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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
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?
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.
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
For a long time I agreed with this but then I realized the last place I want my phone blocked in an emergency is someplace with minimum wage workers (and probably managers.) And as obnoxious as a phone is in the theater, those are the same idiots who talk to the people they come with during the film anyways.
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.
We don't need jammers in theatres and restaurants. What we need are old-fashioned ushers, and old-fashioned shaming. Some asshole keeps lighting up five rows down? Shout at him to quit it. If he gives you guff, go to the manager. You'll probably get a free ticket out of the deal, and he'll get turfed. If you're at a restaurant... well sorry, but you're at a restaurant. People socialize over food.
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.
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.
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.
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'd be sad. I'm on call, so I take my phone with me, set it to silent, and leave the cinema if I get called out - this happens very rarely on a saturday afternoon, but there would be trouble if I knowingly went somewhere there was no phone coverage.
> The cinema's phone blocker could easily detect 911 calls and turn off the the blocking if it detected one.
Really? Easily?
Care to describe how it could easily detect 911 calls, without actually being a cellular base station in its own right?
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
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.
It's illegal to jam signals electronically, but so far Faraday cages are legal. My friend Mike has a corrogated steel barn, wne when you're in the barn your phone will NOT work, perod.
Theaters could coat the theater walls with aluminum to lagally block signals. I wish they would.
Prisons could do the same thing. But actually, I think letting prisoners have cell phones is a GOOD thing; that is, if we want to rehabilitate these people. Sadly, I fewr we don't, as a place like Joliet is Crime University.
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No, they couldn't. Phone blockers don't magically decrypt the GSM/CDMA radio stream and parse it for a calling number.
I am sure that friend was not allowed to do a lot of other things. Sorry, you are on call, that means you are not able to go to a restaurant or movie. Tough luck. Talk to you employer for compensation.
The doctors I know all turn off their phone during the movie. OTOH they also send text messages to each other during operations, where mere mortals are not even allowed to turn on their phone. (Yes, during the operation.)
Restaurants do not give much problems here. People take the call outside after the phone was set to vibrate. If they would be on call, they would go outside every 30 minutes or so (like the smokers) and check if they have a message.
Doctors on emergency call that I know would not go to dinners, but stayed at home. They would do the same if there were blockers.
If those people do not like it, take a job that does not require you to be on call. I should not suffer from your career choice.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
But actually, I think letting prisoners have cell phones is a GOOD thing; that is, if we want to rehabilitate these people
How does giving them cell phones that they use to commit fraud help to rehabilitate them?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
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'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.
take the words "cell phone" to literally?
We don't need jammers in theatres and restaurants.
Well, what we really need is more responsible people that think about other people around them a little.
Unfortunately, that is outside of your or mine or the theater management's area. We can't change those people. But we (that is, one of us, the management) can put in jammers.
It's not the perfect solution. But if the perfect solution is theoretical, a good practical solution will do.
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While I agree with the premise that "it's prison, it's not meant to be fun", I disagree with your "prisoners are all criminals so lets disregard their welfare" attitude.
In this day and age, where the legal definition of a criminal and the moral definition of one are so far divorced from one another, it really can't be taken for granted that prisoners deserve to be where they are. Remember, the RIAA wants jail time for college file sharers.
So, unless you've never shared a copyrighted song or movie with a friend, I'd lose the attitude.
I hate printers.
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.
And do you think that it is acceptable? The punishment of prison is to remove a person's liberty, not to have them subjected to sexual and/or physical assualt while turning a blind eye. Don't you think that, as a nation, you ought to be protecting individuals who are on the receiving end of such treatment or are you going to advocate torture, gladiatorial contests and being thrown to the lions as acceptable punishments?
I am continually astounded that an advanced nation can condone such barbaric behaviour and then be affronted when other nations do not choose to follow the 'American' way. You know, things like 'If you are not with us, then you are against us....'. This behaviour actually makes terrorists look civilised.
Have a look at soylentnews.org for a different view
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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Last time I checked characterizing all minimum wage workers and the unsung heroes of the workforce, simply victimized by circumstance with a heart of gold, is just as misguided as characterizing all of them is incompetent.
Of course OP only needed one sentence, so points for efficiency.
advocate torture, gladiatorial contests and being thrown to the lions as acceptable punishments
Give it time. The Romans didn't think of these things on day 1 either.
"If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy
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?
State prisons held a total of 1,274,600 inmates on all charges at yearend 2004. In absolute numbers an estimated 633,700 inmates in State prison at yearend 2004 (the latest year for which offense data is available) were held for violent offenses: 151,500 for murder, 178,900 for robbery, 129,400 for assault, and 153,800 for rape and other sexual assaults. In addition, 265,600 inmates were held for property offenses, 249,400 for drug offenses, and 88,900 for public-order offenses.
Source: Sabol, William J., PhD, Couture, Heather, and Harrison, Paige M., Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2006 (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 2007), NCJ219416, p. 24, Appendix Table 9.
1.2 million people in state prisons, .6 million in for violent offenses, and you'll see that it's around half.
Federal prisons were estimated to hold 176,268 sentenced inmates as of Sept. 30, 2006. Of these, 16,507 were incarcerated for violent offenses, including 2,923 for homicide, 9,645 for robbery, and 3,939 for other violent crimes. In addition, 10,015 inmates were serving time for property crimes, including 519 for burglary, 6,437 for fraud, and 3,059 for other property offenses. A total of 93,751 were incarcerated for drug offenses. Also, 54,336 were incarcerated for public-order offenses, incluging 19,496 for immigration offenses and 24,298 for weapons offenses.
Source: Sabol, William J., PhD, Couture, Heather, and Harrison, Paige M., Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2006 (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 2007), NCJ219416, p. 26, Appendix Table 13.
These facts and others at http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/62
176k people in federal prison, 16k for violent offenses, and it's about 90% of the people who are in for non-violent offenses.
It's also very trivial to get charged with a violent offense, the sad reality is. Often police add on resisting arrest/misdemeanor assault on a police officer (in at least one jurisdiction I've lived in - DC - the crimes are the same) to just about any arrest where the person made any attempt at all to get away.
The ridiculous prison industrial system that exists also creates a culture where violence makes more sense. If you're risking going to prison for decades, life, or more, for a nonviolent offense, you might as well use violence to get away. After all, if you aren't rich enough to afford a lawyer, being a good person - or even being innocent - might not keep you out of prison.
-bugg
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.
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.
Don't be silly. The government wouldn't be able to keep so many decent people in line if jail was just a time-out. Ordinary people might actually be willing to practice civil disobedience or other forms of protest if the worst that would happen is they'd spend time in a cage isolated from society. No, to let prison really keep people in line, the authorities rely on two things -- prison rape is #1, and your complete isolation from decent society even once you're out of prison is #2.
In Colonial American times, prison didn't exist, because it was considered cruel and unusual punishment. Jails (gaols) existed, but only to hold accused people for a short time (not years) until their trial. After they were found guilty, their punishments were quick: hanging, branding, having fruit thrown at them, etc. Generally a lot better IMO than sitting in prison, rotting, for years or decades.
The big problem with American prisons is that they put non-violent and violent inmates in the same prisons. Rapists and murderers should be executed, and until their appeals are exhausted, they should be kept separate from others, not allowed to create their own lawless society where they rape other inmates. Drug offenders should be released and have their records expunged.