The Baja State Public Safety Secreriat announced Thursday the installation of technology at one of the main Jails in Tijuana that will inhibit inmate’s from make phone calls using mobile phones from within the prison. The 2 million dollar investment made possible the installation of 23 cellular and radio frequency inhibitors. But the inhibitors will not only not allow inmates to make outgoing cellphone calls from the jail, but all employees and visitors. The cell […]
Jamming
31 posts
The following editorial is a response to one written earlier regarding contraband prison cell phone signal jamming. In it the author, an official of the Maryland DOC states, “Corrections systems must invest, innovate, develop partnerships and educate themselves in order to gain the necessary capabilities to fight this problem.” This is very true, but all the approaches he mentions are related to smuggled cell phone interdiction and detection. None of the solutions contemplate proactively reducing […]
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. […]
The smuggling and illegal use of contraband cell phones in prisons in the United States has corrections administrators and officers at a disadvantage as wireless detection technologies have not kept pace with the surge in illegal cell phones in prisons. It is estimated that over 10,000 illegal cell phones were seized during 2010 in California state prisons alone. Signal jamming technologies are proving to be too expensive, and the time and cost demands on prison […]
A story about the improper use of contraband cell phones in Texas prisons. A death row inmate paid $2100 for the phone. Fourteen death row inmates were found with contraband prison cell phones. Texas State Senator John Whitmire calls it the most unusual phone call of his life. “Nothing shocks me anymore, but this would probably take first prize for the biggest, unbelievable story,” said the Senator from Houston. “No Texan should have to worry […]
Officials tasked with controlling the waves of contraband cell phones in prisons are at a disadvantage. Their options include costly new investment in complex jamming technologies, increasing staff, more physical searches, or new processes; all added to an already over burdened work force. In each case, cell phone control will be expensive, and results will be elusive. meshDETECT is a cell phone access and control platform that was developed to satisfy the access control and […]
This article discusses how as prisons try to block unauthorized cell phone use, companies are developing systems that cost over $1 million to address the problem. This is cost that will be passed on to the taxpayer if prisons adopt this technology. By adopting the meshDETECT secure prison cell phone solution, prisons and taxpayers will avoid this cost and reduce prison cell phone smuggling and the value of contraband prison cell phones. The Bloods street […]
This article demonstrates that contraband prison cell phones are a problem around the world. Also, that jamming prison cell phones can work in tandem with a secure cell phone service by only allowing the authorized prison cell phones to place calls through the jammer. The striking thing about mobile phones in American prisons is not that they exist—though they do, in great numbers—but the ingenuity used to get and keep them. There are the usual […]
The dark gray device used to detect cell phones looks like an oversized walkie-talkie. When Scott Schober, president of a Metuchen technology company, flipped it on in an officer cafeteria at a New Jersey jail several months ago, a warning immediately flashed. “I turned around and walked out and said, ‘You’ve got phones in there,”‘ he said, describing the demonstration he gave for officials. “They basically said, ‘We’re not surprised.”‘ Cell phones are illegal in […]
This article discusses the problem of illegal prison cell phones in the State of Texas. As with most states, the initial approach to deal with the problem is to try jamming contraband prison cell phones. The cost of this approach has yet to be quantified however. State corrections officials said Friday that a test of cell phone detection technology at a Southeast Texas prison where an inmate used a contraband phone when he escaped last […]