September 15, 2004
Cameraphones smuggled into jails
I've been following stories about cell phones being smuggled into prisons around the world for quite some time on Textually, but related to this column, the last three of stories have made mention of camera phones in jails too.
-- Phones in prisons a widespread problem in Mexico - When search operations are carried out to confiscate mobile phones, there often are surprises. Some of the phones are high-end models with color screens, Web browsers and even digital cameras.
"The cellular phones we detect are among the most advanced and sophisticated," Cardenas said. "If it's not one of the good phones, then the signal won't make it out of the prison."
-- Dozens of cell phones were found in a prison's sewer pipe "and not just disposable cheapies", explains one of the guards,"but we've even been seeing camera phones." From Rushkoff's Journal in TheFeature.com.
-- Mobile phones in (Australian) goals present dangers such as "assisting inmates in arranging and executing criminal enterprises", providing a channel for inmates to conspire on acts of violence or organise escape attempts, and more "sophisticated phones" may also allow inmates to take photographs of correctional staff to identify them to outside collaborators. - From ZDNet.
-- An illegal photo of flamboyant jailed stockbroker Rene Rivkin, serving the first 24 hours of his sentence for insider trading, was taken on a mobile phone camera inside the detention center and published on the front page of Sydney's Sunday Telegraph.
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/picturephoning/archives/2004/09/005315.htm