Here is the latest summary of recent news articles regarding contraband cell phones in prisons around the world. I call these periodic round up of news items, “Wireless Prison Payphone™ Briefs” because this is essentially what smuggled mobile phones in jails have become – a substitute for the current wall mounted prison payphones.

Two years ago, we explored some of the news regarding wireless prison tablet devices; which highlighted how prison payphones were being replaced by a secure wireless device with cell phone capabilities that will reduce the demand for contraband cell phones. These articles demonstrated the fact that regardless of whether the device takes the form factor of a tablet or a cell phone, wireless voice capabilities will be the key service offering in reducing contraband and recidivism.

We thought it might be worthwhile to once again survey the recent news on this wireless technology deployment trend in prisons and jails.

• Inmates are entitled to phone privileges. There are 100 phones in the jail, about six for each cluster of cells known as a pod. Each pod can hold 64 inmates and has six phones — and they don’t always work. In May, all phones in one pod failed for five days. You can see why there would be disputes among inmates trying to make phone calls. Instead of standing in line waiting for a phone and then paying handsomely for the privilege, inmates will have their own tablets to use to make calls. (Source)

• Phone calls on mobile devices make sense. Allowing people to make phone calls from their tablet is basically a good thing. Instead of using a shared phone in a public area (probably with other people waiting in line), callers can now talk in more private locations. (Source)

• The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has recently released a plan aimed to lessen the cost of inmates calling loved ones while behind bars, simultaneously increasing access to educational tools for incarcerated individuals. The tablets would also function as telephones. According to WYVY-TV, the plan will be included as part of the inmate telephone contract that will be sent out at the end of the year. (Source)

• All South Dakota DOC inmates who want a tablet now have a tablet. Inmates get longer phone calls with family and easy access to prison documents. (Source)

• According to Captain Stewart, since the inmates have been using the tablet there’s been a drastic decrease in inmate problems. “Our suicide attempts are down 66%, our successful suicides are down 100%, our inmate on staff assaults are down 60%, our inmate on inmate assaults are down” (Source)

• Amanda Michika, who also works for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department noted how the tablets have proven to reduce suicidal ideations and decrease the number of fights, including inmate-on-staff altercations. “All of the inmates that we have here are pre-sentenced inmates. They haven’t been convicted of any crime. We afford them the opportunity to have the same rights they would have outside when it comes to electronics,” Michika said. As Harms put it, the tablets provide an escape, whether its downloading music, reading books or chatting with family. “With over 200 men in one pod, there’s a lot of tension, a lot of testosterone. It means I can receive pictures from my loved ones and talk to my loved ones whenever I want,” Harms said. (Source)

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As we have commented before, we believe that contraband cell phones are a problem of both supply and demand. Due to the demand for cell phones in prison, there is an active and highly lucrative pipeline of supply. Most prison administrations have focused on restricting the supply of contraband cell phones through detection, jamming and search.

For existing jails and prisons where the installation of a hard-wired wall phone is impractical due to cost and infrastructure limitations, a secure prison cell phone solution such as meshDETECT will achieve the same results with no capital outlays.

Inmates at the country’s newest prison will be allowed to use phones and computers in their cells – but with heavy restrictions and monitoring.

Private prison operator Serco, which has a $840 million, 25-year contract to run the new facility at Wiri, says prisoners’ calls to pre-approved numbers will be monitored, and the computers will not have internet access.

Currently all New Zealand prison cells have televisions, but in the new facility those TVs will double as computer screens with a keyboard and mouse.

“They provide basic computer access for prisoners to work on their studies while locked in their cells,” says Serco director of operations Scott McNairn. “Access to this technology imposes the expectation that prisoners will engage in purposeful activities, such as education, in what can often be an unproductive time in other prisons.”

“Computers are an education tool, they’re an education aid,” Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga told TV3’s The Nation. “They help with building up the skills, building up the education in order for these offenders to go out and get meaningful jobs. We know that’s important.”

As for the phones inside the cells, Mr Lotu-Iiga says they come at “very little cost” to Serco, and will enable prisoners to make regular calls home will help reintegrate them back into society.

“There’s a de-escalation of tension that they’re not lining up behind a public phone in order to use a phone to call their families.”

Mr McNairn says it’s the same system Serco operates in the United Kingdom.

“When Serco introduced this system in UK prisons, it saw significant improvements in prison security, including a marked reduction in attempts to smuggle in mobile phones, a drop in random mandatory drug tests failures, fewer assaults, less bullying and fewer incidents of self-harm.”

Prisoners will only be able to make calls to a list of pre-approved numbers, and will not be able to call one another.

Source

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The first round of comments on the FCC’s Second Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding the reduction of the cost of all inmate calls are in. Here is one of the more interesting insights we have gleaned from those submissions:

The Prison Policy Initiative’s submission on advanced inmate communications services in prison discusses the very real need that these new services (such as the meshDETECT Secure Prison Cell Phone Solution) address:

These Services Address a Real Need

“These services are typically bundled with other communications services, and we rarely see them given much attention in industry bids for contracts. Surprisingly, we didn’t find many examples of the industry even bothering to explain the value that these services provide, so we will do so here:

Traditionally, there are only a few ways that incarcerated people and loved ones on the outside can communicate:

• By letter, sent by either party through the U.S. mail, with all of the delays that that entails.

• By visit in person, sometimes at great distance and sometimes arranged in advance, and always initiated by the non-incarcerated person.

• By telephone, always initiated by the incarcerated person.

These three avenues leave some serious gaps, namely that there is no way to send a timely message to an incarcerated person, such as:

• Your father just passed away.

• I was at home for your regular weekly call, but the doorbell rang right before you called and I missed your phone call. Can you call again tonight or tomorrow morning?

• I found a buyer for the car. Do you know where the deed is?

• I fell and broke my leg. I’m going to be ok, but I can’t make it to our regular visit tomorrow.

In these circumstances, there is no good way for family members to proceed. They can send a letter or wait for a phone call but all of these delays create unnecessary stress for everyone involved. In practice, there is one other possibility that often creates its own problems: the person on the outside calls the correctional facility, speaks to a counselor or the warden, and asks that a message be relayed for the incarcerated person to call. (And then, the person has to sit by the phone and hope that the message was relayed.)

Many of these services simply give both incarcerated and non-incarcerated people more methods of timely communication which can be initiated by either party. In fact, as we explain in our video visitation report, these services tend to be most popular where they give people not just a new technology with which to communicate, but also a more flexible approach to communication.”

With meshDETECT, families and loved ones can call into the detainee’s secure prison cell phone, if allowed by the facility. We agree that this is an important feature that will significantly improve the timeliness and quality of detainee/family communications.

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As we have written before, managed access cell phone jamming systems being tested in prisons around the world have been deployed with mixed results. In addition to requiring ongoing management and investment post deployment, they have a spotty record and not all vendor’s equipment works as advertised.

Recently, the Cayman Islands issued a report on their managed access trial. According to the report, which is discussed in the article below, “The prisons service installed a cell phone jamming device at Northward in December 2009, but the equipment has never worked properly. A large communications tower next to the prison complex, which operates most of the radio station signals in the Cayman Islands, causes signal “bleed over” that interferes with the cell phone jamming device.”

In addition, the U.K. prisons inspectorate, which recently reviewed the Cayman Islands prisons system, advised caution for entities seeking to purchase phone jamming equipment.

“Many companies make claims concerning the effectiveness of various technologies or items of equipment, but the long-term independent verification is often difficult to obtain,” said Stephen Fradley of the UK’s prisons inspectorate.

Officials with Cayman’s prisons service said they have tried their best to implement cell phone jamming technology at Her Majesty’s Prison, Northward, but funding concerns have blocked their efforts.

That is the response to a report tabled in the Legislative Assembly Monday regarding what Complaints Commissioner Nicola Williams said was a failure of the prisons system to follow her recommendations concerning prison safety and management issued in a 2011 report.

Two of the three recommendations from that report, which detailed a strip search conducted on three teenage girls at Her Majesty’s Prison, Fairbanks, were followed by government officials. The special report made public by Cayman lawmakers Monday dealt only with the third and final recommendation made by Ms Williams’s office.

Ms Williams recommended that the prison system should install phone jamming equipment at both Northward and Fairbanks “since, realistically, it is virtually impossible to stop cell phone and BlackBerry use in prisons….”

“[It] would avoid regular and repeated use of strip-searching as a means of retrieval, which could not only put both the prison and the Cayman Islands government in violation of human rights protections, but also leave both entities open to lawsuits.”

The prisons service installed a cell phone jamming device at Northward in December 2009, but the equipment has never worked properly. A large communications tower next to the prison complex, which operates most of the radio station signals in the Cayman Islands, causes signal “bleed over” that interferes with the cell phone jamming device.

That information was revealed following Ms Williams’s 2011 report on the prison service.

In a communication sent to the complaints commissioner last month, Ministry of Home Affairs chief officer Eric Bush noted the government wished to accomplish cell phone jamming at the prisons, but noted that it was unclear how government might get to that stage.

“We have not had the funding provided to purchase additional cellular jamming equipment that would satisfy your recommendation,” Mr. Bush wrote. “There are a number of security-related matters that would take priority over additional cellular jamming equipment, should an abundance of funding be allocated to the prison service.”

In addition, the U.K. prisons inspectorate, which recently reviewed the Cayman Islands prisons system, advised caution for entities seeking to purchase phone jamming equipment.

“Many companies make claims concerning the effectiveness of various technologies or items of equipment, but the long-term independent verification is often difficult to obtain,” said Stephen Fradley of the UK’s prisons inspectorate.

Mr. Fradley said the U.K. National Offender Management Service is currently evaluating an “approved contractor list” for the cell phone jamming technology.

A report from the agency on that issue was due by the end of the year, Mr. Fradley said.

The responses by the local ministry to her recommendations were simply not good enough, Ms Williams concluded

“The [Office of the Complaints Commissioner] accepts both the financial constraints of the ministry and that some efforts toward compliance have been made by the ministry with regard to the outstanding recommendation,” she said. “This falls far short of compliance.”

Source

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This article excerpted below from the CBC News discusses the efforts in Canadian Federal Prisons to detect and confiscate drugs smuggled to prisoners. Much like the efforts to stop contraband cell phones, the focus is almost entirely on new technology to identify and eliminate supply, with much less effort in addressing the demand.

Figures on seizures in federal institutions from the last fiscal year show traditional methods like security staff and sniffer dogs have been far more effective at finding illicit items than high-tech tools.

In the last fiscal year, there were 2,840 seizures of cocaine, marijuana, pills, home brew and a number of contraband drugs ranging from pain killers, steroids and anti-depressants.

The documents obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act also show only 26 seizures were detected by an ION scanner, 17 by X-ray and nine with a metal detector, while the bulk (1,892) were by security staff, frisk (239) or sniffer dogs (200). Another 109 seizures were made through strip searches.

The House of Commons public safety committee launched a comprehensive study on drugs in prison and recently released its report called ‘Drugs and Alcohol in Federal Penitentiaries: An Alarming Problem.’ It notes that drugs are often linked to gangs and organized crime, which can increase violence and destabilize the prison environment.

The report pointed out that smugglers are “quite ingenious” — and that various networks operate inside to intimidate and pressure family member visitors and ex-prisoners to bring in drugs in pens, food and clothing. Because institutions are often located in wooded areas, drugs can also come in via “throw-overs” stuffed in tennis balls, arrows or dead birds, projected by bow, slingshot or potato guns.

The report from the Conservative-dominated panel concludes there has been “significant progress,” but makes several recommendations for improvement.

But a dissenting opinion from the NDP called the report “fundamentally flawed” for failing to accurately reflect the testimony. It accused Conservative committee members of misusing the study to pursue “narrow political goals” rather than evidence-based approach.

“The most starting example of the information missing from this report is the failure to note evidence that clearly demonstrated $122 million dollars of Conservative spending on interdiction tools and technology since 2008 has not led to any reduction in drug use in prisons,” it reads.

Speaking on Power & Politics, NDP public safety critic Randall Garrison said the government’s investment on high-tech tools isn’t working — and that the money would be much better spent on rehabilitation programs.

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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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A new prison in Australia is proposing the installation of advanced technology in each of the cells. This will include in-cell telephones. The private prison company Serco states, “The introduction of in-cell telephones in its overseas prisons had resulted in significant improvements in prison security, including a drop in the number of prisoners trying to smuggle cellphones.”

The meshDETECT secure prison cell phone solution allows existing prisons and jails to realize the same reduction in contraband cell phones without the expense of installing hard-wired phones in each cell.

Prisoners would get telephones, televisions and “electronic menu” systems in the cells of a private prison in south Auckland under plans being considered by the Department of Corrections.

British-based company Serco, which will manage the new 960-bed prison at Wiri, has introduced the technology in its prisons overseas and wants to do the same here.

The proposal includes introducing “custodial management system” screens to prison units – and in some cases to individual cells – so inmates could order meals, write shopping lists, add credit to phone accounts and see weekly timetables.

Serco said the introduction of in-cell telephones in its overseas prisons had resulted in significant improvements in prison security, including a drop in the number of prisoners trying to smuggle cellphones.

TV sets were allowed in cells, depending on prisoners’ behaviour.

Serco would not say whether it planned to use the new technology in the Wiri prison, but a Department of Corrections spokesman confirmed it was in the company’s proposal.

The SecureFuture consortium, comprised of Macquarie (financial arranger), Fletcher Construction (design and construction), Spotless (facility management provider), and Serco (operator and custodial services provider) is the preferred bidder for the $300 million 25-year contract to build and run the facility.

Canterbury University Professor of Sociology and former Paremoremo Prison inmate Greg Newbold said introducing the technology was clearly a cost-cutting exercise.

“Those private prisons have to run at a profit and 80 per cent of the cost of running prisons is in manpower.

“If you can do the administrative things electronically, you reduce the need for staff on the floor and you can run a prison more efficiently and more cheaply.

Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon said the in-cell technology could save prison officers hours of mundane paperwork.

“At the moment if the prisoner wants something they have to come up to an officer and request it, so introducing these screens would mean if they’re short on toilet paper or they need a new toothbrush etc they can just enter it in.”

“But they should use it in the right way – let’s not get crazy on it and turn these places into the Hilton.”

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said he was “dumbfounded” by the proposal.

” I’ve seen no evidence that making prison a more comfortable place to be is any more likely to reduce offending than making prison a place that is unpleasant and where offenders should not want to go back to,” he said.

Source

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No technology is perfect, and that includes cell phone jamming technology. The real issue here is how compromised is the wireless blocking system installed at Parchman to combat contraband cell phones? The meshDETECT secure cell phone service has no internet access available so prisoners cannot access Facebook or Twitter.

An inmate inside a Mid-South prison has been able to take pictures and post them online, despite a high-tech blocking technology put in place to keep him from doing just that.

Lois “Lee” Hudspeth is serving a life sentence for the brutal murder Jennifer Young. Hudspeth beat Young to death with a tire iron and dumped her body into a body of water at Askew Wildlife Refuge in Tunica County, Mississippi.

Young’s husband spoke to Action News 5 after his wife’s body was found in 2003. John Young said he barely recognized the mother of his young son.

“I didn’t even know who she was. Only by the markings on her body,” he said. I hope they catch this SOB who did this. I want them to catch him.”

Hudspeth was caught, and pleaded guilty to first degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison – cut off from the outside world. But now, he’s found freedom on Facebook, to dismay of Young’s sister-in-law, Deborah Russell.

“His attitude looks like he ain’t sorry. Looks like he’s enjoying life,” she said. “It’s said, because, I mean, he shouldn’t be able to do that.”

Russell can’t believe Hudspeth is able to access social media in his jail cell, posting pictures and playing internet games like Bingo Blitz and Farmville.

It’s not the first time Action News 5 has busted inmates posting on Facebook. Each time they were using an illegal cell phone that was smuggled inside their cells. And after each report, the phones were confiscated and the inmates punished – until this time.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections cannot say how Hudspeth managed to get photos of himself on Facebook. They’re likely at a loss because Hudspeth is at a prison with “cell blocking” technology.

It’s called “Operation Cellblock,” a hi-tech system that claims to “shut down illegal inmate cell phone usage.” The company, Tecore Networks, says the system puts a “radio frequency umbrella” over prisons which blocks un-authorized users but allows authorized users to still get out.

Hudspeth is locked up at Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, where the MDOC launched the cell blocking system in September last year. Yet he uploaded a picture of himself in July, and played games on Facebook as recently as September.

Action News 5 asked a Tecore Networks spokesperson how Hudspeth could be on Facebook with operation cellblock in effect. The spokesperson said, “I have no idea, you have no idea, the prison has no idea. No one knows for sure until you can find out how this guy is doing it.”

Meanwhile, an MDOC spokesperson said Hudspeth’s Facebook activity is under investigation. Hudspeth actually has two accounts. If investigators determine he has or had a cell phone, they will take appropriate action.

Even if someone on the outside is helping Hudspeth with his Facebook account, he would still need a cell phone to text or email that person the pictures from his jail cell photo shoot.

Prison officials say the illegal cell phone trade is appealing to visitors and staff because inmates can pay up to $500 for a phone. Dozens of prison staffers have been arrested over the past four years for supplying phones.

Since September of last year, more than one million cell phone calls or texts attempted by inmates at Parchman have been intercepted and successfully blocked by Tecore’s technology, which is provided at no cost as part of its contract with the Mississippi Department of Correction to provide phone service.

Source

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The California legislation making the possession of contraband prison cell phones a crime has been approved in committee. Will this stop the flow of smuggled cell phones into jails? Has the fact that drugs are illegal stopped them from being smuggled in to jails and prisons across the country?

Senate Bill 26, authored by Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), was approved by the Assembly Public Safety Committee today on a unanimous bipartisan vote.  SB 26 would crack down on the smuggling and use of cell phones and other wireless communication devices in California prisons.  The bill includes tough penalties for both smugglers and inmates.  Current law does not provide any criminal or financial sanctions for smuggling cell phones to inmates.

“It is time for California to crack down on cell phones in prisons.  Forty-four states and the federal government have taken action to tackle this problem in their prisons. California, where the problem is most severe, should take action as well,” said Senator Padilla.  “We know that inmates with cell phones are ordering murders, organizing escapes, facilitating drug deals, controlling street gangs, and terrorizing rape victims,” he added.

Senator Padilla has had the strong support of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in his effort to address the problem of cell phones in California’s prisons. “Contraband cell phones in prison continue to be a problem for CDCR as they allow inmates to circumvent our monitoring process and commit crimes,” said CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate. “This year we have confiscated 6,000 phones through May at our prisons. We are pleased that the Public Safety Committee has approved Senate Bill 26, as it will strengthen our efforts to curb this problem,” he added.

SB 26 would do the following:

Smuggling

• Any person, employee or nonemployee, who possesses a cell phone with the intent to deliver, or delivers, to an inmate is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by six months in jail and a fine of up to $5,000 per device.

Inmate Possession

• An inmate in possession of a cell phone shall be subject to loss of time credits. Lost time credit will not be eligible for restoration.

Visitor Protection

• The bill contains language for visitors who inadvertently bring a cell phone into a prison without intent to deliver to an inmate.

Managed Access Technology

• Prisons will use technology to identify unauthorized cell phone signals and block their ability to transmit phone calls, texts, and emails.

The number of cell phones confiscated in our prisons has grown exponentially. In 2006, prison officials confiscated 261 cell phones in California prisons. In 2009, 6,995 cell phones were confiscated.  Last year, 10,761 phones were confiscated.  Charles Manson has been caught twice in possession of a cell phone.  Smugglers are selling these phones to inmates for more than $1,000 a piece.  One person who was caught, bragged about making $100,000 in a single year smuggling cell phones to inmates.

SB 26 is Senator Padilla’s third attempt to criminalize cell phones in prison.  SB 1730 introduced in 2007, and SB 434 introduced in 2009, both died in committee.  SB 525 introduced in 2009, won legislative approval in 2010 but was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.

Cell phones in the hands of inmates are a clear and present threat to the safety of correctional officers, inmates, and the public.  Cell phones in prisons have been used by inmates to:

• Control street gangs.  On August 31^st, 2010, Attorney General Brown announced the arrest of

four Nuestra Familia gang leaders and 30 gang members.  The gang is believed to be controlled by imprisoned gang leaders that use cell phones to direct illegal activity throughout the state.  (source)

• Coordinate with drug traffickers from inside prison cells to plan murders, kidnappings, and drug deals (source)
• Order a “hit” on a murder witness in Maryland (source)
• A Texas death row inmate threatening a legislator (source)
• Coordinate simultaneous rebellions in 73 prisons in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2006 and, more ominously, coordinate attacks on law enforcement in the streets.  These criminal acts essentially shut down Brazil’s financial capitol for days (source)
• Plan escapes, such as one in Texas in March (source)
• Threaten and intimidate witnesses and victims (source)
• Coordinate attacks on prison guards (source)

SB 26 is supported by the California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association, US Senator Diane Feinstein, California Peace Officers’ Association, California Police Chiefs Association, California State Sheriffs’ Association, Crime Victims United, California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, and the California District Attorneys’ Association, among others.

Source

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