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State Prison Officials Blame An Escape On Drones And Cellphones (usatoday.com)
An anonymous reader quotes USA Today:
A fugitive South Carolina inmate recaptured in Texas this week had chopped his way through a prison fence using wire cutters apparently dropped by a drone, prison officials said Friday. Jimmy Causey, 46, fled the Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville, S.C., on the evening of July 4th after leaving a paper mache doll in his bed to fool guards into thinking he was asleep. He was not discovered missing until Wednesday afternoon. Causey was captured early Friday 1,200 miles away in a motel in Austin by Texas Rangers acting on a tip, WLTX-TV reported... "We believe a drone was used to fly in the tools that allow(ed) him to escape," South Carolina Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said...
Stirling said prison officials are investigating the performance by prison guards that night but pointed to cellphones and drones as the main problem. The director said he and other officials have sought federal help for years to combat the use of drones to drop contraband into prison. "It's a simple fix," Stirling said. "Allow us to block the signal... They are physically incarcerated, but they are not virtually incarcerated."
It's the second time the same convict escaped from South Carolina's maximum security prison -- albeit the first time he's (allegedly) used a drone. The state's Law Enforcement Division Chief also complains that the federal government still prohibits state corrections officials from blocking cellphones, and "as long as cellphones continue to be utilized by inmates in prisons we're going to have things like this -- we're going to have very well-planned escapes..."
Stirling said prison officials are investigating the performance by prison guards that night but pointed to cellphones and drones as the main problem. The director said he and other officials have sought federal help for years to combat the use of drones to drop contraband into prison. "It's a simple fix," Stirling said. "Allow us to block the signal... They are physically incarcerated, but they are not virtually incarcerated."
It's the second time the same convict escaped from South Carolina's maximum security prison -- albeit the first time he's (allegedly) used a drone. The state's Law Enforcement Division Chief also complains that the federal government still prohibits state corrections officials from blocking cellphones, and "as long as cellphones continue to be utilized by inmates in prisons we're going to have things like this -- we're going to have very well-planned escapes..."
Where did he get the drone?
Trust me on this, if you've ever been to a SC prison, you know the guards are the real problem. They're paid shit and are often just ghetto thugs themselves. This is the perfect formula for guards willing to look the other way or even help for a small bribe. There have been numerous escapes in recent years where it was later revealed that the guards themselves had smuggled in handcuff keys and bolt-cutters to help in escapes.
Bryan Sterling was a pure political appointee who wants to distract from the real problem by blaming drones, cellphones and other bullshit excuses so he can continue to insist that his agency doesn't need additional funding to hire decent guards and staff. He and other directors were under direct orders from Nikki Haley to never ask for a budget increase, and I suspect he's still under similar orders from Henry McMaster. It's an ongoing problem in a state where the Republican status quo is to continuously cut taxes to appease their political benefactors, no matter the consequences.
When someone can escape a prison with a pair of wire cutters, a drone is not the problem. How did he get access to the fence? Why does it only take the possession of a pair of wire cutters to escape the prison?
This is a "think about the children" moment where the signal blocking technology is what they want, but not the problem.
democracy has spoken
They will continue to be unblocked everywhere. Any attempts to jam will be met with hostile force. End of story.
If the prison pays for all outgoing and incoming calls, then they may block cellphone calls.
Prisons have instituted ridiculously expensive phone plans to help pay for their costs.
This is wrong, placing an undue burden on both the families and the prisoners. Wealthy prisoners should not be allowed to buy a better prison experience, which means you can not overcharge prisoners for so called luxuries.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Just imagine how many escapes like this you don't hear about!
Totally unrelated: editors wiped out my karma because they don't like my messages, they can't just let the system do it's work, they manually censor this place
Make inmates wear tamper-resistant collars with a grenade attached. They mess with the collar, they get blown up, and so does anyone else that was messing with the collar. Also make it so that the collars can be remote detonated. Someone escapes a California prison and goes to Maine? One phone call, and the felon's body gets ripped to shreds. :) Bonus points if his or her family members also get blown up.
At this point, premade UAVs can easily be reprogrammed to be fully autonomous (with minimal skill) and microwave jamming won't do anything to stop it. What's really needed here is for the prison guards to actually... guard the prison. -_-
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
In the short term, drone-assisted escapes could surely be prevented by covering the entire prison with wire mesh so that drones couldn't get in. Add a few vibration sensors to detect attempts to cut in using really sophisticated drones. And for new prisons, while you might not be able to actively block cellphone signals, you could always just add enough steel mesh or shot-loaded concrete into the design so that the entire thing acts as a Faraday cage. Or at least deploy cellphone triangulators so that they can detect where and when a phone is used and the staff can go in and confiscate it.
Drone flights can be automated so that once released, they fly the predetermined route and drop the payload.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Notice the title says "Blame". I think that is the perfect word. Rather than accepting responsibility, they are blaming technology. If an escape happens it's the people securing the facilities fault, whether they use a pitchfork or a drone.
Sent from my TARDIS
Certainly, it is possible to ban flying RC models say eight miles around prisons, but it would not help as criminals would not observe it.
The correctional officers should definitively learn to pilot an electric RC FPV glider, and soar above the prison, watching for drones, pilots on the ground, and other suspect activity. A glider can be in the air for hours with one battery.
I can built such a glider at home from readily available components. Surely the mighty US state is capable to do it too and stop crying constantly "drones, drones,..."
A surgical tube slingshot can shoot wirecuters over the fence too. Or a homemade, easy set up, catapult. Another sensationalized witch hunt against new and not comprehended tech.
Jimmy Causey, 46, fled the Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville, S.C., on the evening of July 4th after leaving a paper mache doll in his bed to fool guards into thinking he was asleep. He was not discovered missing until Wednesday afternoon.
Recent advances in paper mache technology have moved beyond the limits where society can control them, and are clearly to blame for this escape. Paper mache obviously must be banned from all prisons and areas near them, as well as public parks, schools, and tattoo parlors. Paper mache has no legitimate uses that I can imagine, therefore only criminals use paper mache.
Nobody ever heard of cellphone jammers? You can make smart ones that auto switch on when a local transmitting device is detected. Or why isn't every "cell tower" in range of that prison actually a Stingray(like) device, and all conversations are listened in to, being recorded and used in court. Encrypted data connections that cannot be decrypted (via backdoor or otherwise) are of course being denied/dropped/messed with.
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
Jamming will jam the surrounding neighborhood, and might well interfere with emergency communication from security staff. If the problem is that someone had a cellphone when they're not supposed to, fix THAT problem, just like they would deal with someone having a knife when they're not supposed to.
Drones don't free people, people free people! If you outlaw drones, only outlaws will have drones! Drone free zones will never work, as outlaws don't care about laws.
your guards are the ones getting contraband inside, now they are so incompetent prisoners are getting out
just quit, you cant do your job just quit, and quit crying too
im tired of victimism
So a guard at the prison (or an elderly grandma nearby) has a heart attack and calls 911. Opps! Sorry, no cellular coverage. You're life is not as important as maintaining America's record as the world's largest incarcerater.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
They want to be FREE!
To do it or die!
Instead of blocking cell phones, each prison should use a Stingray device to tap cell phones inside the prison. Then they could catch whoever helps them on the outside, and staff could still use their cell phones. The only minor downside is that staff would have to register their cell phones with the prison so it won't be recorded.
Is there any hope US will be able to control the flow of narcotics? Drones can come over the border and drop drugs and prearranged locations. There is no way to stop them.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Jamming will jam the surrounding neighborhood, and might well interfere with emergency communication from security staff. If the problem is that someone had a cellphone when they're not supposed to, fix THAT problem, just like they would deal with someone having a knife when they're not supposed to.
Simple fix that also solves another problem... just paint all the inside of the prison with lead based paint. Not only would it block the cell signals, it would get rid of all the stock piled lead paint.
If a drone can fly over the fence and drop tools to a prisoner, how intrinsically different is that than basically THROWING the tools over the fence?
Sure the drone is a lot more accurate, but heck of a lot noisier too.
I smell excuse-hunting here; this guy already escaped them once (how is it that every jackass with a DWI can get an ankle monitor, yet a prisoner IDENTIFIED as a successful escapee doesn't have one?). On the second escape, they're looking harder to CYA than to find him.
-Styopa
The prisoners in all prisons get contraband from the guards and have for hundreds of years. Now they can bypass the guards and get it via drone. Nothing new here, other than the guards are pissed off that they aren't getting some extra income from the prisoners any more.
I keep hearing suggestions like this for blocking signals. Why do people confuse lead with a faraday cage? Lead is good for blocking particle radiation, ie alpha or beta. A faraday cage is good for blocking radio. Lead is a big heavy atom that gets in the way of the particles. It will even help block some electromagnetic radiation, especially high frequencies, if thick enough. However, it's a poor conductor. Electromagnetic radiation is more easily blocked with a faraday cage, ie a conductive shell. The more conductive, the better. So a superconductor would be best, followed by silver, or copper. Lead is far down the list. Also, lead is poisonous, and exposure is cumulative.
But what about wrapping the building in grounded wire mesh, not only would it keep the drones out, you will have created a Faraday cage, you aren't jamming anything, just blocking transmission to and from.
This is old old news. I remember when "Howling mad" Murdock built a drone out of hair dryers and garbage bags which carried him out of the prison, and that was something like forty years ago.
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I can't believe nobody will let you do that!
Some shitbag company that sells grossly overpriced 5ghz jammers is probably sending him sales literature.
Because the employees want to be able to have cell phones.
If there were supposed to be NO cell phones anywhere near the prison,
then finding the ones that are there would not be hard.
The drone/wire cutter aspect isn't the staggering part...How the hell did he build a convincing papier-maché doll of himself to fool the guards is what I'm curious about. Never underestimate the resourcefulness of a man whose liberty has been denied...
prison tv systems is paid for with the funds from commissar commissary and you do need some thing to keep the lifers with nothing to lose in line.
They sell bird nets for keeping birds out (or in) to cover things like fish farms to prevent birds from eating all the fish. They're relatively inexpensive and I'm sure you could get them in a finer mesh if you wanted (so drones can't drop stabbing implements, though I suspect prisoners can already make a shiv with stuff they find in the prison).
Just because it's a high-tech problem doesn't mean it needs a high-tech solution. Although prison guards might get a sense of satisfaction actively watching for drones, then commanding a Phalanx to take it out, it's unnecessary and profligate.
some people us prisons are there doctor for the stuff that the ER does not cover.
"Well we don't know how they got the wire cutters... must have been drones."
The airlines have got the 'make shit up about drones' down to a science. There is no need to spread more FUD.
With minimal skill, most drones will land or otherwise not function correctly if you jam the gps signal,
It would be easy today to build a custom tasked drone that relied on visual navigation only along with accelerometers.
Remember the drone needs only to fly in a straight line over a wall, drop something, then come back along that same path. You could probably accomplish this even with just accelerometers...
Also what about drones controlled remotely entirely over cell phone data from a phone strapped to the drone? Can a prison legally have a strong enough signal blocker for a drone 500+ft in the air?? That would swamp signal in a huge area around the prison...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Easy fix. Block the signals anyway. If you get caught, apologize. Then do it again anyway. What are they gonna do? Fine the prison? The state prison simply doesn't pay the federal fine.
Surely a well-organized gang would be using trebuchets.
He escapes Tuesday evening and is found Friday morning. Let's call that 48 hours plus some, maybe 60 hours total time. He was caught 1200 miles away. That's a mean speed of 20 miles per hour (40 MPH if you assume a 50% duty cycle of 12 hours driving / 12 hours rest). Probably didn't change cars. Probably didn't have a second driver to assist. Probably was caught on camera at highway gas stations when he stopped to refill the tank, so was easy to trace. Probably used a credit card to pay for lodging. Not enough planning.
3 additional people, 3 additional cars at strategically arranged points for swaps where there are no cameras (i.e., not on a highway or a parking lot). 8 hours driving / 8 hours sleeping in the back of the car, no stops except for gas or relieving oneself by the side of a country road. Additional drivers bring food. Stick to secondary roads whenever possible. Drop the escapee off to hide while the assistant refills the car. He'd have made it much, much farther, and undetected.
Given that it's clear he already has a knack for planning that goes above and beyond the normal inmate, I'd expect him to get farther next time. And a B-grade movie to come out of it, too.
This is a topic that has no simple answer and really covers two completely different subjects...
Let me start by saying that IMHO the prison system in the United States is broken.
It's often more about making a profit and/or punishing people rather than actually correcting behavior.
That said, I'll move on to the problem.
For blocking drones, just umm.. order a cheap baby monitor from... Alibaba.
Actually, that one I don't have a real solution to. SDR would make it next to impossible to block signals from a really determined bad guy.
As for phones:
This is really a "What's the best worst option."
Here's one bad option:
1: Cell Phones have GPS's in them. Many have several different kinds of GPS receivers.
2: Using GPS, Carriers and cell phones are quite capable of determining when a phone is in the exact footprint of a correctional facility.
3: We could fund carriers to pay folks like us so we can develop a method where cell phone calls are restricted within certain geographical areas.
- Commercial Drones already do that by themselves.
4: Instead of blocking calls within that footprint, we could allow emergency calls and not impede the safety of legitimate cell phone users.
5: If done right, this is the kind of thing that can be implemented without violating the privacy or security of legitimate cell phone users.
Worst of the best? Nope. Best of the worst? There are probably better ideas.
-Dan
I absolutely LOVE this. They have people locked in little rooms and supervised 24 hours a day and they can't prevent someone from using a fucking phone without blocking all EM transmissions?
These fuckers (authorities in general) want to turn the entire country into a police state so that they can control every aspect of our lives, and then prove that once they have full control, they can't prevent the behavior that prompted them to seek full control to begin with.
What. The. Fuck.
Meh. Whatever. As long as they can send the Jews on long train rides, everyone is happy. Right?
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
Make prison/jail cells faraday cages. No electronic signal gets in, none gets out. Oh! But they won't be able to watch TV or listen to the radio. SO WHAT! It's not a bed & breakfast! IT'S A PRISON!
> they could just put a mesh net over the prison yard. maybe take it out of the
> budget they use for locking up non-violent offenders for decades at a time.
While we're at it, use metallic mesh, e.g. chicken wire. In addition to blocking dropped objects, it would also block radio waves. Note that *BLOCKING* radio transmissions is perfectly legal, as opposed to *JAMMING* radio signals.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user