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Prison Cell Phone Smuggling Out of Control
Hugh Pickens writes writes "KCRA reports that the number of contraband cell phones discovered in California state prisons has exploded as prison guards, staff and vendors are cashing in on smuggled phones that can fetch between $200 and $800. Although the large majority of inmates are using the phones to stay in contact with loved ones, there have been documented cases of escape attempts, drug deals and conference calls coordinated via smuggled cell phones. 'The potential is there for the worst kind of activity,' says Folsom Prison Warden Rick Hill. Even Charles Manson has been caught with a cellphone smuggled to him. 'We know the problem is out of control,' says State Senator Alex Padilla, who has proposed making such smuggling illegal in hopes of stopping the continued rise of contraband cell phones in prison."
Wait... does this mean that it's not illegal to smuggle certain things into prisons?
Maybe you'll return to Minagua, You could go unnoticed in such a place. -FZ
Why not just install cell phone jammers in all prisons? Is there honestly any "right" to have cell phone signal in the prison?.
I'm sure legislation will fix the problem... after all, inmates are in jail because they FOLLOW laws! Politicians are morons.
People who say "money does not buy happiness" are just people without money trying to make themselves feel better.
If they think that cell phones are a problem, they need to consider this situation carefully. Most/all cellphones are much larger than say a balloon filled with heroin. If they think that a cellphone is a "problem" and smuggling in a handheld device is easy, I wonder what they think of the drug situation. Also, the profit margin on bringing in a walnut-sized heroin balloon is orders of magnitude more profitable.
Or.... don't let the signal from the towers penetrate to the prison? Surely the guards can do without when they're on duty?
"there have been documented cases of escape attempts, drug deals and conference calls coordinated via smuggled cell phones."
Not conference calls! Anything but that! Isn't it bad enough that they're in jail? Now they're being subjected to conference calls. That is surely a violation of an inmate's rights against cruel and unusual punishment.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
Stop screwing prisoners who try to use the prison phone to contact loved ones.
Prisons have been seeing their phones as a profit center lately, charging a dollar per minute or more to contact loved ones. And loved ones can't call the prisoner -- the prisoner has to make the call. And often they can't call cell phones, only land lines -- but not everybody has a land line any more.
Make the prices more reasonable, drop the "no cell phones" thing, and have some way for people to call the prisoners (or at least tell them to call home beyond sending them a letter) and the demand for cell phones will drop.
Beyond that, simply get a scanner that detects the frequencies used by cell phones, install a few of them around the prison, and when they go off if the system is properly designed it could tell a guard immediately and tell them approximately where the phone is in the jail.
A thought:
Stop making it difficult and expensive for inmates to make regular phone calls. Then the only people left wanting cell phones will be those who want it for criminal activities, which will make your investigations more effective (even if they are successful less often).
In addition, though I'm no economist, I have to wonder if that wouldn't cause the remaining cell phone prices to go up, hopefully out of the accessibility range of at least a few people who would use them for criminal purposes (discounting the idea that contacting your family in a manner not approved by the prison might be illegal).
That's the part I care about. Now, the rant:
As someone living in the U.S., I think we need a dialogue on what we believe prison should be *for*, especially if there's some data to back up various methods in light of our desired goals. For example, we know that there is a high rate of re-offence among people who have been in prison. How does restricting contact among family and friends affect that? Does it prevent the inmate from seeking connections anywhere but among fellow criminals? Does having access raise people's sense of injustice and make them more likely to re-offend? Is there an interaction between this and some other social factor?
This dialogue needs to extend to treatment of prisoners. What do we really want the outcome to be? Is it overall better for our society to focus on discouraging people to go to prison, rehabilitation once they are there, or a combination (and in what proportions?).
Perhaps most importantly, the dialogue needs to contain the topic of whether the current system is working, and if the outcomes we get are on par with our desires and what we see in other countries.
m!
Prisons have regular phones, that they charge exorbitant rates to use. This is about protecting a monopoly and gouging a segment of the population that nobody gives a damn about.
I think the government should not try to stop these smuggled cell phones. Instead it should set up a cell tower and capture all communications. Phones registered to prison guards and verified may be exempted from this surveillance. Knowing how dumb criminals are, we are sure to gather tons of incriminating evidence even if they know they are being monitored.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
The one guy in prison that I've ever corresponded with pointed out that he was allowed to have TWO pieces of stationery, two envelopes, and two stamps at any given time. Apparently having any more than that supply was a *serious* infraction. He wasn't even in prison for anything violent. I can imagine that having a cell phone or anything else not approved (i.e., not issued to the prison by the prison) could lead to really serious consequences.
Sure but who's going to pay to put up that many t-mobile towers?
Just write legislation saying all cellphone signals to or from prisons are monitored. The legal precedent is easy: all prison mail is subject to inspection. Then you can not only catch idiots ordering hits or whatever, you can profile the guy behind bars: his contacts and associates. Useful information if he is a recidivist. Why jam useful criminal information?
It's the same problem with cracking down in child pornography: it doesn't actually stop it. Instead, let it flow freely. And now you have easy way to catch creators and distributors.
Real criminal investigation is not about cracking skulls, its about watching and learning. So you need a giant honeypot. So let the honeypot naturally grow, and catch the flies that fall in. Criminals are human, they make mistakes. Give them opportunities to make mistakes. If they freely use cell phones in prison, they will screw up, eventually, and maybe in subtle ways they don't even realize.
Real punishment is not about being tough on criminals, its about monitoring. If someone predisposed to criminal activity think they can get away with shit, they'll do it. Opportunity. But if someone is watching, they'll think twice. That's psychologically rehabilitative, right there.
A lot of us aren't criminals simply because we have a little voice in our head, from good parenting and empathy: "if you do that, someone will be badly hurt," or even more self-interested: "if you do that, they'll catch you." Criminals are usually just dumb, or people not dumb, but lacking that little voice in their head that makes them act responsibly. To rehabilitate such individuals, you need to provide that voice for them, not just sit on them in prison. So you monitor them, tell them when they are screwing up. Pretty soon, they'll get the knack, and develop their own little voice, if they are capable of being rehabilitated at all (and if not, by monitoring them, you have a good idea of where they might be when they screw up again: win-win).
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Yeah Russia's prison system must be effective. That's why there's no crime whatsoever, especially not organised crime.
Creating monsters out of somewhat dysfunctional people only makes the problem worse. "Tough on crime" is an intellectually lazy approach that doesn't help anyone but private prison operators.
The population density of Singapore is 7,022 per square KILOMETER! The crime rate is one of the lowest in the world. Monaco has a population density of 39,217 per square mile. Their crime rate is low too,.You may not like the "racist" answers, but population density is just as big a pill to swallow. Culture and poverty (which are interrelated) has much more to do with it. Population density has about as much correlation as the phase of the moon.
Why is this even a issue? I can go buy a cell phone jammer from any number of places, and they are nto that expensive. If you really want to keep cell phones out of prisions, just put a jammer in each prison. If the phoes don't work, it really doesn't matter if anyone has them.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!