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South Carolina Wants To Jam Cell Phone Signals
Corey Brook writes "The South Carolina state prison system wants the FCC to grant them and local officers permission to block cell phone signals. News has been out about the growing problem of them perps smuggling cell phones into prisons for a while now. Inmates use cell phones as commerce, to implement fraud, smuggle drugs and weapons, and to order hits. Of course, some may use it to just talk to a loved one any time they can." Hopefully movie theaters and restaurants do it next.
I must resist mentioning how in Soviet Russia, mobile phones jam you!
In my local cinema recently, people were quite good with keeping phones on silent, but the light from people checking and sending text messages still annoyed me a bit.
I just realized what they mean by smuggling them in. I'm guessing I wouldn't want one of those phones close to my mouth/nose.
"I don't have to think. I only have to do it. The results are always perfect, but that's old news." - Meat Puppets
"Hopefully movie theaters and restaurants do it next."
That's the one thing that really pisses me off when I go to watch a film in the cinema: some dickhead who decides to start texting or checking the football scores during the movie.
Seriously, these guys must be loaded if they can afford to pay £8 to watch a film and then spend the whole time on their fucking phone.
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
I seem to recall reading about cell phone blocking paint and wall paper. I doubt these require FCC approval. On the other hand, they're harder to get rid of when you use the building for a new purpose, and no longer care about cell blocking. The illegal electronic jammers that they probably want to get FCC approval for could be turned off as soon as they were no longer necessary.
I work right next to SCDC's main prison facility in Columbia. Right now, the thing that really concerns us is "spillover" of this jamming into our area. We have a wifi network that we depend on (and cellphones we need, of course) and so the last thing we need is this plan having unitended consequences for wireless signals. It doesn't help that South Carolina state government has a long history of hiring shoddy technology contractors who promise the world and deliver a buggy product that only makes things worse. Jon Ozmint (the head of SCDC) has sworn that it won't leak outside of their facilities, but I'm somewhat cautious.
The Ridegville test referred to in the article wasn't that worthwhile because Ridgeville is isolated (it's in the middle of nowhere and lagely self-contained.) The main facility in Columbia is a much larger, more wide open area located right next to the state police headquaters, Dept. of Public Safery, and several other state agencies and businesses--all of whom depend greatly on their cellhones, networks, and communications equipment. I just don't see how they could blanket that whole area and not have spillover jamming--Unless they restrict it to inside of their buildings which would mean that most prisoners would still have plenty of opportunities to use their cellphones (since most prisoners spend a lot of time outside the buildings, except for the really high-level ones)
It's not that we're not sympathetic to the problem of cellphones in the prison system. We're just worried that they might be rushing forward with an untested and possibly ill-advised solution that could have a deleterious effect on nearby wireless usage. We're hoping they will at least give us a testing period to see its effects before they bring it online.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
What in the hell are inmates doing with cell phones in the first place?
In an environment where even the smallest improvised weapon can be found and confiscated, you'd think it would be drop-easy for the prison to find and confiscate a cell phone. Any inmate caught with one gets n weeks/months added to their sentence... problem solved.
Seriously - it's prison, not a Hilton, FFS - if they need to use a phone (for speaking to their lawyer, loved-ones, etc), let 'em use a POTS phone wired into a wall somewhere.
The solution the SC prison system is looking for? It's akin to wrapping ships in Saran Wrap to fix any potential leaks - expensive and not very workable over time...
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Don't jail guards and prison official also use cell phones? They might enjoy being able to make a quick call for reinforcements when a riot starts or when someone breaks out.
you do NOT get to do whatever you want whenever you want. Those rights were temporarily forfeited upon conviction. Sounds like a good idea to me.
After all, they already jammed the phone up someone's asshole to get it into prison.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Like they're really going to refurb that super-max prison as condos for the elderly.
That's not all. In prison, other things can get close to your mouth and nose you wouldn't want. That's why it's prison. Be smarter than everyone you know and you might stay out of jail. Besides, most white collar crimes require too much effort to be even worth your time. (although bailouts seem to be the new bank-heist, and you get away with it!)
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Yes, because if there is one thing that I would wish of my theatre- and restaurant- going experiences, would be that they be more like prison. :P
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
Wouldn't it make more sense to just monitor the airwaves in prison than outright block the signals ?
Setup smaller receivers around the prison that for one, would let officers get the drop on anything inmates try to plan out, surely there's no wiretapping laws in prison considering phones are surely contraband, and for two with a few smaller receivers they could at least triangulate the position down to a cell block and perform a shakedown.
I'm just worried about what is going to happen when inmates take over the prison, how is Bruce Willas supposed to communicate with the guys outside if they simply block the signals ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Hopefully movie theaters and restaurants do it next.
If the problem is the noise or the light from the screens, kick people out for breaking the rules (one warning for light, no warnings for talking, for example), but I really don't want us to make a habit of jamming RF devices. That's a bit like banning alcohol to keep people from driving drunk. What if there's a fire? A crime? A doctor with an emergency who knows how to stand up and walk out when he gets a call?
Heavy-handed solutions create tons of problems. Ask people to behave like respectful adults and kick them out the moment they fail to do so.
Everybody in the whole cell block
They was jammed' up 'cause the cellphones blocked
Use your head, can't you, use your head,
You're on earth, there's no cure for that - S. Beckett
There's a restaurant in my area which accidentally set up at Faraday Cage with the wire mesh used in their stucco exterior. Cell phones don't work inside.
I suppose with a prison like this they have multiple buildings and the prisoners might have time outside where they could use cell phones. Then, of course, they want their own guard's radios to work.
I can guarantee you that any of the people you mentioned above, if they were on call, would not be sitting in a theater taking the chance on losing out on their $20. They would either be off duty and not susceptible to being paged. or would have told whomever to not page them for X amount of time.
I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
Only one man would DARE give me the raspberry...
I used to work for a software company that provided automated telephone operator software. Among their clients was a small local phone company that provided pay phones to the SCDC for use in prison. Well, I shouldn't say "pay phones" exactly, they provided the ruggedized husks of pay phones without coin boxen and with the coin acceptors removed or welded shut. This was because the only kind of call allowed in prison is an outbound collect call of 5 minutes' duration. In theory. The prisoners would do an unbelievably competent phreaking job and we had to patch the software that controlled these phones every three to six months on account of new ways the prisoners would find to get around the calling restrictions. My favorite was where the prisoner would say something incoherent when prompted for a name that the phone switch would present to the call recipient. After a few tries they would often get someone gullible to accept the charges, and then they would somehow get this random person to set up a 3-way call with the person the prisoner really wanted to talk to, and have the whole thing billed to the random person's phone. Way back in the day, they used to use live human operators to set up the collect calls. The humans were slightly easier to take advantage of than the automated system that replaced them, and more likely to sue their employer for subjecting them to phone conversations with prisoners.
OK they claim they're smuggling cellphones into prisons somehow (heh I wonder if they put them in vibrate mode ;) ).
To me the big problem really is that if they can smuggle in stuff the size of a cellphone they can smuggle in lots of other more dangerous stuff.
I don't get why are cellphones themselves a problem, and why the solution is jamming them. After all:
1) If you're actually going to use the cellphones to communicate wirelessly (rather than use them to play games or other stuff), they will emit a very detectable signal.
So it's trivial to find them if they're on.
2) It's a prison, if prisoners are not allowed cellphones, guards can probably walk in at any time, and confiscate them after detecting them by whatever means. And the culprits involved get the usual punishment stuff.
3) The prison could put their own cell stations and listen in. For typical GSM stuff, while the comms between the phone and the base stations are encrypted (albeit intentionally weakened crypto), the comms from the base station to the rest of the network is in plaintext. No really expensive fancy stuff needed.
That's kind of a sensational headline isn't it? I mean, the entire state of South Carolina is going to jam cell phones!? My god that is Fascist! Oh wait. They want to do it in prisons. Snore. I mean, I guess the sensational headline did its job, because if they would have added 'in prisons' to the end of it, I would have thought 'big deal, prisoners aren't supposed to have mobile phones anyway'.
Its sort of like writing a headline that says 'US To Mandate Switch to Nuclear Fission Powered Cars', and then in the summary say (by the year 4062).
"Of course, some may use it to just talk to a loved one any time they can."
Oh, don't you just feel so bad for those poor prisoners who just want to talk to a loved one? Quick, someone cue the sad violin music! Next time try not to commit a felony jackass. It really isn't that hard. All it takes is demonstrating a little concern for those around you rather than focusing on satisfying your needs at all costs.
So anyone who works in the medical field should just have to forgo going to the movies? What about people with kids and a babysitter at home that needs to reach them? Wouldn't a better solution be for the fucking theaters to employ ushers again, whom could presumably stop people from abusing their cell phones while the movie is playing?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Cell phones in prisons have been big news in Texas, after a Death Row inmate was stupid enough to make threatening calls to the chairman of the state Senate's Criminal Justice Committee. They're still being found, weeks after a supposed crackdown that turned up dozens of in-cell cell phones systemwide, along with an inordinate amount of drugs and weapons.
The Grits For Breakfast criminal justice blog has been following the issue closely, asking questions like "Will we see prosecutions of staff who smuggle cell phones in addition to inmates and family members paying for their minutes?" Answer: probably not. Sen. Whitmire, whose family was the target of phoned-in threats from Death Row, summed it up pretty nicely at an emergency Senate hearing on the issue. TDCJ officials promised to implement a plan they'd been working on, to prevent guards from smuggling contraband to prisoners, to which Whitmire responded with a question: Why the hell weren't you doing that already?
One story mentioned a phone that was only found by an abdominal X-ray. I wonder if it was this little bugger? Oh, sorry, bad choice of words.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
"Jamming" is not necessary. Everyone seems to think that blowing out a signal is the only way to get things done. That is way too short-sighted.
It's easy to install a cell network of your own. Hell, Sprint sells 4-person personal cell towers in their stores in the US. So instead of "jamming" the frequencies, make a localized cell network that simply black-holes the unauthorized calls. This could even be adapted so the ESNs of legitimate users (guards, warden, etc) could be passed through, so everyone is happy.
Or if you want to go the "Big Brother" route, make a localized network that snoops on all the unauthorized voice and data traffic. Seems like a great way to prove that criminals inside jails with cell phones are actually orchestrating crimes instead of just guessing about it.
it should deprive you of rights, because you deprived someone else of theirs (stolen from them, took their life, raped them)
prisoners shouldn't have television, computer access, or cellphones. what is the whole point of incarceration in the first place?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
its not inmates with cellphones coming in at intake, and its probably unlikely that anyone other than a CORRECTIONS OFFICER gets a phone in for someone. the real issue is corruption here. i doubt a CO would smuggle a gun in for you at any cost, but a cell phone... well everyone has a price i guess. i think south carolinas first move should be to investigate how so many cell phones get inside in the first place.
I can guarantee you that any of the people you mentioned above, if they were on call, would not be sitting in a theater taking the chance on losing out on their $20. They would either be off duty and not susceptible to being paged. or would have told whomever to not page them for X amount of time.
Yes, a specialist heart surgeon who makes a quarter-million a year wouldn't take the chance that he might lose out on $20 in exchange for saving someone's life. You're a brilliant, brilliant man, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Really? You can guarantee that? Please do.
Jammers are a bad idea, as one of the above posters said, yell at them to take it outside or go complain to the manager. Some folks need to be on call but would still like to go out and enjoy themselves on occasion. A few annoying loud mouths shouldn't ruin an entire subset of professions from going to the theater. Specially considering they are most likely not the ones causing the disturbances your complaining about.
I'm actually surprised so many people are for jamming these places on slashdot. I thought many of us were on call 24/7.
The Goal: A long simple life filled with many complex toys.
I can guarantee that there are firemen that are off-duty but that are still paged when there's an emergency. Being an off-duty fireman means that you're not reliable during that period but if there's an emergency (9/11 anyone?), you can bet they'll try to call you in immediately. If you fail to respond, nothing happens. If you respond and go to work, you might save some lives.
Fire doesn't give a shit about the firemen's schedule and criminals try to take advantage of the policemen's schedule. When there's a REAL emergency, I doubt they won't bother to call in off-duty workers.
Inmates who perform public sex acts still will be made to wear pink jumpsuit
Tony Cimo, Rudolph Tyner and Pee Wee Gaskins about smuggling.
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/gaskins/1.html
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If I can't have a CELL phone in my prison CELL, what's the use????
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
Somebody who's on-call could carry an old fashioned non-blocked pager.
The cinema's phone blocker could easily detect 911 calls and turn off the the blocking if it detected one.
No sig today...
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This isn't old-fashioned jamming where you broadcast white noise to drown out everything else in the area, it's installation of a dummy cell which the phones will lock onto instead of the real thing.
If you control the cell you can do what you like with the calls.
No sig today...
... the Banana Phone
Use your head, can't you, use your head,
You're on earth, there's no cure for that - S. Beckett
Movie theaters I get. But restaurants? As long as you keep your voice down I could give a rat's ass if you talk on the phone.
A little tin foil, or conductive paint, would fix the problem. It would be cheap, effective, and not require regulatory issues.
Hey, you southern geeks! What's up? Don't any of you actually know any engineering any more?
-- Programming with boost is like building a house with lego. It's a cool but I wouldn't want to live in it
How about they don't go to the movies when they are on call and need to be reached.
Also, I find it strange that with all the people who have had kids, babysitters and all that jazz long before cell phones were invented got along just fine and even went to the movies but something with today's parents makes it completely impossible. I would think it is even easier now because the cell phone has voice mail so if something pops up, you'll get the message 2 hours later when you leave the theater.
Ask your mom what she did when you were a kid, hell ask her how they changed the channels on TV before the remote was popular too.
Unless you're a single stop light town, any one doctor, firefighter, etc aren't on call 24/7. They have other people working for them. Hell even in my single stop light town with a volunteer fire department, one of my teachers was a FF. Some days he'd forget to turn down his radio and you'd hear a big call come through and he'd just turn it down.
And that's why baby sitters need to be responsible. If the kid is injured, teach the babysitter how to call 911 or the medic. Have an 'emergency contact' of the neighbors or your parents.
I bet a large portion of slashdot grew up before cell phones and their babysitters seemed to do just fine.
And what would be even more annoying than a guy on a cell phone? A guy with a flashlight walking down to tell him to shut up.
This is a bandaid on the real problem. The prisons failing to stop inmates from getting cell phones.
It would probably be much cheaper and simpler just to set up cell phone signal detectors and catch the inmates red handed. The risks of inadvertently jamming innocent phones (those of prison employees or off-site phones) are too high. A lot of people don't have land lines, and cell phones are a wonderful thing in an emergency.
Or, you know, they could learn to better prevent inmates from getting the phones in the first place.
Question everything
Prisoners still have rights. Its easy to fight for the rights of people you like. Its important to fight for the rights of people you don't like.
Probably not possible, (they can always go outside), and maybe not good if your staff need to use phones / radios
Evidently Corey Brook isn't a parent. Let me ask you this Corey, would you prefer that my babysitter call me on my silenced cell phone, or have the management use the PA system to get my attention when the kid throws up all over the place?
What I would really like to see is movie theaters and the like being able to broadcast a signal that would automatically force phones into silent mode. Because I really don't care if the guy on the other side of the theater is texting or talking. But the ringing and beeping carries through the whole theater. I would find this a useful service, too, since I sometimes forget to put my phone in silent mode. Or, more often, forget to take it out of silent mode when the movie's over and miss a call because I don't hear it. This seems like a much more reasonable balance to me. Considerate people can still take important calls discreetly. Assholes who talk and annoy people around them (whether a phone is involved or not) should be booted.
How about they don't go to the movies when they are on call and need to be reached.
So anyone who works a job where they are on call 24/7 should just forget about having a social life because some asshole teenyboppers abuse their cell phone at the movies and piss you off?
Ask your mom what she did when you were a kid
She managed, but that's not the point. My great-grandparents also managed to raise their kids without electricity -- should we give up that modern convenience too just because we know we can live without it?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
The people holding the keys to the gate are too stupid to find radio transmitters working on known frequencies. Makes me wonder how they caught any criminals in the first place.
And what would be even more annoying than a guy on a cell phone? A guy with a flashlight walking down to tell him to shut up.
I don't think you'd need the guy to do that very often once it became known that the theater is willing to kick you out if you abuse your cell phone. And really, is the guy on his cell phone any more annoying than the asshole three seats down who is talking to his friends? Ushers could solve both problems -- without blocking legitimate uses.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Get rid of the steel barbed wire around the prison and replace it with copper wire and make a giant Ferriday cage. Signals inside will stay inside so walkie talkies would still function and no signal outside could get in.
MISSING - Sig file. 2 years old black and white and very funny. If found please email me.
I got it! We need to put prisoners in a special "cell" where they are surrounded by metal bars that block cell phone transmissions. Also, such a cage does not require FCC approval. Put them over the windows too. That'll show 'em!
Rather than focus on taking the cell phones away, we should ask ourselves: what good is a phone call if you can't talk?
...Well, I guess the answer to that is that you could still text somebody, or use a TDD device or a modem, maybe fax something, or play songs on the touch tones like in Short Circuit 2, etc...
Oh yeah, and rigging it so prisoners can't speak might be slightly evil. We should examine the implications there before we do anything...
Bow-ties are cool.
Lol.. Off duty fire fighters have radios for when they are on call. It's the same setup that the volunteer fire used. If they are needed, they send one code out, it sets the radios off and it's all good to go.
But something that your not looking at is that when someone is on call, they are just that. You can't be going off and doing a bunch of things that tie you up when your on call, especially if it is something like emergency response. Think about that, if your on call, and you decide to go to your inlaws 2 hours away, how the fuck are you going to respond in time to save a life? How about if your out water skiing in the summer time, 20 minutes in the middle of the lake, 20 minutes to load the boat up, and 30 -40 minutes to get back to town... Yea right.
And no it doesn't mean that doctors or firefighters or whoever can't go to the movies, it means they can't do it when they are on call. They took their job knowing what was expected of them. They are just as fine with the money they make, they can get by with jammers in movie theaters.
So they found a nit to arrest me on -- some unpaid fine or some such -- and they were holding me pending release as soon as some friends could bring in the money I owned.
Alas, Bush was visiting that day and they needed the local police station for security operations. And so everyone they were holding had to be carted off to the state correctional facility. Fun stuff.
I has asked to use my cell phone so that I could make some calls to those trying to get me out, so that they would know where to go to get me out. It was a mad rush at that police station and many of the cops there looked very distracted and confused. Since I was polite to those who held me behind bars, they granted me this request.
They were so distracted they forgot they actually gave me my cell phone! Well, I decided to just slip it in my pocket and hang on to it.
When I arrived at the correctional facility, they knew that myself and the other guys were coming from the local police station, so they did not bother to "pat us down". It was simply a prisoner transfer. We were wearing our civilian clothes when we arrived, and they have this elaborate process of "processing" everyone. So into the waiting room we went. Before they put us in, they made us take off our coats and dump them in piles along a wall on the floor. Fortunately, I had thought to move my cell phone from my pants to my coat pocket en route to the facility, so I dropped my coat with cell phone nicely packed inside.
The other immates were, for the most part, behaving like civilized people. It was the prison facility that had a lot of bad attitude towards us. Hell, you'd think they were the criminals! There were cameras everywhere, and I noted the position of each and every one of them.
So, during the process, they put us into those horrid bright-orange jumpsuits, and back into the holding area. They would occasionally allow one or two of us out to make phone calls from the payphone on the wall. Though, you needed a special number to make any calls at all, and they would limit you to a minute or so. And they were very slective about whom they allowed to make phone calls, and not everyone got a chance.
So, I was allowed out to make a phone call and ask a question or two. After I was done, I watched all the personell and they all looked busy doing things and weren't watching me. I decided, what the hell -- I boldly strode over to where my coat was dumped on the floor, and in one swift move that would make any slight-of-hand magician proud, I swooped down and snatched the cell phone from my coat pocket without anyone noticing! 3 seconds afterwards, I was told to go back to the holding area, and I did.
I carefully noted the layout of the holding area, which had a very big window so the personell could see us, and there was also a camera. There were about 30 or so of us in that holding area. Ah, but there was a small area near the open toilet that the camera could not see and was not in the view of the guards. Perfect! I went to that area and made a couple of phone calls to those outside to tell them how to access my bank accounts to get the money to get me out of jail! Perfect!
Of course, other innmates noticed I had a cell phone, and immediatly I was "everyone's friend". They all began asking me if they could borrow my cell to call a girlfriend, a wife, or a mother. I was so moved by this I lent them this. I had them all stand, one at a time, in that same "sweet spot" whilst others stood watch.
Not one single person called to make a drug deal. Not one single person called to make a hit order. ALL called family, friends, loved ones, and the like. T
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
I should go to jail for not catching my "has" when I should've put "had"! Off to grammar lockdown I go....
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
Are you going to pay for the staff to do this "100% exhaustive" searching? Because the citizens of South Carolina sure aren't going to accept a tax increase to pay for it. At this point SCDC can't even staff most of its guard towers. And even more budget cuts are on the way.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
You ARE new here, officer. Tags aren't put there by the submitter. AND a lot of people have never EVER had a good experience with cops. Someone breaks into your house, your stuff's gone but the cops aren't getting it back. Then they pull you over for DWB or DWY (driving while black or driving while young) the next day.
After my home was burglarized in 1978 and I later found that the theif was a police informant, and the cops let him keep MY property, I cultivated a "fuck the police" attitude myself. If law enforcement personnel had better ethics, people wouldn't have a "fuck the police" attitude.
You reap what you sow.
Free Martian Whores!
Radios will still work so long as the base station and the radios are all inside the cage. As for cell phones, you can always go outside to use them.
...because that's how you block cell phones.
i.e. Not with some humongous ex-army transmitter which broadcasts white noise to drown everything out.
No sig today...
I'd say don't bother with blocking cell phones, let the inmates have as many as they want.
Just make it a death penalty to be caught in possession of a charger.
I'm a satanic clam.
You don't have to be on call to be called in. What about doctors? Should all doctors have radio stations? If a building collapses, the hospital needs all the help they can get!
What's wrong with you people? In a couple of days I might be receiving postcards from Utopia where "off-duty" means that you can shit on your work, no matter what happens. The real world is a lot different than you might imagine.
Your username says it all, anyway.
take the words "cell phone" to literally?
Build cars that jam cell phone signals when the car is moving!
I get tired of hearing of prisons that can't control this and can't control that. Prisoners get stabbed, alcohol and drugs are rampant and then there is the old rape for a topper.
Frankly if I had that much trouble with inmates each would be standing alone and buck naked in a cell 24/7/365. But then again that might cut into the guards ability to sell dope.
If having cell phones is a problem, let them have them but need to effectively earn the use to use them...that is for every 1 hour of cell phone you want....you need to give us 5 hours of labor
This can be done with many virtual or special companies that offer work from home kits,
like needing to lick envelops and stuff them full of advertising, etc.... stuff that can be done from home, then guess what the prisons become self sufficient, as they now have a bigger income from using the hours of labor to get contracts etc.
Modern prisons (especially lower security ones) aren't built like they used to be, where every prisoner is in a cell by themselves or with a single roommate. Oftentimes there are dormitory-like conditions where a dozen or so inmates are in a room together. In addition, there are frequently common-areas (other than the cafeteria) when inmates are gathered in groups. These types of situations make it easier for inmates to hide contraband, especially where other inmates have an interest in assisting or at least no interest in actively preventing it. Add to this modern construction techniques (drop ceilings in a prison? WTF?) and you're asking for trouble.
You can argue all day long about whether sentences are supposed to be punitive or rehabilitative, but the current situation (with regards to prison rape, drug use, and other contraband) is a direct result of these modern innovations (dorms, common areas, etc.)
An ideal prison (IMO) would be more like Alcatraz, where each individual prisoner was kept in an separate, concrete block cell. I think if you had this kind of control, you'd be more able to do rehabilitative things (like provide access to computers, etc) whereas now the risks are too high.
Of course, that kind of facility wouldn't be cheap, and since we're running so many prisons I don't see it happening.
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I'm picturing a movie plot where an inmate's conjugal visitor gets taken hostage and can't use her cellphone to call for help because THE PRISON JAMS THE SIGNALS! The inmate has to break his wife OUT of his own prison, and kick ass against the other prisoners.
I'll take Jason Statham as the inmate.
Buy a couple of old luggage xray machines and run the inmates through them. Worst case scenario you remove a bunch of them from the gene pool when you nuke their nethers. But then again there nethers might already be baked from the cell phone that's being smuggled.
I hear Charleston Harbor is being turned into a giant TV-B-Gone.
At the prison near my office, I often saw people waving their arms and hands around vigorously. I thought they were just more crazy homeless people asking for my change, but when I got closer I noticed they were using sign language to communicate with inmates on the upper floors of the prison. It is troubling that prisoners can smuggle something as large as a cellphone (I shudder to think *how* they do it), but inmates will no doubt find other ways to communicate with the outside world.
SC Correctional facilities have the lowest average per capita spending per resident (even undercutting the semi-famous Mason Texas' Sheriff, Clint Low's attempts). As of this year, the number of meals per day was reduced to 2 and you don't want to know what they serve. The conditions in a SC facility versus a California facility are so different, I would call the SC facilities barbaric. DONT get convicted of anything in SC.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Of course, they could get off their lazy, fat asses and monitor some selected transmissions, and maybe nail a few felons with a few extra crimes.
Oh, yeah...that might cut into doughnut time. Never mind.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Don't bring up prison rape and such like that, that is not something the government sponsors or supports.
No, but it is something the government sometimes will look the other way on, and not take reasonable measures to stop and prevent.
For instance, there was an interesting case where an inmate escaped from prison (twice?), and when caught, took the argument to some high court (which eventually ruled against him) arguing that he was escaping out of necessity to avoid physical injury, sexual assault, etc. Turns out that it was well-known that it was actually pretty easy to (1) get out of your cell and (2) get into someone else's cell, and this would go on at night with groups of inmates roaming around. Furthermore, the only avenue that the inmates had to report rape was through the prison mail system, which was sorted by... inmates! Who would often open the mail and read it. And good luck if someone discovered you were a snitch. What did the state do to remedy this? By my reading of the story, basically nothing, at least until the suit hit the press. They installed some more locks that prisoners could latch from inside to keep others out (!), but these were also easily bypassed.
This sort of event is an extreme as far as this sort of thing goes, but don't act like the prisons are doing what they can to prevent rape.
"Hopefully movie theaters and restaurants do it next."
That would hold up until the first time somone dials 911 in an emergency then that would end any and all jamming. The only way it will fly is if it only blocking INCOMING calls. Otherwise see 911 example.
Two prisons don't want them in there with cameras etc for two reasons: the reasons listed and the fact they don't want people to see what happens in a prison on a daily basis including but not limited to cell extractions and the mental state of many prisoners.
The problem if the prison guards statement is to be believed is the smuggling of cell phones, jamming cell phones would cripple guards in an emergency when outside contact is needed.
It's foolish, short sited, and knee-jerk reaction from guards frustrated by the inability to control cell phones being smuggled in.
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
You hit the nail on the head regarding much of the real issue. In jail/prison you have to use the very expensive phone service that the crooks^H^H^H^H^H^H warden and other powers that be have set up. They make a HUGE amount of money price gouging. If you ignored the profit aspect the other reason is that crimes get committed - such as no contact order violations, etc. - and the prison officials want to record every call made by a prisoner for this reason. Still, the reason they are trying to Jam it is much more about profit motive than public safety. I cannot prove it, I admit, but I guarantee it is true.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
So anyone who works a job where they are on call 24/7 should just forget about having a social life because some asshole teenyboppers abuse their cell phone at the movies and piss you off?
No, it means they can't take their cell phones to the theaters because if the on-call cell phone rings / lights up / vibrates loudly it will piss me off. Even if they don't answer and walk out.
Yes, it sucks for them, but that's what being on call MEANS. It means you can't go to theaters, because you're not guaranteed to be there for the whole movie, you might have to leave. It means you can't drink alcohol because you'll be impaired. It means that anywhere you go with your friends, you will have to drive your own car because you might have to leave.
There's a reason people who are on call get paid more than those who are not. It places restrictions on your goddamn social life. Don't take a job where you're required to be on call if you can't do that.
The doctor example is not a straw man; the grandparent poster is not trying to describe someone else's claims in regards to doctors. Now, when he said:
That is a straw man argument, since it replaces someone's opinion with one that is superficially similar but easier to refute.
No, it means they can't take their cell phones to the theaters because if the on-call cell phone rings / lights up / vibrates loudly it will piss me off.
If a vibrating cell phone is all it takes to piss you off then I'd say that you are the one who has issues.
Even if they don't answer and walk out.
Do people who answer the call of nature during the movie similarly piss you off?
It means you can't go to theaters, because you're not guaranteed to be there for the whole movie, you might have to leave.
What law says I can't go to a theater if I might have to leave before the movie is done?
It means you can't drink alcohol because you'll be impaired
Depends on what your job is. Doctor, probably not. IT person? Probably yes. I drink when I'm on call -- because I'm on call to answer problems over the phone and not to come to work.
Don't take a job where you're required to be on call if you can't do that.
How about you stay at home and leave the rest of us whom don't get pissed off and self-righteous over a vibrating cell phone alone?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Even easier - don't give them easy access to power outlets. Seriously.. they are in prison - do they really need a 120v outlet in their prison cell so they can charge their mobile phone?
As with most things, follow the money. Without cell phones, the only way that a prisoner may communicate with loved ones outside is through collect phone calls. These collect phone calls are outrageously expensive--about $20 for 10 minutes. The reason is that the prisons sign exclusive contracts with phone providers and get a cut. It's wrong on a number of levels:
1) Usually the families of prisoners can ill afford such rates.
2) Families make reasonable economic choices to limit the calls that they take. This further isolates the prisoner from his family (and support system).
3) We all know that legitimate companies are able to make money charging only 2 or 3 cents per minute on long distance calls. The 10,000% mark up is unconscionable.
These anti-cell phone policies are really just an attempt to protect a lucrative revenue stream.
First of all, no one is on call 24/7 who will be going to the movies. It just doesn't happen. Second, if you somehow think you are on call 24/7, you have more problems then going to the movies. Finally even for the people who do have the on call status, they have to use their discretion because it is their job. The world isn't going to fall apart if they aren't reachable to 2 hours and ever you perception that they wouldn't be the ones interrupting the movie shows that you don't even expect them to be needed during the two hours or whatever it takes to see a movie. Finally, if they are that important, they aren't going to be relying on cell phones and pagers, they are going to have radios that operate on different frequencies which won't be jammed. Think this through a little. And no, I don't consider some snot nosed punk willing to work all hours of the day on their bosses crap because they can't get a reliable system in place in the first place or they can't hire sound techs to keep it running. I have been on call at certain jobs, this is before cell phones were popular and we had to check in with an answering service every hour or so or stay home to take a phone call. The magic of cellphones have changed nothing in this regard.
If your use of it starts intruding into other people's lives, then yes, maybe we should get rid of that. But hey, no one is saying get rid of the cell phone, I have several that I need and use. They are saying don't use it in a certain place and it just happens that this place is somewhere that phones in the hands of patrons have traditionally not been needed. It is a place that not having a phone in your hand has been common since the very beginning. Nothing has changes now that suggests it is needed or that anything is different. Perhaps you should stop looking after your own self interests and think about others. If more people did that, we probably wouldn't be talking about shit like this.
Uh.. You also have to search the Guards.
Where do you think the prisoners are getting the contraband? Taking a detour during their daily Starbucks run?
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Jamming ain't gonna happen. Too much liability.
But personal jamming would fly!
Someone make me an android-app that jams please! I know this would require some hardware-mods, so please provide them as well... I want to be the only one in the theater on the phone! ummmmm special me.
I shouldn't have to tolerate people's phones ringing in my private property, like my restaurant or my movie theater.
Phones should have a radio API for notifying them to switch to vibrate only, and at least send a message to them (without needing to know their phone#) requesting their user switch off their ringer, or switch them off entirely. A really good system would let the user request a "Wake Up" message later to their disclosed phone# (or other address), which would wake their phone enough to show a message reminding the user to reactive the phone, like when the show ends and the audience is leaving.
Failing that, I should have a jammer within my private property lines that prevents phones from calling in or out. If I were polite, the jammer would send a message to all phones in its reach warning them that calls are jammed, perhaps a 5 minute warning if it's an event like a movie starting (not a restaurant, jamming already in progress). Phones would need an API for that message.
What gives the government, the FCC, the power to control low power signals contained entirely within my private property?
--
make install -not war
do they really need a 120v outlet in their prison cell so they can charge their mobile phone?
No, but they may need a 120v outlet for an electric shaver or something, although we could give them razor blades.
This sentiment is very common- always striving to make prison even more hellish than it might be now. Every so often voters and politicians increase the rate at which prisons are packed in order to express their disapproval of crime. The average American is much more likely to be in prison than citizens of most countries. And we always think of new ways to try to make people in there miserable, like feeding them nothing but Nutraloaf. The U.S. is moving toward a planned economy where everyone is in prison getting PTSD and having all their needs taken care of by the state. Plus the banks are nationalized.
Provide only 600V 400Hz AC inside the prison. That will render standard equipment unusable. And they can still toast their hot dogs if they are careful.
And why not intercept all calls by setting up a prison-wide base-station? Use the ECHELON system or something to take care of the intercepted calls.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
No way, it's "Cogito ergo spud":
I think, therefore I yam!
With the first link, the chain is forged.
Theaters and restaurants will never do this for one simple reason, we still have all of our rights. And when our grandmother is dying, and we miss the call because Red Lobster decided it wasn't worth disturbing the other customers over, they could easily have a 6 or 7 figure lawsuit on their hands.
And why not intercept all calls by setting up a prison-wide base-station? Use the ECHELON system or something to take care of the intercepted calls.
You know this is an idea I could really get behind - microcell equipment for office buildings, etc. has reached quite an affordable level and wouldn't really be more than a drop in the bucket when it comes to a prison budget. This way guards, staff, and visitors could still use their cell phones -- perhaps when you arrive at the prison check-in desk you give them your cell's ESN - they enable it for 8 or 12 hours through their microcell - you can make all the calls you want, etc. If you slip the phone to a prisoner or whatever, they are cutoff within the day and the phone is useless. Obviously all phone numbers "from and to" will be recorded - and you can be informed as such when you give them your ESN to get service within the prison.
Hopefully movie theaters and restaurants do it next.
Smart man, Mr. Malda. Knows exactly what he's doing. A very well done little editorial to make sure the article gets a few hundred more comments.
I'm usually very tolerant of editors here, but this one caught me as blatant.
http://slashdot.org/faq/com-mod.shtml#cm2500
Troll -- A Troll is similar to Flamebait, but slightly more refined. This is a prank comment intended to provoke indignant (or just confused) responses.
I'm thinking about it, therefore I might be.
Although locking down one facility, for better or worse, might be easier, it would seem that if we dont want cell use in prisons it would make more sense to make a federal law out of this, make "no cell zones" out of those GPS locations, and then create a white list of phones that are allowed. I am also quite sure the implementation of this would get screwed somewhere around step #2, get all the providers together. Ehh well...
No young person wears watches anymore. Some of the newer cell phones now have secondary clock LEDs, mainly to save screen-lighting power beacuse this is the most popular cell-phone use.
In a very engrossing movie, I rarely see cell phones opened. For example last week at the new James Bond move which mostly action.
Doctors use answering services that locate them. This so called problem has existed long before cell phone have been around and didn't automatically appear as soon as cell phones appeared on the scenes. I don't know why you think there isn't something else already in place, have we as a society not worried about this stuff until the advent of the cell phone? A doctor, especially with the liability associated with their profession won't rely on a single point of failure if they are on emergency call.
The real world didn't appear over night, it didn't appear as soon as cell phones hit the scenes. Think this through before you "but, but, but, I think it should be this way" again. What did they do before cell phone and why is that not acceptable now?
Yes, and even with my user name, I just schooled you. Think with facts not emotions.
The world isn't going to fall apart if they aren't reachable to 2 hours
And the world is going to fall apart if my phone vibrates in the middle of the movie and I get up and walk out?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
New Zealand has had cellphone jammers in prisons for some time now because of the issue.
Linky: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4174128a11.html
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Wish I had mod points for this, seems to be a much better idea than jamming and should let the prison track down offenders.
From previous experience I would say that the cell phones are being used more for communicating w/ family, and friends then for criminal activity. Only way to get a call out of jail is to call collect, at a huge expense to whoever is recieving the call. Being locked up is your own fault, but being denied contact w/ family because they can't afford a $300 dollar phone bill a month isn't part of the sentence ( I used $300 because thats how much my fiances bill ended up being) I say if a family member will foot the bill, then let them have as many cellphones as they want. (The kind that you only have access to pre-programmed numbers, that can be approved by prison staff before getting into the prisoners hands) Anyways, my 2 cents.
Your also one of those people who do 60 in the passing lane aren't you? I love those people! I hope it's not your kid, sister, spouse, or other close relative in the E.R. when the Radiologist, or cardiologist, or other ist is called in to work on them. I have seen it on the freeway too where people will "block" a pass. This isn't a race, and if someone is driving that fast, then let them bear the consequences, because they may just be saving your friend, child, or mother.
Now, I know you weren't thinking of these types of things, so I'll cut you some slack. Sorry if the tone came/comes overly aggressive, but the the attitude that "I don't want to deal w/ xy or z so I am not going to let you do it." has allready killed people, and it's something that we have to learn to deal w/ better.
From this sentance alone I know two things about your character (or the one you played in that post.)
1. A minor irritation to you is more valuable than anothers life.
2. You want all of the candy right now, but no stomach ache.
Movies are social experiences. We actually go to hear others ooh and ahh, to laugh and cry with us.
If you don't want that, don't go to the movies. Large groups will allways have a wild card that does something unexpected, but I think the big reminders to turn your cell off/vibrate is pretty fair. If someone doesn't take the call out, maybe the theater should charge them for the reimbursment of everyone else's ticket.
Sometimes, a theater is actually closer to the hospital than the doctors own house. Sometimes, a Doctor might be in a developed area, but not have much for coverage. Talk to your employer for compensation? Uh most healthcare places can't afford the doctors they have.
Doctors also specialize, and where I live (A capital city), we have 2 cardiac surgeons. They have to spend all year on call, . They work for 2 hospitals, and are on call for both They don't have the luxury of hollidays, because they are keeping your grandfather alive for 10 more years.
Then there are other docs who are saving someone who got stabbed, or using an endoscope to get a coin out of an infant's trachea, or cutting out an infected apendix, or looking at an image to see if there is an anurysim about to burst, or threading a catheter up trough the artery in your R groin so they can clear a heart attack causing blockage.
Real heroes don't have the speed of Flash, or Superman. They don't have bionic hearing or implants. They just have drive to help. If inconvieniencing a few people saves another than so be it!
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
... when they can set up gear to locate them and possibly even intercept the calls?
Then they'll get intel on prisoners' network of contacts and ongoing criminal activity. It would be possible for the inmates to prearrange a few numbers to be unmonitored, like those of family and lawyers. That might be sufficent to address privacy concerns.
Have gnu, will travel.
It's not surprising that lonely nerds & hackers resent those who have someone to talk to.
Who could I call while shlepping through the supermarket? Who would readily receive my ring as I navigate the nasty rush hour? Who would call to ask about my aspirations in the twilight time?
Don't you just hate those people who have caring friends and family? Even prisoners have friends dammit!
'There but for the curse of God, go I'.
...omphaloskepsis often...
Or could it be perhaps that thousands to millions of dollars or even people's lives very often depend on you being able to be reached at any time of the day?
Just because you're so unimportant that the world wouldn't notice you disappearing from it for a few hours doesn't mean the same is true for everyone else. The problem is not the fact that the cell phones are there, the problem is the people who refuse to leave a theater to use one.
That said, I think people complaining about cell phone use in restaurants are being ridiculous.
Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them
Eastern State (in Philedelphia) was set up along this system, but it became too expensive to maintain before too long. It's a neat tour if you're in the area.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
You are an edge case. For every person like you who has (benefit of the doubt, for arguments sake) a genuine need to be reachable by cell phone at all times, there are 10 people who's inflated sense of self importance leads them to think they need to be reachable at all times, when in truth they don't. And for every one of them, there are ten assholes who who think it's their god-given right to talk on a cell phone any time, any where. And for every one of them are a hundred people (all under 25) who have never even considered the possibility that talking on a cell phone might in some way annoy another person, and if you were to try to explain this concept to them would have dificulty grasping that other people might not feel the same way as they do about anything, never mind something as normal to them as talking on a phone.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
Or some similar low-tech solution?
The Invisible Hand of the Free Market is what punches workers in the nuts.
I want every state to mandate jamming all cell phone signals in all schools (that is, under college). There is absolutely no need to anyone in class to use one. NONE.
mark
Smuggling the phone in is probably painful enough. Don't forget they also have to smuggle in the charger.
Chip H.
permission to block cell phone signals
Have the phone companies become so powerful government institutions have to get permission from them?
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
If you jam the signal and just require that inmates use landlines under prison control, you achieve the same thing at lower cost. There's no way they could sell enough one-off cell phones operating on a private cell network limited to the prison cell phones to recoup the costs of developing such a system. Jammers are cheap; building your own cell network - even a single node - and tying it into the PSTN infrastructure to complete the calls - is not.
This makes me want to scream.
Please, please find me a place on earth where prisons, which are usually populated by criminals, isn't a place where the inmates abuse each other in all manners imaginable.
I'll wait.
So I'll ass, why, exactly, are you leveling a criticism at America that is applicable to virtually every country on earth. You say
"I am continually astounded that an advanced nation can condone such barbaric behaviour"
I could examine any countries prison system and say this. And sadly I'd be right.
But you level this criticism at "America" specifically, which leads to ignore that, overall, prison is a very, very unpleasant place to be.
But you have confused losing to the inmates cunning with "condoning". The inmates are not cattle to be herded, they are actively working against the guards to find ways to exploit the system.
But your final line made you out the troll you are
"This behaviour actually makes terrorists look civilised."
Right...
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
The reason one of every hundred US citizens is in prison is MOSTLY due to the War On Drugs. Furthermore, drug offendors get "good behavior points" toward earlier release for attending religious (not just "spiritual") 12-step based groups in prison, clearly against the First Amendment (even those on death row are guaranteed freedom of religion, yet many are required to attend Alcoholics Aonymous and other groups by Government agents), yet the ACLU wants every prisoner to have access an electrical power outlet.
Tag lost or not installed.
Can't stop the signal, Mal.
Prisons make a ton of money on pay phones for inmates. If the inmates evade that with cell phones, the prison loses money.
Of course, it's hardly likely that enough inmates can smuggle enough cell phones in to really hurt the prison's revenue, but in prison the rule is "if it isn't mandatory, it's prohibited". So they overreact to everything.
The excuse that inmates are using them for criminal purposes is just that - an excuse.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
If you absolutely need to be contacted in an emergency, why aren't you using a pager? They have much better penetration into buildings anyway, and they really vibrate quite well. As for socializing over food at a restaurant, that's fine and well as long as the public nature of the space is respected. The trouble with one-sided cell phone conversations is that the user is imposing his or her personal space onto the public.
So Doctors, Firefighters, and Police Officers are not allowed to have lives outside of their work? Because some asshole MAY someday abuse his phone privileges at a theater? That's absurd.
As others have pointed out, crying babies/sick people are much more disturbing to moviegoers on a much more common basis. Should we ban them, too?
This is doubly absurd! You think first responders are "adequately compensated"!? Garbage men are generally paid better! (Never mind volunteer Firefighters, who's compensation for their trouble is in the negatives!).
Rights!? RIGHTS!? Are you insane!? Do you even have any idea what that word MEANS!? You do not have a right to watch a movie in a public theater without being bothered! No such right exists! You do have a right to ask the manager to remove a person who's ruining your experience, and if they fail to, you have a right to demand a refund, but you don't have a RIGHT not to be bothered in the first place.
If anything, Doctors/Firefighters/Police have a RIGHT to use the electromagnetic spectrum in a manner set forth by FCC regulation, and your proposal is the closest thing in this conversation to infringing on someone's RIGHTS. You're trying to justify this as doing something about people who don't care about their common man, but the truth of the matter is you're the one who doesn't give a damn about anyone but themselves--all that matters is whether you enjoy your movie.
Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them
lol.. Don't take this as a personal attack on you. Obviously if everyone had their phone on vibrate and left the theater to answer it, we wouldn't be having this conversation. So _you_ really know that _you_ putting your phone on vibrate isn't the problem to this answer.
I'm not so sure why your so pissed at people talking about solutions instead of being pissed at the people causing the problems the solutions are attempting to address.
If prisoners are doing UNSAFE things with the phone (calling in hits)
then shouldn't the location of the phone be obvious. Prisons are fairly stationary.
So, call your nearby phone providers, tell them your coords, and block
the region.
No need for expensive new machines to do this.
The law is a weapon of the government, not a protection for the likes of you. Surely you understand that.
I'm sure there are many ways to smuggle in cell phones. In part cheeky fun, I'd like to add in the word, Lube.
They arnt doing this to stop illegal activities or contraband, they are doing this so they can have a monopoly on telephone services http://mediaresearchhub.ssrc.org/grants/funded-projects/prison-phone-service-provider-contracts-kickbacks-and-fiscal-impact-on-prisoners2019-families
they are just greedy fucks and think they can make shit up, not fallow the rules, and continue to make booku bucks, illegally off their inmates.
http://mediaresearchhub.ssrc.org/grants/funded-projects/prison-phone-service-provider-contracts-kickbacks-and-fiscal-impact-on-prisoners2019-families
giant faraday cage will do the trick. line the roof with brass screening. don't forget the lightning pole.
Also known as the home of a "Benedict Arnold" business that knows not of quality or anything made in the United States.
As of this year, the number of meals per day was reduced to 2 and you don't want to know what they serve.
Nutraloaf? Or make sure the other 47 sane states (save for AZ/TX/SC) make it possible to pardon a crime just for it being in those 3 remaining ones.
My phone's vibrator is quite loud, and is perfectly audible.
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."- Winston Churchill
Rephrasing that might have been a good idea.
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."- Winston Churchill
Furthermore, they can have a blacklist, which would be especially effective in a small town.
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."- Winston Churchill
I'm not so sure why your so pissed at people talking about solutions instead of being pissed at the people causing the problems the solutions are attempting to address.
The only reason I'm "pissed" (I think annoyed would be a better word, but whatever) is because people are suggesting that we punish all cell phone users for the actions of an annoying minority. I offered a solution -- bring back ushers in the movie theaters -- it has the advantage of solving a few other problems too (people who talk to their friends throughout the movie for instance -- which is at least as annoying as somebody texting on his phone). Somebody shot it down whilst whining that somebody walking around with a flashlight would be more annoying than somebody using a cell phone.
I don't have a better suggestion than that. What I will say is that any theater that blocks cell phone signals is a theater that won't see another dime of my money. Not all of us have the luxury of being out of contact for 2+ hours. We can debate the reasons for that until the cows come home but that's a fact of life for a lot of people. Saying that people lived before cell phones misses the point -- they exist nowadays and a lot of us are forced to rely upon them.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
I have had jobs where I had to be on call, in fact I do have a job where I need to be on call, and I am an ex-volunteer firefighter, and in those times where I was on call, both for my job and as a firefighter, I wasn't going to go sit in a movie theater, on the off chance that I would be paged, and have wasted my money, missed the movie, and not get to where I needed to be in a timely manner. I went to the movies when I wasn't on call, when my scheduled allowed it and I was able to turn the cell phone/pager off.
I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
Well, if you think about it, your probably paying too much for a movie in the first place. But if the theaters have to hire ushers for eacher showing, your probably going to have to pay a lot more anyways. Think about this, depending on the size of the theator, it will take one to three ushers per screen. Lets average that to two people per screne needing to be hired. Now, the cinema closest to my house has 16 screens so that would be roughly 32 people all making at least minimum wage. Minimum wage in my state is $7.00 and hour (and they wonder why companies are relocating to other states). So that would make their costs around $224 an hour just in direct compensation, add on worker comp insurance, employment taxes, and all the other BS associated with employing a person and that rate can increase by as much as 20%. Now we are looking at something like $268 for those users each hour, while a movie usually lasts about 1.5-2 hours. So now we are looking at around $400 to $536 or so per movie/per showing. Each movie is showed around 6 or more times a night so skipping the idea that a few of those users will be standing idle waiting for the next showing, we are looking at around $2,400 a day in extra operating costs.
A jammer can be had in Ebay for less then $200, supposing that they need to buy one from a certain company, we are probably looking at $500. Fitting one in 16 areas would be around 8000 plus the labor to install it. Lets triple the cost of the equipment for the labor and we are looking at something along the order of $18,000 to put the jammers up. When we look at our previous number, we find it can be paid for with just 7-8 of the busy days with the costs of hiring ushers. Which one is likely to increase the costs of a ticket, which one is more practice assuming both were legal?
Well, that is your choice. You can go somewhere else or not at all, it was you choice to get the job that can't live without your or to hire the incompetent babysitter or whatever happened that causes you to need to be in touch so much. Like wise, it is up to you to balance your agenda in accordance with the choices you made. Professionals like firefighters, doctors and so on, have dealt with this problem long before there were cell phones and they have alternates, I suggest you look into how they work it.
I'd say don't bother with blocking cell phones, let the inmates have as many as they want.
Just make it a death penalty to be caught in possession of a charger.
That makes too much sense and doesn't cost any money. So I doubt the government will do that.
Personally, I think you have a great idea even though I know it was said sarcastically.