This is an interesting opinion piece on the importance of adequate state prison funding and the impact of insufficient financial resources on prison safety, correctional officer morale and prisoner recidivism. As we have written before, prison administrators are constantly seeking new sources of prison funding and frequently it is prisoners and their families whom prisons turn to for new sources of revenue. Primarily through the imposition of fees and service charges. The article mentions one […]
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This is an older article, but it is interesting for the perspective it gives on the problem of contraband cell phones smuggled into the prisons of Europe. As in the U.S., jamming cell phone signals is the primary approach being considered to eliminate smuggled prison cell phones. Drugs and weapons aren’t the only contraband in prisons these days. The latest underground currency among inmates is an item most of us consider harmless: the cell phone. […]
Here is a video report on the problems with contraband prison cell phones smuggled into Texas jails:
An update on the contraband prison cell phone legislation currently being considered in California. According to the article, S.B. 26 is Senator Padilla’s fourth attempt to criminalize smuggling and possession of cellphones in prison. A quote from the article, “This cell phone issue is a huge problem in our prison system, and (S.B. 26) is a good start to begin to address it” is no doubt accurate, but the law should be augmented by a […]
Another news item about the use of dogs to find contraband cell phones in prison, this time in Ohio. According to the article, “Policy experts say efforts to reduce the effects of mobile devices in jail are less effective than having good contraband policies in place to reduce them.” We couldn’t agree more. The best way to reduce the contraband value of cell phones in prison is to co-opt the problem by offering a secure […]
This article describes the dangers of not replacing smuggled cell phones in prison with a secure prison cell phone service that records all calls, controls the telephone numbers the cell phone can dial and blocks access to the internet. In most states, if you smuggle a cell phone into a prison, you could end up serving time behind bars yourself. But California has no law to keep contraband cell phones from inmates. A fact that […]