Contraband cell phones smuggled into prison is a problem in jails around the world. And it will continue to be until the supply-side strategy of confiscating smuggled mobile phones is paired with a demand-side strategy of co-opting the desire for more frequent and private conversation with family and loved ones by providing a secure prison cell phone service.

At least two mobile phones or SIM cards for every day are found in Liverpool’s prisons.

The number of confiscations shows how prison officers are battling to prevent mobiles, which may be used to assist criminal enterprise beyond cell walls, being brought in.

Despite annual pleas for a crackdown many of the devices are still simply thrown over the walls and into the exercise yards.

At HMP Altcourse in Fazakerley, which houses up to 1,204 inmates, at least 637 phones, SIM cards or handsets were confiscated between November 1 2010 and October 31 2011, a freedom of information request showed.

In HMP Liverpool for the same period at least 140 were confiscated.

The findings will be particularly embarrassing for the privately managed Altcourse prison, whose mobile phone problem has attracted criticism from the prisons Independent Monitoring Board.

Its annual report for 2011 stated that its advice on mobile phones has been “studiously ignored” for years.

The Board identified mobile devices as an “ever growing and even harder to find threat to safer custody.”

In 2009, a report by the Board advised that a signal deviator, a device that would effectively block mobile phone transmissions, was an “urgent requirement” for Altcourse, but the equipment is yet to be installed.

The scathing report on the prison, which is financed and managed by G4S, said: “Whilst the deviating technology has advanced leaps and bounds the responses to our concerns remain in the stagnant era.”

It added that the key supply route for the mobiles was also used for illegal drugs, the supply and use of which “remains a serious problem”.

It said that both phones and drugs are usually “thrown over the prison wall and into the prisoner exercise yards”.

A spokesperson for G4S said: “‘We work extremely hard to prevent phones from being used by prisoners, and employ a range of methods to do this, including searches based on intelligence.

“Last year, our records show that we found 594 mobile phones or SIM cards at Altcourse. Of these, 368 were intercepted by staff and never reached prisoners. The records also show our policies are having an impact, as through regular searching we found an additional 226 mobile phones or SIM cards, which were removed from prisoners. While mobile phones continue to be a challenge in prison, these figures, which have been rising each year, demonstrate that we’re having more success in keeping mobile phones out of the prisons we run.”

A Prison Service spokesperson said that the number of finds of illicit mobiles and SIM cards “demonstrates the Prison Service’s ability to take effective, sustained and targeted action against people who seek to get around our security measures”.

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The following article discusses the contraband cell phone legislation now moving through the California legislature. According to the article, a guard who was caught smuggling cell phones into prison, “boasted that he made more than $100,000 a year selling mobile devices to inmates.” A typical guard makes $60,000 per year in salary. A phone can net up to $1,000 on the prison black market and 6,000 were been found during the first five months of 2011. This bill may stop some from trying to smuggle a cell phone into prison, but like drug smuggling, if there is demand, especially at $1000 per wireless phone, there will be supply. The only way to suppress demand is to co-opt it by providing a secure cell phone solution to prisoners that siphons off demand and reduces the value of a smuggled cell phone.

Smuggling cells phones into California correctional facilities has become so commonplace that even Charlie Manson got caught twice with one, and now the state legislature is taking a step toward preventing further proliferation of the devices behind bars.

An Assembly committee Thursday approved a proposal designed to crack down on both smuggling and possession of cell phones and other wireless communication devices by inmates. The bill, SB26 (Padilla, D-Pacoima), has already passed the Senate and now goes to the lower house for a vote.

CalCoastNews reported in July about an incident of prison smuggling being related to prison staff as the Padilla bill progresses. Surveillance video at the California Men’s Colony (CMC) in San Luis Obispo County captured a correctional officer smuggling a cell phone into the prison.

Soon thereafter, the accused guard retired and allegedly boasted that he made more than $100,000 a year selling mobile devices to inmates. A phone can net up to $1,000 on the prison black market.

Until recently, a correctional officer caught smuggling would simply retire, quietly, unpunished. Inmates found their phones removed and certain privileges revoked.

Padilla said that more than 10,750 contraband phones were taken from state prisoners in 2010, and that another 6,000 were been found during the first five months of 2011.

“We know that inmates with cell phones are ordering murders, organizing escapes, facilitating drug deals, controlling street gangs and terrorizing rape victims. With this bill we will finally crack down on cell phones in California prisons,” the lawmaker said.

The proposal raises the penalty for smuggling a cell phone to a prisoner to six months in jail and a fine of up to $5,000 for each device.

Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill without explanation.

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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 prison cell phone solution.

Man’s best friend is being trained to sniff out cell phones in correctional facilities, since mobile communication devices are becoming an increasingly prevalent source of contraband in jails and prisons.

As widespread use of mobile devices in regular society spills over to the incarcerated population, correctional officers are devoting much of their time battling over removing the devices, and the associated issues they bring into the prison environment.

To address the problem, Ohio’s Butler County got a cell phone-sniffing, 18-month-old chocolate Labrador named Tank, an invaluable resource in keeping the visitation rooms and jail free of contraband.

Tank is able to smell the lithium battery in cell phones when directed to do so by his correctional officer and owner, Chris Morris.

“This is just play to him,” Morris said after Tank found a cell phone by scent and then indicated his discovery by sitting and staring at the suspicious spot until Morris found the banned item.

Tank stays in his kennel in the jail, leaving to complete a specific check if anything is suspected or for his routine rounds of cells and other general areas throughout the day.

The dog came to the county from West Virginia’s Ultimate Working Dogs center, which trains law enforcement dogs, and lives with Morris and his family.

Ultimate Working Dogs’ Tracy Landis reports the demand for cell phone detection dogs has been increasing with the popularity of the devices.

“They are used in jails and prisons because cell phones are contraband there just as much as narcotics,” Landis said.

In addition to the dog’s cell phone sniffing capability, county officials said just the dog’s very presence serves as a deterrent. If those incarcerated know the dog will be making rounds, they may be less likely to try to obtain and keep the outlawed devices.

States like South Carolina might look to Ohio for solutions to their problem, which they are attempting to remedy by legislation. Officials in the Palmetto State, who are battling prisoner use of social networks for both entertainment and harassment of victims and further criminal enterprises, have looked into punishing anyone outside or inside the prison that helps an inmate with a social networking account with a $500 fine and an extra 30 days in prison.

And in Texas, a prisoner broke out of a Beaumont facility using a smartphone to enlist the help of a Facebook fan to help with the getaway, prompting Lone Star state officials to further clamp down on the devices.

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, and Tank is turning out to be a good, albeit cuddly, policy enforcer.

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