Cell Phone Use in Correctional Facilities
12/18/2008In recent years, the proliferation of cell phones has revolutionized our quotidian communications with family, friends, colleagues, and, unfortunately, telemarketers. The regulations that apply to cell phones are similar to those of landline telephones, but the portability and small size make the former much more appealing for those whose lifestyle or profession requires frequent communication with others. With added data features, like text messaging, cameras, and even the Internet, the cell phone is an attractive option for almost anyone looking to stay in contact with their acquaintances. However, this poses a problem for prison officials around the world, as cell phones are smuggled into jails, allowing those incarcerated for a variety of crimes to continue to conduct their business or even start riots, unbeknownst to the prison officials who regularly read inmates' mail.
Recently, 600 cell phones were confiscated from prisoners in a Gujarat jail in India. Closer to home, in the United States and Canada, 1,331 phones were confiscated from California prisons, and almost as many in Maryland. Cell phones have been used to incite riots, deal narcotics, order hits on witnesses, and even to plan escapes. An East Texas inmate on death row hit the news last month after officials found his cell phone, which had been used to make more than 2,800 calls from the facility - in one month. Several of these calls included disturbing calls to State Senator John Whitmire and death threats to the reporter who first exposed the calls to the senator. (The senator also received death threats once the calls were made public.) The death row inmate admitted to paying a guard $2,100 to smuggle the phone in for him, and after it was discovered the inmate's mother was arrested and charged for footing the bill.
Prisons are taking new measures to find and confiscate cell phones from inmates. The incident in Texas has caused prison officials to rethink the state of prison security in the state. After the calls to Senator Whitmire were made, the preexisting plan to update and enhance security, estimated at $30 million, was reviewed and amended, resulting in a total proposed cost of $66 million, millions of dollars more than the total construction expenses for building an entirely new facility.
Cell phone sniffing canines have been trained and are already working with officials to find contraband phones in several states. These dogs can detect a chemical that is released when a cell phone is activated that is unique to the mobile devices. This gives cell phones and accessories like chargers a signature smell that the dogs can detect, even when a phone is disassembled, as they sometimes are when they are hidden in prison.
A proposed method to keep cell phones out of prisoners' possession is to block the signal within the prison. This plan, which has already been tested in South Carolina, would use new technology to jam the cell phone signal in a specified area (i.e., the prison), to prevent prisoners who may be in possession of mobile devices from making and receiving calls. However, as convenient as it sounds, several groups oppose the plan, which is in violation of the FCC's 1934 Communications Act. States have submitted petitions to the FCC asking to allow for prison-wide jams. Other opponents to the plan to block cell phone signals in prisons worry that the block could interfere with emergency calls. (What about regular telephones?)
However, it seems that just as drugs and small weapons, such as knives, are smuggled into prison, cell phones can be smuggled in just as easily, meaning that the only way to prevent their use is to make it impossible to use them at all. This would mean that the FCC would have to amend the Communications Act to allow for state governments to tamper with the connection, just one more change that legislators must make to accommodate for the rapidly growing technology sector and its implications for criminal activity.
