An Australian-first trial of technology that will stop inmates from making calls from mobile phones they’ve illegally smuggled into jail has begun at a prison west of Sydney. The project trials the use of a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) to jam phones within the prison under the supervision of the ACMA and mobile phone carriers.

The DAS system will jam the channels transmitting mobile phone signals within the prison but prevent disruption outside the prison. Kordia has provided the DAS design which has been installed by an independent contractor under Kordia supervision. Kordia is now activating the jamming system into the DAS and will be running a series of tests to prove the system’s effectiveness and ensure mobile signals outside the prison complex are unaffected.

The jammers and accompanying distributed antenna system will be provided by chosen suppliers WiComm and Lan Installations for contracts worth $462,000 and $178,000 respectively.

NSW Corrective Services had to seek exemptions from the Australian Communications and Media Authority to conduct the trial as current legislation makes it an offence to operate, supply or possess a jamming device. Lithgow Jail is understood to be fit for a jamming-only trial due to its remoteness. If the nine-month $1.06 million Lithgow trial proved successful in stopping calls while not impacting on mobile phone use outside the jail then jamming would likely be rolled out to the state’s other maximum security prisons.

However, using jammers to block signals in Australia’s prisons is not expected to be the all encompassing solution. Containing a signal block to a particular area is difficult to achieve without having leakages affecting surrounding residents accoring to David Stone at New Zealand’s Telecommunications Carriers Forum

The New Zealand Government has hit several roadbumps since introducing jamming technology in all of its 20 prisons in 2009, with reports of cost blowouts, radiation leakage and sparse jamming coverage.

The jamming technology used in NZ prisons reportedly only covered an average 60 percent of each facility, with the government forced to fork out more cash than expected to upgrade and fix the system. It also received complaints from residential areas around the prison.

“There were certainly instances where neighbouring premises were significantly negatively impacted. The actual signal strength was amped up in those sectors to cover it, but some people had negative experiences,” Stone said.

The NZ Government has declined to detail what mix of technology it has used in its jamming project. It is understood the government initially used jammers but on the advice of the local telco industry has started building cell sites within prison facilities.

Paul Brislen of the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand said that had the NZ Government listened to the technical advice it had been given, neighbours would not have been affected.

“The telcos said the easiest thing to do would be to put a cellphone tower in the prison, so any smuggled cell phones would lock onto it, but they didn’t want to do that, despite the telcos saying it was the cheapest and best way of doing it. In the end they were forced to implement some kind of jamming regime,” Brislen said.

He said blocking signals was almost impossible to achieve.

“Cell phone signals from the tower to the phone are designed, much like the internet, to lock onto and get around any kind of damage, and all of this kind of stuff is treated as damage, so the signal works really hard to get around it. [The devices are] working quite hard to connect to the nearest tower,” Brislen said.

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As we have written previously, the CDCR has forgone all prison telephone commissions as part of a new contract with Global Tel*link (GTL) in return for GTL installing managed access signal (MAS) jamming systems in all 33 of the CRDR’s prison facilities.

However, the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) released a report today advising the State of California to use security screening systems, similar to those in airports, in state prisons before investing millions in the untested MAS technology intended to block calls by inmates from contraband cell phones.

There are some very interesting insights to come from the report including:

• During CCST’s visit to two prisons (Solano State Prison and California Medical Facility) in January 2012, we had the opportunity to interview inmates, gathering a unique perspective on the contraband cell phone issue. The opinion expressed by some inmates during those visits was that cell phones used by prisoners allowed unfettered contact to family and loved ones otherwise unavailable. The question, “If cell phones were provided as part of the IWTS, and knowing that the calls were recorded, would this deter cell phone use?” was answered with a “no”; the inmates indicated that they were used to their calls being recorded when using the IWTS. There was also acknowledgment by the prisoners that a percentage – small by the inmates’ estimation – of cell phone calls are used for illicit and illegal activity. It was noted by the CCST Project Team that access to cell phones (even if monitored by CDCR via computers with screening software) offers to many inmates an ongoing connection to family and friends, as well as entertainment on smart phones (such as games, videos  and ESPN sports games). Consideration could be given to piloting a method to screen contraband cell phone calls (rather than blocking) to better understand the impacts that the phones have on prisoner recidivism and overall prison temperament.

(Perhaps a through a trial of the meshDETECT secure prison cell phone solution? Our solution can be deployed immediately and allows the recording and monitoring of each call made.)

• The only MAS system currently implemented in a U.S. correctional facility is the Parchman Prison in Mississippi. This system has been in operation at Parchman Prison since July 2010. According to the Mississippi Department of Corrections, this MAS is still a pilot operation and is not fully deployed due to operational issues. Roll out of the system to other Mississippi prisons is on hold until these issues are worked out satisfactorily. The equipment used at Parchman Prison is not the equipment previously tested in California at a CDCR facility.

• Because of the paucity of system vendors, the lack of the ability to monitor interference outside of the subscribed area, and the lack of large-scale operational application of technologies used for MAS, there is no template of implementation techniques to model or follow for MAS. If the CDCR proceeds with the IFB as currently written, it would be important to note that each correctional institution installation will be a new learning experience, and each caveat would be discovered as it is installed. Although similar problems are likely to arise at each installation, solutions for each individual prison are likely going to vary significantly depending on a complex host of local factors.

• The proposed MAS systems lack the finite systematic radio power level control capability necessary to prevent interference in real time. This means the only mechanism for interference mitigation would be by exception. For instance, when someone’s cell phone service outside the prison is affected by interference, they would need to report it, and the cause could then be detected and corrected. The proposed MAS approach also lacks the capability to be simply modified for new cell phone communications technologies. Each and every upgrade of the MAS systems will be tantamount to a complete new installation. This, predictably, would be disruptive and could lead to long periods of inferior performance.

• Since the MAS is a cell phone system with antennas and interconnect cabling and support computers it will need to be installed in highly secure areas away from inmate access to prevent tampering or destruction. The existing cabling systems in prisons will not support the RF signaling being carried to and from the antenna arrays and the transmitter receiver systems. All required MAS infrastructure will need to be newly installed.

• If the prison is in or near a populated area, RF leakage could be highly disruptive to cell phone usage by the non-prison population. Among other things, this disruption could greatly reduce the capability of public safety professionals to serve the community’s needs or the general public’s ability to access a 911 operator.

Source

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Continuing a trend to fight contraband cell phones in prisons through the deployment of managed access cell phone signal jammers, Maryland has become the latest state to investigate the technology.

Maryland has received a federal grant to help fight cell phone use in prisons.

The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services announced a $2 million contract over three years with Columbia, Md.-based Tecore Networks to deploy technology known as managed access.

The system only allows calls on approved cell phones. Unlike cell phone jamming, it does not interfere with calls outside prison walls and does not violate federal law.

About half of the money for the contract is being paid for with federal funds. The state is paying for the other half.

In the last fiscal year, about 1,300 cell phones were found by prison staff before getting behind prison walls, but hundreds of cell phones still get into the hands of prisoners.

Source

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The use of wireless jammers to block contraband prison cell phones is one of the many supply-side initiatives being investigated and deployed in prisons around the world.

“Aggressive action,” against persons who illegally use, sell or even advertise cell phone or GPS jammers can include seizure of the device(s), fines of up to $112,500 per act and jail time. I’d call that pretty aggressive action.

Baja California Sen. Alejandro González Alcocer said that the blockage of cell phone calls in Mexican prisons is having a side effect, namely the loss of service to nearby homes.

The paper said that because La Mesa prison in Tijuana and the Mexicali penitentiary are located in urban areas, cell-phone service is not blocked there. If true, this would be the loss of a $1.6 million investment in a cell-phone blocking system.

González, a former Baja California governor, is the president of the Senate’s Justice Committee. He said corruption reigns in prisons, where guard let guns, phones, drugs and other items enter the facilities for a price.

A Los Angeles Times story published Monday about extortion in Mexico said many extortion calls are made from Mexican prisons.

A previous $1.6 million system to block cell phone calls set up in La Mesa prison system also blocked neighbors’ calls.

In Guayaquil, Ecuador, wireless phone bases were set up in a home near a prison, allowed inmates to use a wireless phone inside a prison there.

Source

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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.

“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.

Source

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