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| Not in service |
| By baltimoresun.com |
| Published: 07/20/2009 |
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Not in service Our view: Prison officials should be allowed to try jamming inmates' cell phones In the continual cat-and-mouse game between corrections officials and the inmates they oversee, the newest form of contraband are cell phones smuggled into prisons by visitors, contractors and corrupt guards. Inmates use the devices to communicate with associates and direct criminal enterprises from behind prison walls almost as easily as if they were still on the streets. No one really knows how many contraband phones are floating around in the system, but over the last year Maryland has seen an increasing number of cases in which prisoners used cell phones to run drug operations, harass victims' families, plan escapes and even order witnesses killed to prevent them from testifying. To combat the problem, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services has turned to new preventive measures, including more intensive searches of prison cells and common areas and dogs specially trained to sniff out contraband phones. But those efforts have met with only mixed success, and to supplement them the state wants to try out a range of new technologies aimed at keeping inmates from making unmonitored phone calls. Some of those techniques will be on view in September, when the corrections department is planning to organize a prison technology expo of sorts. About a dozen companies have been invited to Baltimore to exhibit their wares and show off the methods they've come up with to distort, disrupt or divert cell phone signals inside prisons or to detect phones in operation there. Read More. |
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While inmates may obtain cell phones illegally, facilities must also increasingly be watchful of employees who bring cell phones in without thinking, lose them and tell no one. This includes CO's, administrators, and lawyers. Until effective blocking mechanisms are inplace to block outgoing signals, increased scrutiny of everyone coming into each facility is paramount. A cell phone is as destructive to a facilities security and safety as a weapon or other banned item. Until prisons use the same blocking methods as theaters use to prevent ringing during movies, banning, searching for, and taking cell phones from a employees person is a necessary process. For everyones safety.