An interesting article about the challenges of newly booked prisoners using the prison pay phones in county jails. As stated in the article, the inablity to make collect calls to cell phones, “strikes people strange that, in this technologically advanced and cellphone-reliant age, there is no easy way to make a collect call to a cellphone, particularly as the number of people without a land line increases. According to a 2010 Centers for Disease Control report, 25 percent of U.S. households don’t even have a land line.”

At meshDETECT, we have developed a solution to this problem that provides new detainees a prepaid account and telephone access at the time of intake. Please contact us to find out more about this innovative solution.

Where was Stephen Petrick? That was the question among his friends in mid-November after the 67-year-old retiree suddenly disappeared.

At the time, no one knew that he had been trying to help a pregnant woman kick a nasty heroin habit by locking her inside his Santa Monica home so she couldn’t buy drugs, or that she had tried to flee and things turned ugly fast, ending with the cops arresting Petrick on a charge of false imprisonment.

Not one of Petrick’s friends had an inkling that Petrick was stuck inside the Los Angeles County jail system — for five long nights — unable to contact them or a bondsman because of the phone setup inmates are forced to use.

“You supposedly have the right to bail,” Petrick says, “but it was effectively denied by the way the phone system works. It should be criminal.”

Petrick says he was arrested in Santa Monica, where he was fingerprinted and booked at the city jail. When he asked to make a phone call, officers told him he had to wait until he was transferred to the L.A. County jail later that day.

At the county jail, Petrick says, he told the deputies that he had high blood pressure and diabetes, so he was placed in a medical unit. He describes it as a large room with 20 to 30 inmates, a few narrow, stainless-steel benches and two or three telephones.

Immediately, Petrick says, he walked up to one of the old-fashioned-looking pay phones, a big black box with patches of chrome but absent a coin slot. Petrick lifted the receiver and placed it to his ear, listening to the automated voice tell him he’d be making a collect call and that it may be recorded or monitored.

Petrick reached out to dial a number. He paused.

Like many people, Petrick had come to rely on his cellphone. He wasn’t as good as he used to be about memorizing phone numbers. Excitedly, he recalled one person’s cell number and dialed it.

His elation, however, quickly turned to anxious frustration as the automated voice told Petrick that he could not place a collect call to a cellular phone. He could only call out to a land line. Trouble was, he hadn’t memorized any land-line numbers.

Hell, he hardly even knew anyone with a land line anymore.

“I realized right away that I had a problem,” Petrick says.

Next, Petrick says, he looked around for a phone book or a posted list of bond agencies so he could arrange to pay bail. The bond was $150,000, an amount Petrick says he had no problem paying. But he needed to call someone on the outside to help.

Unfortunately, he says, he could not find a list of phone numbers for bail bondsmen. When he asked a deputy for help, Petrick says, the deputy was resolutely unhelpful, telling him, “That’s your problem. If we gave you the number, that would be showing partiality.”

After spending a few sleepless nights in the large room filled with other inmates, Petrick says, he was moved to a more permanent cell with access to a common room containing phones. Doubting they would be any different, Petrick tried once again to place a call. But the results were the same. No collect calls to cellphones. No phone list of bail bonds agencies.

Petrick says he was not able to arrange bail until after he had his first court appearance — four days after his arrest.

“There was no way in hell for me to call anyone or to get a bondsman’s number,” he says. “The phones in there effectively denied me the right to make bail, and I don’t know if many people know about this.”

Jeff Stanley, owner of Bad Boys Bail Bonds, one of the largest bond companies in California, with offices from San Jose to San Diego, says the phone situation at L.A. County jail is one of the worst in the state.

“The individuals in custody are held hostage to this phone system that they have to use to talk to an attorney or a bondsman — something they have the legal right to do,” Stanley says. “I truly believe that it’s a violation of their civil rights, because everyone has a right to bail, and this is interfering with that right.”

Says Esther Lim, the jails monitor for the American Civil Liberties Union and one of the few people actually allowed inside the notoriously restricted facility, “I didn’t see a listing of bail-bonds companies near any of the phones I’ve looked at. I have seen listings by the phones for your ambassador if you’re not a U.S. national, but nothing for bail bonds. It’s ridiculous.”

Nicole Nishida, spokeswoman for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, confirms there are no phone numbers provided for bail bondsmen near phones to which inmates have access.

“And we have no plans of doing it in the future,” she says.

Nishida calls the problem a “vending issue” that would have to be resolved by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. She says it boils down to fairness: making sure the Sheriff’s Department does not display favoritism toward any particular bail bonds businesses.

Officials in other counties, however, say they’re having no such problem and have found easy ways to provide phone numbers to everybody in jail.

An Orange County jail spokeswoman, for example, says that a list of bond companies, with phone numbers, is posted in both the booking area and in the common rooms used by inmates. She says the bond agencies must contact a company that contracts with the county, and they pay to get on the list that goes inside the jail.

In San Diego County, the Sheriff’s Department used to provide inmates with the Yellow Pages but recently replaced the bulky phone book with an alphabetical listing of bail bonds companies provided to the jail by a local association of bail agencies.

“L.A. County does not post a list,” says bondsman Stanley, “and I have no idea why. L.A. County marches to its own beat.”

In addition, it strikes people such as Stanley, Lim and Petrick as strange that, in this technologically advanced and cellphone-reliant age, there is no easy way to make a collect call to a cellphone, particularly as the number of people without a land line increases. According to a 2010 Centers for Disease Control report, 25 percent of U.S. households don’t even have a land line.

Stanley’s is one of them.

“Many families like myself don’t have a land line,” he says, “and I think it’s about time they moved into the 21st century.”

Dorothy Cukier of Global Tel Link, a company that specializes in prison phones and operates the system in L.A. County, told the Weekly via email that collect calls in general — whether they originate from a jail or not — are limited to land lines. The company is allowed to jump in when inmates call a cellphone, offering the recipient of the call a chance to sign up for a service, AdvancePay, which lets calls to cellphones go through, by using a credit card. Another option, Cukier says, is for inmates to put money into an inmate debit account, out of which they can pay to call a phone that does not ordinarily accept collect calls.

Petrick says he was never offered an inmate debit account and has no idea whether a Global Tel Link agent jumped in to ask the friend Petrick had called if he’d accept the charge. All Petrick knows is that he couldn’t get through to his friend.

Two months after Petrick finally arranged bail and got out of jail, he settled his criminal case, which prosecutors apparently agreed wasn’t as serious as the initial charges implied. He pled guilty to misdemeanor false imprisonment. He received three years of probation and, ironically, credit for time served for his five nights missing in the jail system.

As for the future, Petrick says, “The first thing I’m going to do is carry a bail bondsman’s number with me at all times and memorize it in case there’s some fluke and I get in trouble again. I don’t want to ever get stuck in jail like that again. It was a nightmare.”

Source

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Yet another instance of a prisoner using a contraband cell phone with internet access to post on Facebook. The meshDETECT secure prison cell phones do not allow internet access.

The sister of a murder victim is calling for Indiana prison officials to remove a Facebook profile for an inmate at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle.

Quintez Deloney, 20, of New Albany, is serving a 38-year sentence for a burglary that led to the death of 26-year-old Lewis James of Charlestown. James’ sister, Lisa Cunningham, said she learned Saturday that Deloney has a Facebook page on which he appears to be posting from prison.

“It feels like five years ago all over again. It’s like everything just happened again,” Cunningham said. “[Deloney] shouldn’t have any freedom. Once you’re in prison, you lose all your rights.”

In January 2007, James was shot seven times — four times in the back — at an apartment on William O. Vance Court in New Albany where he went to buy drugs. Floyd County prosecutors alleged Deloney and Lance Douglas, 24, kicked down the door to the apartment and attempted to rob James. When James resisted, he was shot.

Although prosecutors argued Deloney was the shooter, the jury convicted Douglas of murder but found Deloney guilty of only robbery and burglary. Deloney was sentenced in May 2009 to 80 years in prison, but that was reduced after the Indiana Court of Appeals found he should not have been sentenced for both the robbery and burglary charges because of the double jeopardy provision.

Deloney, through his attorney Bruce Brightwell, has filed a motion to correct error with the court seeking to have his conviction overturned or sentence reduced. That matter is set for hearing March 9.

Deloney has been serving his time at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility since he was sentenced. A Facebook profile for “Quintez Q-Ball Deloney” has 184 friends. The first update on the page was July 17, 2011.

A post on the page includes Deloney’s prison mailing address. There are several posts about the case. On Oct. 11, he wrote that he was starting another appeal. On Oct. 15, he wrote, “beat anther case i feel like gotti did … BRR!”

In another message, he indicated he would be released in 2014 even though the Indiana Department of Correction lists his earliest possible release date as 2026. Most of the posts contain profanity and are not fit for publication in the News and Tribune.

At one point, someone asked how he had Facebook access in prison. He responded, “thats somethang thats kept secret!”

Susan Harrington, spokeswoman for Wabash Valley, said Cunningham’s complaint has been filed with internal affairs investigators. Harrington said Deloney will be disciplined if it is true that he has somehow been posting messages from prison.

Wabash Valley does not allow inmates to have cell phones, and Harrington said they have no Internet access through legal means inside the prison. Most of Deloney’s posts indicate they were made using a mobile device.

“Usually, if we find them with any kind of cell phone or communication device, it’s confiscated and we go through disciplinary procedures,” Harrington said.

Cunningham said she contacted Wabash Valley and Congressman Todd Young, R-Ind., asking for help to remove Deloney’s Facebook profile. Cunningham said she is speaking out because she does not want family members of other murder victims to have to see pictures of their loved ones’ killers or accomplices on Facebook.

Other states have also had to deal with inmates using Facebook. The California Department of Corrections announced in August that it had started reporting inmate pages to Facebook and that the company had agreed to delete pages that had been updated since the inmate was incarcerated. Facebook has a policy against anyone using a fake name or updating a profile for another person.

That move came after a convicted child molester accessed Facebook photos of his victim and sent current drawings of her to her home even though he had not seen her in seven years.

More than 1,760 contraband cell phones were confiscated from Indiana state prisons in 2010, according to Department of Correction records.

Source

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This article discusses a project that allows prisoners to share and communicate with the outside world. It is widely accepted that communication with family and loved ones is a key to eliminating recidivism. Any program that can safely and effectively improve the means and frequency of prisoner contact with the outside world is worth supporting.

Reentry and reform can take root when prisoners are able to maintain connections with their families and communities. One website is making great strides in building those bridges online.

BetweentheBars.org aims to humanize prisoners and open a dialogue between the millions of incarcerated Americans and the public. The site launched last year, growing out of work at the MIT Center for Civic Media by Charlie DeTar and others. It’s a refreshing initiative in a field that usually holds technology and communications at arm’s length.

DeTar’s site is a brilliant idea. Thanks to a recent redesign, it’s also a well-executed one. Between the Bars relies on the help of volunteers to scan posts from prisoners and post them directly to the web.

Once prisoners are approved as bloggers for the site, they can essentially blog by mail, directly from their cell. Comments are printed and mailed back to the author. Site visitors are asked to transcribe posts in order to facilitate searching and easy reading. Several hundred prisoners are now blogging for the site, with many more waiting for approval–and comment traffic is picking up.

Prisoners’ posts range from pen pal notes and poems to drawings and thoughtful commentary. One blogger, John (Jennifer) Gann, writes about her experiences as a transgender prisoner.

Another blogger, William D. Linley, a Marine veteran, writes about suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and urges readers to seek help if they have experienced symptoms.

Several members of his platoon found his posts and left messages of support.

“(Linley’s post) was a powerfully moving example of what I had hoped Between the Bars could accomplish,” DeTar told me recently. “The site is helping to break down barriers and stigma and allowed for people to build real connections.”

Between the Bars doesn’t only build a bridge to the world outside prison. It also gives prisoners a chance to hone skills essential in the 21st century: writing, storytelling and digital communication.

Too many prisoners today walk out after decades of isolation and find themselves lost in a world transformed by mobile phones and Facebook. Between the Bars gives them a head start on adjusting to a digital world.

Projects like this will only survive if those of us outside of prisons offer our support.

DeTar and his collaborators need our help to ensure that Between the Bars thrives. The simplest way you can help is to comment on a post. That will help build a conversation with a strong network of bloggers. “Commenting on the post is like giving a small gift of thanks to the author, and on these posts–where the writers aren’t free–it’s even more critical.

If you want to get more involved, contact De Tar at info@betweenthebars.org and volunteer to help. The site needs volunteers in Boston to help with scanning, mailing and logistics, and could also use virtual volunteers around the world.

Author: Matt Kelley
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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 expensive and impractical technology implementations.

A pinch of salt was all the prisoners of Kannur Central Jail in India needed to wreck a mobile phone jammer worth hundreds of thousands of rupees.

This is just one of the ingenious ways found out by prisoners to freely use mobile phones in various jails of the state.

A section of prisoners of the Kannur jail devised the salt technique after their attempts to damage the jammer by pouring boiling water and urinating on it failed.

“They sought the help of an engineer who was detained in a case,” said a prison official. “As advised by the engineer, prisoners stashed salt they get with their daily meals. Then they formed a human pyramid to helped the engineer reach the jammer to put the salt”.

The engineer placed the salt on the jammer and within a few weeks it became defunct, said the prison official.

Some jailbirds arrange for their friends to throw mobile phones across the wall of the prison after packing them in plastic bags.

In another instance, a prisoner staged a ‘nude protest’ after the jail authorities examined him following suspicion that he was hiding a mobile SIM card in the private areas of his body.

Also, the jammers at the Kannur central prison were recently switched off after the nearby residents complained that it was affecting their mobile communication. No need to say that this delighted the Kannur prisoners.

Prison authorities have now increased their vigil following the seizures of mobile phones and SIM cards in large numbers from various jails across the state.

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This article from the Bahamas on the problem of contraband cell phones in prison identifies the usual issues with smuggled cell phones. One prisoner states, “Everyone doesn’t have a phone to do foolishness. Sometimes you just want to contact your loved ones. If we had phone access like a prison in (a) foreign (country), they could monitor the conversations.” This is exactly what the meshDETECT secure cell phone solution offers.

A lawyer has called on officials to eliminate cell phone access for prisoners.

Elsworth Johnson was motivated to speak out on the issue after he learned of an incident where a member of the public received a threatening call from an inmate.

Johnson said that prisoners use the devices to intimidate witnesses, abuse members of the public and pervert the administration of justice.

“ I was filled with rage that such a coward and many others like him are permitted on a daily basis to conduct their affairs with impunity,” he said.  “Here I am in New Providence, unable to communicate with my family in Cat Island in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, and prisoners seem to be able to communicate better than I can.”

National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest told Parliament recently of plans to purchase a cell phone jammer.

He said, “The unauthorized use of cell phones within prisons continues to pose a serious challenge, and my ministry is determined to find a more effective means of curtailing their use. In this regard, we are seeking the installation of a cellular telephone jammer to selectively block the use of cell phones within the prison compound by persons who are unauthorized to make use of them.”

Prison officials confiscated 240 cell phones from inmates at the prison between January to May this year.

Smuggling contraband is a lucrative business.  Former inmates told The Nassau Guardian recently that they have paid from $200 to $1,000 for cell phones.  According to those inmates, prices differ depending on the inmates’ relationship with the guards, the type of phone and their location in the prison.  An inmate claimed that guards allegedly  kept his phone overnight and charged it to reduce the chances of it being confiscated in a raid.

News reports have documented incidents where inmates at the prison have used the devices to intimidate witnesses, plan escapes, orchestrate crimes and even order hits.

A man accused of murder reportedly had a bail application denied after prosecutors alleged that he had contacted an eyewitness and promised that she would be the victim of a 187, the street code for murder.

However, some inmates said not everyone with an illegal cell phone uses it for a sinister purpose.

“Everyone doesn’t have a phone to do foolishness. Sometimes you just want to contact your loved ones,” an inmate said.  “If we had phone access like a prison in (a) foreign (country), they could monitor the conversations.”

In a prior interview, Turnquest said guards could face dismissal or other disciplinary sanctions if caught smuggling phones. Inmates found with phones could have time added to their sentences or face further criminal charges if it is found their phones were used to commission an ‘egregious criminal act.”

Turnquest said the government was committed to eliminating cell phone usage at the prison. Officials purchased a cell phone jammer following the murder of Cpl. Deon Bowles during a prison escape in 2006.  However, the device blocked phones outside the prison compound, which is located in a residential community.

A police investigator told an inquest into Bowles’ death that inmates had given him the names of guards responsible for smuggling contraband.

Source

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An article discussing a New Zealand prison’s plans to install landlines in each prisoner’s cell, similar to what has been done in two British prisons. The reason it is being considered is because, according to the article, “Evidence shows that prisoners are less likely to re-offend if they keep in touch with their families and have good family support when they are released.” Wouldn’t a secure prison cell phone service like meshDETECT be a simpler and more cost effective way to give the prisoners access to telephone services in their cells?

Corrections Minister Judith Collins says she would have concerns about prisoners talking to their criminal mates if there were landline phones in prison cells.

Landlines are installed in the cells of two private prisons in Britain operated by British company Serco, which will run the controversial new Mt Eden Corrections Facility in Auckland from August 1.

The Mt Eden facility has phones in communal areas, but there are currently no plans for them to be installed in cells.

Ms Collins today said she would have a few issues with phones in every cell.

”The first would be that they obviously wouldn’t want to be having prisoners talking to criminal mates every night. That wouldn’t be acceptable and quite clearly any phone calls on landlines would have to monitored, and scrupulously so, as they are now.

”I’d want to also be reassured that this would assist rehabilitations.”

Ms Collins said prisoners already had access to landline phones, as required by the UN treaties New Zealand has signed.

Asked if she would say no to phones in prison cells, Ms Collins said she would want any phone lines to be scrupulously monitored.

”Public safety has to come first … I’d expect to see some very compelling evidence that it assisted rehabilitations before I’d even think about it,” she said.

Serco spokesman Paul Shaw said the communal phones at Mt Eden prison could be accessed throughout the hours prisoners were unlocked – when they were not in their cells, or in work or training. Prisoners paid for calls by purchasing phonecards.

”The phones use a system which allows prisoners to ring certain pre-approved numbers, and calls can be monitored for security purposes,” he said.

Serco believed it was important for prisoners to maintain contact with their families, he said.

”Evidence shows that prisoners are less likely to re-offend if they keep in touch with their families and have good family support when they are released.”

Having landlines in communal areas was consistent with other New Zealand prisons and the majority of prisons Serco operated across the world, including two in Australia.

The Mt Eden prison is the first since 2005 to be managed by a private sector contractor.

Opposition parties have consistently condemned the move and concerns have been raised about problems at overseas prisons run by Serco.

International reports have linked some Serco prisons with violence, overcrowding and poor health care.

Source

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A new law has been passed to ban cell phones in prison cells in Rhode Island.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Michael J. McCaffrey and Rep. Raymond H. Johnston Jr. sponsored the bill that makes it illegal for prisoners to possess “any portable electronic communication device.”

Under the new law, inmates caught using a cell phone can be punished by a $5,000 fine, a maximum penalty of five more years added on to their prison sentence, or even both.

However, it’s not currently illegal to possess a cell phone at the ACI, but inmates caught with one could face losing their good behavior credits, which would potentially extend an inmate’s sentence.

The Department of Corrections lobbied for the law, saying that it would increase safety and security at the ACI.

“This new law will prevent inmates in prison from directing crimes behind bars,” said Rep. Johnston (D-Dist. 61, Pawtucket).

By creating and implementing the new law, the Department of Corrections is hoping to deter illegal activity from taking place while inmates are still behind bars.

“A prisoner should not have access to any type of cell phone or wireless device for the safety of fellow prisoners, corrections officials and individuals affiliated with the inmate outside of the prison walls,” said Senator McCaffrey (D-Dist. 29, Warwick).

Source

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