Ever since mobile phones became ubiquitous, prisoners have been keen to have them in their cells for all sorts of reasons, including keeping in touch with home. It's strictly against prison regulations of course but the numbers currently being smuggled in are staggering. Of course it tells us a lot about prison security and helps explain why drugs are so freely available. If the system is so weak and so many staff can be corrupted by the potential money to be made from the illegal phone trade, there is no hope of stopping drugs getting in.
It's a worldwide problem with no easy technical fix. Yes signals could be jammed, but that would mean the Governors phone not working either and the extent of the jamming might well extend outside the prison walls and affect other equipment. In California the trauma of discovering that notorious murderer Charles Manson had a mobile and was 'phoning all over the 'States has prompted the prison authorities to consider installing technology that 'captures' all mobile signals and only allows through those authorised.
Here in the UK we look likely to go down the rather more low tech and novel route of installing phones in cells. Serco who are the company that run HMP Lowdham Grange have been so impressed with the experiment that they intend to put phones into all five of their prisons. They say that bullying and phone smuggling have both reduced significantly and there is little evidence of misuse. Numbers have to be pre-authorised and I presume that the facility to record conversations exists if found to be necessary.
It will be interesting to hear if the charges are reasonable as this has been a regular complaint about the BT pin number system currently in use in state-run prisons. The contract is due to expire this month but I can't seem to find out who the new operator will be and if the charging structure will improve. I also think I'm right in saying that HM Prison Service have yet to conduct their own experiments with in-cell phones. As with all these issues of communication between prisoners and the outside world, the right balance has to be struck between allowing positive use for support and family benefit at the same time as preventing criminal activity.
Now that is a really imaginitive idea, and will drive a wedge between those prisoners who want a phone for essentially benign purposes and those who want one for malign purposes.
ReplyDeleteAlso by reducing the volume of smuggling they may find they reduce the economy of scale of smuggling, and make it harder for the malicious to get mobile phones.
That looks like an excellent solution to the problem.
ReplyDeleteNot really knowing much about the Prison Service, I had naively assumed that any prisoner who owned an illegal mobile did so in order to orchestrate further criminal acts outside or inside the prison walls. I hadn't even considered that many were desperate just to contact family.
Having read the linked Guardian article, I'm not surprised there are so many illegal mobiles inside. I'm sure I'd try to get one if I were locked up.
Let's hope the in-cell phones are instroduced into as many prisons as possible (I imagine maybe with some restrictions for category A prisons?)!
As an aside though, surely the Governor can manage without his mobile? I would have thought blocking all mobiles would be the fastest way to solve the problem of those who use mobiles for illegal purposes.
They'll continue using mobiles for communicating about bad things. The official lines will contain nothing but sweetness, light, & benign messages for the babby mothers.
ReplyDeleteSupply & demand curves on the illicit mobiles might move a bit, but apart from that I'm off to buy shares in the likely service providers.
Another fine revenue stream:^) .
Ray.