
Cellphones, Though Banned, Thrive in U.S. Prisons - J3L2404
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/us/03prisoners.html?src=twr
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marcusbooster
One of the factors that created this market is the unreasonable phone systems
currently in place at correctional facilities. They are excessively overpriced
and that cost is largely passed on to friends/family on the outside. In the
long run it's actually cheaper to buy one of these expensive contraband cell
phones and add money to them as needed.

Some people complain that inmates shouldn't be allowed to call anyone, but
it's by maintaining these social connections to the outside world that gives
them a greater chance of rehabilitation. You keep chipping away at their
threads of humanity and you will create some very broken men; who will
eventually share that street with you one day.

~~~
kanamekun
Prisons do often leave prisoners more likely to commit crime than they were
before they were incarcerated (there was a great article on The Atlantic last
year on how ankle monitors are changing this, by keeping many non-violent
prisoners from ever entering prison).

However, allowing cellphone usage inside of a prison allows many convicts to
run criminal networks from inside of prison walls. This makes it difficult for
law enforcement to make a dent in organized crime, as incarcerating a gang's
leaders doesn't prevent them from organizing further criminal activity.

Non-violent criminals could arguably be given cell phones, but the potential
for violent criminals to organize violent crime means that allowing violent
criminals to use cell phones in prison is a dangerous proposition.

~~~
yardie
It doesn't necessarily have to be cellphones. The reason they are so popular
in prison is because of the outlandish fees to make a collect call, and in
some cases, those phones are monitored. If you're choices are a collect call
with $5 connection fee and $2/min and a $300 cellphone loaded with hours of
calltime than it doesn't take a genius to see that the cellphone is going to
win whether its for the mob boss or incarcerated shoplifter.

A sensible middle ground would be to make collect calls affordable, or even
free from a selected list, so that cost works against smuggling in cellphones.
Until then, people are going to find more elaborate ways to reach outside. And
they've got lots of time on their hands to do it.

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d2viant
_The solution, Mr. Ozmint and others say, is to simply jam cellphone signals
in prisons._

That may solve that one problem, however the article glosses over a much
larger problem -- the inmate bought his phone from a prison guard. There is
evidently corruption inside the system and as a result there's no telling what
else that guard (or guards) are transporting into the prison for inmates.

~~~
Mz
I heard it said once that "You can get anything on the inside that you can get
on the outside -- except a woman". (This was in an article/interview about
rampant drug use inside prisons.)

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powera
In a sane prison system, they'd probably support having inmates playing
Farmville rather than other things they could be doing. Sure, they _could_
theoretically be doing drug deals or other criminal enterprises, but the
Gotti-types already do that type of thing, and 99% of people in jail just
aren't important enough for that.

But politicians get elected and "prison contractors" get rich by making prison
conditions worse and less effective.

~~~
VMG
If prison conditions are too good then prison becomes less of a punishment.
Not to start a ideological argument here but there is a case to be made for
prison to be unattractive, especially for people who would like to play
farmville all day.

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stcredzero
_"It is impossible to have enough staff to watch the two million people we
have locked up in the country at this time,” he said. “In a perfect world,
yes, we would find all the phones. But this isn’t a perfect world."_

Yes, but wouldn't these cellphones be perfect targets for DoD developed
Electronic intelligence equipment? We should be able to localize cellphones
within prison and kill access from the phone's MAC address. Better yet, the
authorities could get a warrant (since the cellphone within prison boundaries
is a Federal offense now) and start monitoring the communications.

I'd rather the Homeland Security folks would spend multi-millions on such a
program instead of spending it on Rapiscan.

~~~
gallerytungsten
re: "We should be able to localize cellphones within prison and kill access
from the phone's MAC address."

If you read through to the end of the article, you'll learn that Mississippi
has implemented an interception system that achieves that kind of result.

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ck2
_"Almost everybody has a phone"_ (from prisoner in article)

If that is true, then the guards are participating either actively in giving
over the phones or passively by ignoring the phones.

There are handguns as small as a cellphone and you don't see "everyone has a
handgun" in prison. So work that one backwards.

Guards must think there is no harm so they ignore, or they are paid off
somehow.

Fire all the guards, get new guards or switch them from another prison to get
rid of their payoff familiars.

~~~
burgerbrain
Guards won't give prisoners guns because that would present a real and direct
threat to themselves. Is the difference between prisoners having guns and
prisoners having access to telephones really that blurred to you?

~~~
ck2
Hence my point, it's the guards participating, they are breaking laws and
should be prosecuted.

Put a few guards behind bars and maybe the others will stop allowing
cellphones?

You'd think seeing how horrible prison is would encourage the guards to follow
the law themselves.

~~~
ceejayoz
> Put a few guards behind bars and maybe the others will stop allowing
> cellphones? > > You'd think seeing how horrible prison is would encourage
> the guards to follow the law themselves.

It didn't work for the prisoners (many of whom are return customers), why
would it work for the guards?

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tzs
If they can't keep phones away from prisoners--a population that has been
legally stripped of many of the freedoms and protections that we on the
outside enjoy, how can they expect us to believe that they can keep bombs off
of airplanes?

The prison population is less than the number of people that fly in two days,
so the TSA has a much bigger population to deal with, and the TSA doesn't have
24/7 access to flyers, nor the right or ability to control who they talk to,
and so on.

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kanamekun
This great documentary by Vanguard makes it clear that a lot of cellphone
smuggling is actually done by visitors and prisoners using body cavities:
<http://www.hulu.com/watch/109763/vanguard-prison-contraband>

It's not just guard bribes that are the problem... as long as the incentive
exists to smuggle items in, people will do so (both guards and visitors).
Managed Access (as in Mississippi) would kill that incentive, which would
eliminate the smuggling (of cell phones, at least).

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sorbus
If everyone agrees that cell phones in prisons are a bad thing, when why not
use jammers to stop the signal? A small cell phone jammer can be gotten for
~$130, and it probably wouldn't take many to blanket a prison. This would lead
to issues with communication between the inside and outside, of course, but a
mixture of land lines and VOIP would make it pretty easy for guards to
continue as normal.

~~~
powera
From the article, at least some people think it won't work: “It’s illegal,
plain and simple,” said Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory
affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association. He cited the Communications Act of
1934, which prohibits the blocking of radio signals — or, in this case,
cellphone signals — from authorized users.

~~~
evgen
The problem with this argument is that prisons are a different place legally
than the rest of the world. In addition to the the limited rights of the
prisoners, they also impose limited rights on the people working there. If the
prison authorities and whatever legislature has authority over the prison
decide that there are no "authorized users" within a prison then there is no
violation of the act.

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RK
How do they charge them?

~~~
Eliezer
They've probably got the self-charging models.

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Synaesthesia
There are too many people in US Prisons, that's why they can't keep tabs on
everyone.

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maeon3
I think allowing all inmates to have cell phones and having a system to
monitor all of their calls to stay in contact with those who can help them re-
integrate with society is a terrific idea.

However it will never work because the smartest criminals will use it to
escape, terrorize with gangs out the outside, coordinate drug inflow and all
sorts of other problems. The prison barely has enough staff to keep the place
under control.

