March 24, 2009
Safeguarding Cell Phones Outside Jails
Tourists visiting Rikers Island's jail have to leave their cell phones and other gadgets at the door and a rent a locker. Although there are 542 outdoor lockers at Rikers for the storage of prohibited gadgets, it is often hard to find a free one, particularly on busy visiting days. The New York Times reports.
Several enterprising people — including a doughnut shop manager in Queens and the proprietor of a newsstand in Lower Manhattan —have turned safeguarding the visitors’ valuables into a cottage industry. They hold on to visitors gadgets while they are on tour.
This type of business has sprung up before. In 2006, the enforcement of the cell phone ban at New York city schools encouraged teenagers to find creative places to stash their phones - using trash cans, bushes and even sewer grates as hiding places.
The ban even inspired one Brighton Beach deli in Brooklyn to charge $1 each to baby-sit kids' phones and gadgets during school hours - a business proposition that raked in $45 a day. Each gadget was put in a bag with the student's name on it.
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