Australia. Ban on mobile phone jammers may be lifted for prisons

Mobile phone jammers will be allowed to operate in prisons if the communications regulator approves an exemption to a decade-old ban on the call-blocking devices, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

... Previously jammers had been allowed for some uses by the defence force and the federal police.

Submissions to the review are open until the end of April.

Photo from death row using a smuggled cell phone

According to statesman.com, a condemned San Antonio law enforcement killer sent a photo of himself out of Texas' death row two years ago using a smuggled cell phones.

The case confirms what prison officials have long suspected, that convicts — even those on death row, which is supposed to be the most secure part of Texas' massive prison system — have had Internet access with smuggled cell phones.

Read full article.

Related:

-- Another death row inmate caught with cell phone

-- Death Row inmate makes threatening call to Senator

Terror concerns over mobile phones in prison

A scary article from The Telegraph, linking mobile phones in prison to terrorist activity.

Mobile phones smuggled into British prisons could be used by Islamist militants to spread their extremist ideology and threaten national security, Conservatives claimed.

Convicts Still Calling From Texas Prisons

According to NBC, one year after Texas prison operators promised to get mobile phones out of the hands of inmates, records show mobile phones are still getting into convicts hands.

A state report shows that authorities confiscated 995 cell phones between January and August, a rate that will top last year's 1,226 seizures if it continues, according to the Austin-American Statesman.

During the statewide lockdown a year ago, 22 cell phones were found on death row. During the latest search, none turned up, officials said.

Prison Cell Phone Jamming Bill Passed In Senate

The Senate on Monday passed the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009 (S.251), which allows states to petition the Federal Communications Commission for the authority to "jam" - or block the use of cell phones from prison.

Under current law, the FCC does not allow cell phone jamming of any kind.

The bill will now move to the House of Representatives for consideration.

[via WBAL Radio]

4,130 cell phones confiscated in US prisons in 2009

Inmates and cell phones, an ongoing problem. According to The Los Angeles Times, prison officials confiscated 4,130 this year, more than in the previous three years combined.

Maryland officials test cell phone detection at prison

Officials from five states observed tests on cell phone detection technology at a closed Maryland prison on Thursday, as states are taking a greater interest in finding ways to halt violence orchestrated by inmates behind prison walls. Cellular News reports.

The technology tested Thursday is designed to enable corrections officials to locate and root out contraband cell phones. It differs from cell phone jamming devices that would block signals and render cell phones useless in prison. Federal law now prohibits states from using the jamming devices, and legislation in Congress would change the law to allow states to use them.

Convicted drug dealer used cell phone to mastermind cocaine conspiracy

A convicted drug dealer who ran an international cocaine ring from a Yorkshire jail cell using a smuggled mobile phone to organise deliveries from central America has been jailed for 18 years. The Yorkshire Post reports.

George Moon made phone calls to a contact in Panama using the contraband phone and two sim cards, and organised an operation which saw £300,000 worth of drugs imported into the UK.

His actions "beggared belief", said Judge Bryn Holloway at Doncaster Crown Court, adding that the 62-year-old had led a "sophiscated and well-organised conspiracy" from behind bars at Lindholme Prison near Doncaster.

... The case comes after the Yorkshire Post revealed more than 4,000 mobile phones were seized in jails in England and Wales last year, prompting MPs to describe the situation as "grotesque".

Another recent case involved Nigel Ramsey, 23, who orchestrated the gangland killing of 17-year-old Tarek Chaiboub in Sheffield, using a mobile phone in his cell at Wolds Prison, near Hull.

Prison software sniffs out cell phone signals

A company called AirPatrol looks to solve illegal cell and wireless devices in prison with “Wireless Locator System” software. It’s basically able to sniff out Wi-Fi and cellular signals in a given area and pinpoint the location of those devices on a map, writes CrunchGear.

According to the company press release:

WLS is the best alternative solution to the contraband cell phone problem plaguing correctional facilities across the nation. WLS wirelessly detects and pinpoints contraband cell phones and unlike RF jamming techniques is completely legal and approved for use in the United States and doesn’t interfere with authorized, legitimate cell phone usage.

WLS yields 24 x 7, 365 days a year, real-time cell phone and Wi-Fi device location details throughout a correctional facility. WLS includes a forensics database, an essential tool for logging and archiving cell phone event information, including where a phone is detected, allowing prison monitors to see a log of the start and stop times of voice calls, as well as emails, SMS and MMS.

States Seek to Jam Prison Cellphone Signals

According to an article in The New York Times, blocking signals from contraband cellphones in jails might just get legal aproval.

Two dozen state corrections agencies have signed a petition that would waive a 1934 federal ban on telecommunications jamming for prisons and other exceptional cases.

Lobbyists for telecommunication companies say that any weakening of antijamming legislation could become a slippery slope that eventually could inappropriately limit cellphone use.

Law enforcement officials say that smuggled cellphones are a growing problem across the country, allowing inmates to make unmonitored calls.

Some states like California and Maryland have trained canine units to sniff out cellphones in prisons, but prison officials say that the best way to disrupt cellphone use is by using jamming equipment.

“Jamming technology has come a long way,” said Jon Ozmint, the director of South Carolina’s corrections system. “It used to be that you had to jam a large area.”

Picture left of inmates in the Carandiru Prison, Latin America's largest, use a celular phone during a 2001 rebellion in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Update: Jamming Prison Phones Will Backfire, Groups Warn Congress

Remote control helicopters deliver cell phones to inmates

Police in Brazil have foiled a plot to smuggle mobile phones into a high-security prison using a remotely-controlled model helicopter. The BBC reports.

Prisoners in Brazilian jails routinely use mobile phones to carry on with criminal activity, and the police say the ones they recovered were probably intended to go to gang leaders inside the jail.

It is not the first time that the authorities have foiled an innovative attempt to smuggle material into a jail in Brazil.

Earlier this year Sao Paulo state prison guards uncovered a plot using pigeons to carry mobile phone parts over the walls of a jail.

Report. Smuggled Cell Phones Helping NJ Prisoners Commit Crimes from Jail

A new study of New Jersey’s prison system suggests that street gang members who are behind bars are able to do much of what they did on the street, in part by using new technologies, mostly cell phones. KYW Newsradio reports.

The State Commission of Investigation has traditionally probed organized crime. These days, their main concern is gangs like the “Bloods,” and Commission chair Cary Edwards says this 36-page report suggests their sphere of influence behind bars is "frightening."

"They use advanced cell phones, Blackberrys, other smuggled electronic devices to readily communicate and conduct criminal enterprises from within prisons while incarcerated."

Edwards says there is also extortion, drug dealing, and movement of what’s labeled “unlimited amounts of money” through inmate accounts.

Among the allegations: extortion of guards, and communications not only with those on the outside but with fellow gang members in other prisons.

Related links to article on inmates and cell phones.

Texas: A jail sentence of 60 years was handed down to an inmate caught with cell phone

According to the Palestine Herald-Press, Derrick Ross, 38, a Coffield Unit inmate was sentenced to (a shocking) 60 years in prison Tuesday after an Anderson County (Texas) jury found him guilty of possessing a cell phone in a correctional facility.

... Because Ross was found to be a habitual offender (on three different occasions he stole cars), the range of punishment for having a cell phone in a correctional facility was 25 years to 99 years or life. Normally the range of punishment would be 2 to 10 years.

A sentence of 60 years is one of the highest sentences in the state that has been handed down by a jury for possession of a cell phone in prison.

Shame on the jury.

Calif. mulls criminalizing cell phones in prison

According to News.com, one California state senator is trying to crack down on inmates using cell phones while serving time.

Prison inmates in California aren't really permitted to have cell phones. They have to forfeit their devices before being locked up. But that hasn't stopped thousands of phones from being smuggled into prisons each year. In fact, officials say that the number of cell phones confiscated in California prisons has doubled in the last year from 1,400 devices in 2007 to about 2,800 in 2008. And the problem appears to be getting worse this year.

California State Sen. John Benoit wants to make it a misdemeanor crime with a maximum penalty of a $5,000 fine for a prisoner to possess a cell phone in any state prison. The new bill he is introducing called SB 434.

Former Prisoner Sues Over Confiscated Mobile Phone

A former prisoner is suing the UK prison service for compensation after a contraband mobile phone was confiscated and destroyed, reports Cellular News. The UK forbids prisoners from having mobile phones, and a search following a visit from his girlfriend found a mobile phone in the cell occupied by Mark Coleman. The phone was taken away and destroyed - while Coleman was given prison punishments.

However, in a legal action, Coleman is claiming that the prison authorities were wrong to destroy the phone and should have kept it in storage until he was released. Lawyers are claiming that in destroying the phone, the prison service had unlawfully deprived him of his property.

The Samsung branded phone was used in a police dog training session and chewed up by the dogs.

Related:

-- Jail dog sniffs out illicit phones

-- More on Murphy, first sniffer dog able to detect cell phones

Smart-Jamming for Mobile Phones in US Prison

Tecore Networks says that it has deployed its Intelligent Network Access Controller (IntelliNAC) to address the growing problem of illegal cell phone use by prison inmates in an unnamed U.S. locality.

While restricting the localized use of unknown cellular devices within the IntelliNAC coverage area, approved prison personnel remain able to access the commercial cellular network service within the prison grounds as well as external to the prison through their existing cellular subscriptions.

[via Cellular News]

Trying to Keep Cell Phones Out of Prison

A thorough article from TIME on inmates and cell phones around the world. Most of what is written has been posted over the years in this blog, but this is a great round-up in one place.

Cell-phone access can mean chaos. Brazilian officials say cell phones are used to organize and plan widespread riots that are endemic to their crowded prisons; Canadian prosecutors said a notorious drug kingpin continued business behind bars using his cell phone; and a man awaiting trial on a homicide charge in Maryland has been accused of arranging via cell phone the murder of a key witness in the case. The examples go on and on, some bordering on the absurd. The mother of a prisoner in Texas even called authorities to complain about her son's bad cell-phone reception in jail.

Cell jammers still illegal, but may come to state prisons

Although rumors persist of their use in restaurants and movie theaters, the use of cell phone jamming equipment remains illegal in the US. Right now, the only permissible use is by federal law enforcement officials, but that may change if state prison officials in South Carolina and a manufacturer of jamming equipment have their way. Both would like to see state law enforcement get permission to use the jammers, which may push the technology a bit closer to the mainstream.

[via ars technica]

Another death row inmate caught with cell phone

In the second seizure this week since a systemwide lockdown and search for contraband ended, Texas Department of Criminal Justice officers have found a phone inside the body of condemned inmate Hank Skinner, reports The Houston Chronicle.

Two cell phone SIM cards were found hidden in Skinner's Bible during a routine search Friday afternoon of his cell at the Polunsky Unit near Livingston and the cell phone was found hidden in his rectum after conducting an X-ray in the infirmary, said department spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.

Related: - Death Row inmate makes threatening call to Senator

Poor staffing and surveillance lead to influx of cell phones in Texas jails

Poor surveillance, inadequate staffing and underpaid, easily corrupted corrections guards have allowed Texas prison inmates to easily obtain phones and other contraband, criminal justice officials acknowledged Tuesday, the day after three cellphones were recovered from death row. The Dallas Morning News reports.

One of these phones logged 2,800 calls over the last month and was used by a convicted murderer to make threatening calls to state Sen. John Whitmire.

Texas' 156,000 inmates remained on lockdown Tuesday after Monday's revelation that a guard had accepted a bribe to get murderer Richard Tabler a cellphone.

Mr. Tabler and at least nine other death row inmates, most of them affiliated with violent gangs, made more than 2,800 calls over 30 days. The calls to Mr. Whitmire referenced the names of his daughters, their ages, and where they live in Houston.

Wardens from Texas' death row testified at the hearing that their surveillance cameras don't record footage, and that metal detectors often don't detect cellphones that are predominantly plastic. Only 22 of the state's 112 units have walk-through metal detectors.

Related:

-- Death Row inmate makes threatening call to Senator

-- Cell phone smuggling is a big problem in Texas prisons (April 2006)

Death Row inmate makes threatening call to Senator

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas ordered a systemwide search of the nation's second-largest prison system for contraband, following a convicted killer's threatening calls to a state senator made from a cell phone smuggled to him on death row - by his mother.

[via the The Houston Chronicle]

Seven Prisoners Hospitalised After Hiding Mobile Phones in Their Bodies

Pakistan's Prisons Department has carried out a series of sweeps of prisoners at Camp Jail using metal detectors and seized 30 mobile phones which had been hidden in their rectums. Seven of the prisoners had to have medical intervention to remove the phones.

"... The phenomena of prisoners and prison visitors concealing phones and other forbidden items inside their body is fairly commonplace. Hiding phones inside the body is not without its dangers though - and last June, a UK prisoner was admitted to hospital after he hid a mobile phone inside his body and was unable to expel it later. He had to have over 200 internal stitches and the doctors had to remove part of his bladder."

[via Cellular News]

Nun the wiser: mobile phone found in jail birthday cake

The chaplain of Mountjoy Jail in Dublin was used unwittingly yesterday in an attempt to smuggle a mobile phone into the jail -- in a birthday cake. The Belfast Telegraph reports.

"... Since x-ray machines were introduced, the smuggling of drugs and mobile phones into Mountjoy through visitors has ceased and the price of purchasing a phone in the jail has jumped dramatically.

Officials said this incident showed prisoners were becoming desperate to find other ways to bring in the contraband.

"This is a classic case," one official said last night. "It's like a plot out of an old English film, made in Pinewood studios. But in this case, heavenly intervention was on our side."

It is a criminal offence to smuggle a mobile phone into a jail, carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison. "

Cell Phone Detector Dogs

Maryland has three trained dogs that can sniff out phones smuggled into prisons, reports The Washington Post.

Each cell phone has a unique scent signature, according to an officer in a video showing the dogs at work, it's the same thing that makes it possible for a blood hound to track one person.

The first dog to sniff cell phones was called Murphy, he was a 20 month-old English Springer Spaniel in 2006 who had been trained in prisons across the East of England.

Carrier pigeons fly cell phones into jails

A sharp increase in drugs and cellphones found inside a Brazilian prison mystified officials -- until guards spotted some distressed pigeons struggling to stay airborne, writes Reuters.

"Inmates at the prison in Marilia, Sao Paulo state had been training carrier pigeons to smuggle in goods using cell phone sized pouches on their backs, a low-tech but ingenious way of skipping the high-tech security that visitors faced.

... Officials said the pigeons, bred and trained inside the prison, lived on the jail's roof, where prisoners would take their deliveries before smuggling the birds out again through friends and family."

Row over phone call costs in UK jails

UK consumer groups have lodged an official complaint over the high charges prisoners are paying to make phone calls, reports Ananova.

"The "super complaint" to regulator Ofcom says a 30-minute phone call from a prison to a landline costs more than seven times the amount of a call from a public payphone.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "Prisoners staying in touch with their families is known to reduce the risk, both of reoffending on release and of suicide and self-harm in prison, so it is in everyone's interest to enable people to phone home."

How cell phones and drugs reach inmates

Senior Prisons Department officials explained to Pakistan's Daily Time the many ways cell phones were smuggled into jails:

Soap: Many visitors use bars of soap to smuggle small cellphones or drugs.

Homemade food: jail authorities sympathised with prisoners because they could not eat homemade meals, they never checked closely the food that the prisoners’ visitors brought.

Shoes Visitors smuggle in cellphone hiding them in their shoes.

Body cavities: You figure that one out or click here.

Another innovative carrier was reported from a Thai Prison, where a cell phone was smuggled in a dead toad which was thrown against a wall to retrieve it.

But probably the most alarming way for an inmate to obtain a cellphone is bribing a warden to provide one.

Amy Winehouse's husbands phones from jail

According to The Sun, English soul-pop singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse's husband is using a smuggled phone to make illegal calls from jail.

"Junkie Blake Fielder-Civil, 25, is hiding a mobile in his cell while on remand for alleged trial rigging.

Sources claim he has been using it to call and text troubled singer Amy, 24, and music industry associates.

... Fielder-Civil is awaiting trial, with another man, for assaulting barman James King in Hoxton, North London, and then offering him £200,000 ($396.000) to change his story."

Prisons call in body scanner to defeat mobile phone smugglers

The Government is to consider installing electronic body scanners which can detect mobile phones and metal weapons hidden inside people’s bodies into every jail in England and Wales. Times Online reports.

"David Hanson, the Prisons Minister, said today that putting the £6,500 ($12.900) scanner in every jail would help to counter the growing number of mobile phones being smuggled into prisons.

The body orifice security scanner (Boss) is a mobile chair with three sensitive sensors which can detect metal items as small as a pin or paper clip when they are hidden on or inside an individual.

A prisoner sits on the chair and the machine issues a red alert when an object is found within or around the body. Mobile phones are frequently smuggled into jails in body orifices.

... Mr Hanson said that the Boss chair offered a better way of dealing with mobile phones than trying to instal a jamming system as this would also effect the use of mobile phones in nearby houses and on roads in the vicinity."

Warden hangs up on cellphones inside Afghan jail

According to the National Post, the warden of Afghanistan's most notorious prison is cracking down on a dangerous new weapon falling into the hands of inmates: the cellular phone.

Several inmates with political or criminal connections are obtaining cellphones illegally to co-ordinate protests, attacks, or even robberies from inside Pul-e-Charkhi, the prison's recently appointed warden, Cmdr. Haji Dolath, 50, said.

Located on the outskirts of Kabul, off an isolated stretch of dirt road, Pul-e-Charkhi has about 3,000 prisoners who come from all over the country. About half of the prisoners are Taliban, or leaders of criminal gangs.

"As it is the central jail of Afghanistan, prisoners from all parts of the country -- the most dangerous people -- are brought here," Cmdr. Dolath told CanWest News Service in an interview at his office this week. "With the phones they can guide other Taliban members on the outside, and the outside members can give them guidance.

... Controlling the influx of cellphones into the prison is difficult because inmates -- or their families -- are bribing guards to bring them in, Dolath said. One guard described how prisoners were willing to pay as much as five times the price of a $40 phone.

It's a fortune for Afghan prison guards who earn about $50 a month, Cmdr. Dolath said.

... The cellphones are also a major problem inside the prison, as inmates in Pul-e-Charkhi's seven blocks -- one of which is for 90 female prisoners -- can use them to communicate with each other and rally their political contacts. When authorities tried to implement a prison uniform, inmates used their phones to lobby certain Afghan MPs, said deputy minister of justice Mr. Hashimzai.

Uniforms were never introduced."