Prisoner Uses Mobile Phone to Video Security Lapses Inside Jail

We've heard a lot about prisoners getting hold of cell phones and what they do with them, but this story takes the cake. A British prisoner was able to not only get hold of a mobile phone and use it to video other crimes taking place, but was also able to then pass them to a journalist working for the Sky News TV channel. [via Cellular News]

The phone was allegedly purchased from a corrupt prison official at Bullingdon prison in Oxfordshire by prisoner Michael Long who then used it over several weeks to make clandestine video recordings of activities in the prison.

The videos showed poor prison security, the ease with which illegal drugs were conveyed into the jail and a lack of training and rehabilitation for the prisoners before their release.

Long told Sky News that he hoped to raise awareness about the lack of rehabilitation facilities for offenders in Bullingdon, saying: "Where's the rehabilitation? There's no training courses in this prison. I've been here a year, and all I've done is lie in bed."

Read full article.

Convicted Murderer Posts Pics from Prison on Facebook

Following the news of Charles Manson - one of America's notorious killers - having used a cell phone from prison to call random people, now a convicted murderer locked up for killing an Oklahoma sheriff was caught posting pictures to his Facebook page from inside his prison cell using a smuggled-in cell phone.

Inmate Justin Walker apparently used his blackberry to upload the photos onto Facebook.

[via CBS News]

Charles Manson Caught with a cell phone in jail

According to the Los Angeles Times, Charles Manson, orchestrator of one of the most notorious killing rampages in U.S. history - and convicted of committing the 1969 Los Angeles Tate-LaBianca murders - was caught with a cell phone under his prison mattress last year, which he used to call unidentified people in California, New Jersey, Florida and British Columbia.

Asked whether Manson had used the device to direct anyone to commit a crime or to leave a threatening message, Thornton said, "I don't know, but it's troubling that he had a cellphone since he's a person who got other people to murder on his behalf."

Read full article.

Deaf inmates Allowed to use Videophones in Virginia Prison

Following a lawsuit for discrimination by deaf and hard of hearing inmates at Powhatan Correctional Center in Virginia, the prison will become the first major institution in the country to install a videophone so that hearing impaired inmates can communicate with family and friends.

[via The Washington Post]

Inmate calls Chronicle from prison to find out about new cell phone jamming legislation

The San Francisco Chronicle received a call yesterday from a man who was concerned about efforts to jam cell phones in prisons.

He had every reason to be concerned, he was an inmate calling the Chronicle from prison.

The called who said he acquired his phone six months ago -- provided some insider knowledge: The devices go for $800 to $1,200 on the black market, he said, with higher prices for smart phones. Maybe 5 percent of his fellow prisoners have them.

Though prison officials say phones are often smuggled inside in packages, our guy said, "It's mostly the guards, man. You know what's up."

How often does our inmate tipster talk on the phone?

"All day long, man, as long as I can."

Who does he talk to?

"Everybody -- girls mostly. I'm not a gang member, I don't do no gang s--- or drugs. Just family and girls."

We told him there hadn't been any big changes in the jamming effort. The federal legislation, introduced in January 2009, has been stuck in a House subcommittee since March of that year.

Good, he said.

Read full article.

NC Guards find cell phone inside NC inmate's rectum

There's really nothing to add.

[via Cellular News]

Bow and arrow used to send phones into Brazil jail

After training carrier pigeons to carry cell phones in pouches on their backs, Brazilian mobsters taught a 17 year old boy how to use a bow and arrow to smuggle cell phones into a prison in southern Brazil. He was caught because one of the arrows struck a guard in the back.

According to the AP, the teen was able to shoot at least four cell phones into the prison before he was caught late Wednesday.

Gang leaders orchestrated crimes from prison using cell phones

A coalition of law enforcement agencies has arrested four Nuestra Familia gang leaders and 30 gang members. Several of those caught were allegedly given orders to commit murder and other violent crimes by imprisoned gang leaders who were serving time in Pelican Bay State prison, which is near the Oregon border. The imprisoned leaders of Nuestra Familia sent them encrypted messages via cell phones.

[via The San Francisco Chronicle]

Wolfhound handset sniffs out inmates' cellphones

As cellphone jamming is, for the most part, still out of the question in US prisons, Berkeley Varitronics has introduced a handset called the Wolfhound that hones in on cell phone signals.

[Watch video demo on YouTube. via engadget]

Related:

-- Wolfhound 'Sniffs Out' Ten Contraband Cell Phones in Less Than 30 Minutes in Thai Prison

-- Cell phone detector dogs - 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.

Mafia using football show to send text messages to jailed bosses

According to The Telegraph, Italian gangsters are using a football TV show’s text ticker to send coded messages to their jailed bosses.

The Italian program allows football fans to send SMS text messages which then run along a ticker tape at the bottom of the screen when the show is being broadcast.

Anti-mafia prosecutors believe that members of organised crime gangs have caught onto the interactive feature, sending seemingly innocuous comments and remarks which in fact contain important messages for imprisoned mafia godfathers, many of whom continue to run their criminal empires despite being behind bars.

Read full article

President Obama signs into law ban on cell phones in federal prisons

Hoping to stop federal inmates from directing crimes from behind bars, President Barack Obama signed into law Tuesday a prohibition on cell phone use by prisoners. CNN reports.

The law prohibits the use or possession of mobile phones and wireless devices, and calls for up to a year in prison for anyone found guilty of trying to smuggle one to an inmate.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons confiscated more than 2,600 cell phones from minimum security facilities and nearly 600 from secure federal institutions last year.

... Cell phones are prized among inmates, officials said. A government report said California prison inmates pay $500 to $1,000 per cell phone.

The new law calls for a government study to be issued in a year to measure the effectiveness of the new prohibition.

Read full article. Image from ABCNews.

Related:

-- Smuggling cellphones to inmates now a misdemeanor in California

-- Congress moves to crack down on prison cell phones

-- California mulls criminalizing cell phones in prison

Smuggling cell phones to inmates now a misdemeanor in Calif

The California State Senate on Monday unanimously passed SB525, which would make it a misdemeanor to deliver a cell phone or other wireless communication device to an inmate. It also would criminalize possessing such a device with the intention of giving it to a prisoner. Violators face fines of up to $5,000.

[via Silicon Valley Mercury News]

Related:

-- Congress moves to crack down on prison cell phones

-- California mulls criminalizing cell phones in prison

Congress moves to crack down on prison cell phones

Congress moved Tuesday to make it tougher for federal prison inmates to use cell phones and wireless devices to direct criminal activities within or outside prison walls, reports Cellular News.

The House voted by voice to close a loophole in federal law by banning the use or possession of cell phones or wireless devices in federal prisons and classifying those devices as contraband.

Currently, cell phones and wireless devices are not specifically defined as contraband, and inmates and guards caught smuggling the devices into prisons are rarely punished.

Read full article.

Prison guard gets 3 years in cell phone smuggling

You read about cell phones smuggled to inmates via bribed wardens, but here's a case reported by The Boston Herald where a prison guard was actually caught and sentenced.

A corrections officer at East Jersey State Prison who admitted smuggling two cell phones to an inmate who is a member of the Latin Kings street gang has been sentenced to three years in prison.

The man was arrested in August 2009 after investigators found that he obtained the cell phones from associates of the Latin Kings and smuggled them into the prison in Woodbridge in exchange for cash payments.

Read full article.

CTIA Statement on How to Prevent Contraband Cell Phones in Prisons

Below is a statement issued May 12, 2010 by the CTIA.

CTIA-The Wireless Association® President and CEO Steve Largent issued the following statement in response to the Notice of Inquiry (NOI) issued by the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA) on how to prevent contraband cell phones in prisons:

“CTIA and the wireless industry will be focused on educating the NTIA, the FCC, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the National Institute of Justice on why they should support non-interfering technologies such as cell detection and managed access to solve the problem of contraband phones in correctional institutions.

These are preferred and superior solutions as they are lawful, currently available and would not cause interference for legal consumers or public safety officials. In fact, these non-interfering technologies were successfully demonstrated in 2009 at a Maryland prison where numerous states’ corrections officials were able to observe them in the field.

“We hope that as these organizations focus on this important issue, they join us in supporting stronger punishments for prisoners who are found with a contraband device – and those who supply them.”

Photo above by Corbis, published on the Daily Mail. The 1,800 mobile phones confiscated since 2006 at the state prison in Vacaville, California.

Inmates and cell phones

The Daily Mail on how smuggled mobile phones are used by prisoners to commit crimes from their cells.

... Prisoners would rather have their own or a shared mobile phone. The reasons are apparent. Mobile phones can receive calls as well as making them, they cost less per call, they can be used at any time, they can take photographs and do other clever things. Prisoners also like mobile phones because they are not routinely monitored and so can be used for criminal purposes and in particular for drug trafficking.'

Read full article.

UK and Wales' Prison wardens confiscate one cell phone every hour

Prisons fighting a war on illegal mobile phones are confiscating one an hour, according to The Mirror.

The number of handsets and SIM cards found in jails in England and Wales increased by 8% over the past 12 months to 8,786.

Convicts can use handsets to fix drug deals, issue threats, put messages on web pages and promote extremism.

Earlier this year 30 Facebook pages set up by prisoners were taken down. They had been updated from behind bars.

Records showed eight prisons where more than 100 mobiles were seized last year.

The worst was Altcourse, Liverpool, where 278 phones and 302 SIMS were confiscated.

Cell phones smuggled over the air in Scottish Jail with a crossbow

We've heard of cell phones smuggled into jails in the most imaginative ways; they have been found hidden in mens' undwear, stuffed inside a toad or a dead squirrel, in mayonnaise jars, in compost piles, a prisoner's bowels, the soles of their shoes, inside hollowed-out blocks of cheese, or alarmingly and more commonly, through a corrupt correctional officer.

But flying through the air from the outside on a crossbow is a new one.

According to UK's Daily Record:

Accomplices on the outside are helping the prisoners get their booty past security.

They attach fishing line to crossbow bolts and fire them over the prison wall and into cell windows.

Prisoners then reel in the line to get the contraband - including drugs, weapons and mobile phones - which is attached to the other end.

Feds to Test Cell Phone Jamming in Prisons

Corrections officers will begin testing signal-jamming equipment in a Maryland prison later this week, as officials try to show Congress that the technology can thwart inmates from using forbidden handsets to commit crimes. Mobiledia reports.

Regulators hope the test, to be held at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, will show that cell phone jammers can be used without interfering with emergency response signals and legitimate use near prisons, a concern of the Federal Communication Commission.

Read full article.

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.