

Inside the prison system’s illicit digital world - Thevet
http://fusion.net/story/41931/inside-the-prison-systems-illicit-digital-world/

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superuser2
What is the point of prison if we can't keep guards from smuggling (drugs|cell
phones|weapons|information), or prisoners from beating and raping each other,
etc?

Prisons are some of the least secure environments in the world. They do not
rehabilitate, nor do they effectively punish - violent criminals thrive so
long as they are more violent than the next guy and able to buy the guards.

People are talking about radio jammers and Faraday cages. As part of a
defense-in-depth strategy, maybe. But _if we can 't stop corruption among
prison guards_, if we can't expect even basic professionalism, what is the
point? I don't want to be subsidizing the creation of a paradise for the most
powerful violent criminals to rule over people who lost their way while poor.
I don't want to be subsidizing something that fails spectacularly at
_everything_ it might be construed as trying to do, except make money for
contractors.

We are doing something horribly wrong. Maybe we need to replace guards with a
small handful of well-paid professionals in a heavily monitored, regularly
audited control room. At least electronic locks and cameras can't be corrupted
as easily. Maybe we need shorter sentences served entirely in isolation -
there seems to be nothing good about the social life of prison. Maybe we
should give up on the communications ban and let them Skype their families and
browse Reddit all day - who can they really hurt that way? Maybe we should
make prison more or less like day-to-day life, except that you can't leave. I
don't know, but it seems like _anything_ other than the status quo is worth
trying.

We _definitely_ need to incarcerate fewer people, though.

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soup10
Prisons are a dark and sad place. the guards inevitably turn into monsters
that treat the inmates as subhuman, and the inmates develop all kinds of
mental issues from being locked in a cage 24/7\. Putting a person in a cage is
a horrifying act. It's a relic of the dark ages that has no place in an
enlightened society. Reforming the prison system ultimately has to be about
turning prison into a place of rehabilitation instead of punishment.

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ndespres
One very interesting paragraph from the article:

"Managed access systems can cost more than a million dollars apiece to
install. But some prisons have found a way to lower the cost by partnering
with outside vendors. In California, for example, Global Tel _Link – a private
company that operates phone systems at many state and federal prisons –
installed managed access systems in correctional facilities at no cost to the
state, as part of a five-year exclusive contract. (Which makes sense: Global
Tel_ Link believes it will make more money from pay-phone fees if inmates’
wireless access is cut off.)"

Fascinating that one of the companies involved in helping to cut off inmate
cell phone use stands to make a profit from their activities. I have many
gripes with the American institutional prison system, and this is just one
small slice of the corruption that drives it.

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tsomctl
Seems like prisons would have enough clout to get an exception from the FCC to
run a radio jammer. This would also help stop the problem of drones carrying
stuff into prisons. Surely jammers are selective enough to not interfere with
guards' radios. My other thought was metal paint everywhere to act as a
Faraday cage, but this wouldn't work when inmates were outside, and would
interfere with guards.

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merlincorey
Jammers are not selective at all - they basically DoS a local area with a
signal that makes it so a particular range of devices cannot receive any data
due to the jammer being closer/more powerful than whatever device they
normally would be able to reach.

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quadrature
*On a particular frequency band.

You can have guard radios talking on another band.

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Terr_
So then people just switch the settings/models of radios being smuggled.

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quadrature
Perhaps, I didn't know they were smuggling radios.

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legulere
Meanwhile in Germany failed attempts to bring in a phone (and drugs) through
drones were caught

(Link in German) [http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/hamburg-drohne-mit-drogen-
stu...](http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/hamburg-drohne-mit-drogen-stuerzt-auf-
gefaengnis-a-1014660.html)

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julianj
Why don't they implement their own local, monitored, cell network. They could
still charge for minutes and data, but control what can be accessed and also
monitor communications. Disney cruise ships have something similar called a
'wave phone'.

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philip1209
Do prisoners typically have access to power outlets? This seems like an easy
way to curtail the problem.

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fragmede
Inmates do the actual day-to-day work to maintain the prison and its
population, such as cooking, vacuuming, laundry, etc. Those often require
access to electricity to perform, and guards cannot be everywhere at once.

