India, satellite phones smuggled into prisons are being used by imprisoned terrorists there. These mobile phones bypass the traditional wireless carriers that cell phones utilize and are therefore much harder to track and jam. Global terror has spread its tentacles into the prisons of Kerala, which with its sobriquet of God’s Own Country used to be a state known for peace and communal harmony till some years back, if the […]
Prison Cell Phones
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This article highlights some of the challenges and issues associated with the use of wireless signal jammers to stop the use of contraband cell phones smuggled into a prison in India. With a spate of murders and extortions being abetted from Puducherry Central Prison in India by criminals inside, the Jail authorities have woken up and have taken stringent measures. A team of security personnel on special duty seized a dozen cellphones from the jail […]
Despite the many sensationalist press accounts of prisoners using smuggled contraband cell phones to plot crimes or run criminal enterprises from within jail, the vast majority of prison cell phone use is detainees talking to loved ones. It has been shown that increased communications between detainees and loved ones helps to keep families together during incarceration and reduces recidivism. Incarceration is a strain on all involved, as this article demonstrates, and leads to the smuggling […]
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 […]
This article is another example of the corrupting influence of the demand for cell phones in prison. The demand for smuggled cell phones, like the demand for drugs in prison, drives the economic incentives to supply this demand. In addition to supply prevention, the satisfaction of demand, using a secure cell phone solution like meshDETECT will reduce the economic incentives to supply contraband cell phones. Agents with the Alabama Department of Corrections arrested a correctional […]
This calls into question the viability of using cell phone jammers in prisons to disable smuggled cell phones. At least for those jammers that aren’t salt proof! Jamming is one of the myriad ways being tested to address the supply of contraband cell phones in prisons around the world. A strategic focus on the demand side of this problem – prisoners’ desire for more communications options while incarcerated – is what is missing from these […]
Another article highlighting the reality that the problem of contraband cell phones smuggled into prisons is a global one. In this case, Kenya’s largest cellular network service provider, Safaricom, will be installing cell phone jammers in the nation’s prisons. According the article, 70 per cent of phone-related fraud originates from prisons there. Major prisons in Kenya will be cut off the Safaricom mobile phone network in a bid to curb M-Pesa and SMS fraud. The […]
Update (4/18/14) The Wall Street Journal reports that Global Tel*Link Corp., the largest U.S. operator of prison phones, is being shopped by its private-equity owner American Securities, according to people familiar with the matter. The sale process comes as federal regulators have capped the fees companies like Global Tel*Link can charge for interstate calls to and from inmates and as the government considers limiting charges for calls made within state lines. The Mobile, Ala., company, […]
This article is about the challenges and indignities of visiting a loved one in jail. The sheriff in charge of the jail discusses the environment in the visiting room, “There are loads of kids there. And a strong part of me says that’s not a good environment for any child. I don’t want kids seeing this stuff. The other side is, if they’re connecting with their father, that’s a good thing, too. We can’t do […]
This bill and associated executive order are an attempt to hinder the smuggling of contraband cell phones into California prisons. These legislative efforts may slow the supply of cell phones, but they will not eliminate it. Just as illegal drugs continue to flow into prisons around the country, contraband cell phone smuggling is supply meeting demand. Until a strategy to address the fundamental demand for more communications between prisoners and their loved ones is also […]