Cell Phone Jammers Testing in Maryland Prisons
Cell phone jamming equipment was yesterday installed in one Maryland facility as Governor Martin O'Malley hopes to convince Congress that cell phone jammers are an effective way of preventing inmates from using contraband cell phones in prison.
Today the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland, is conducting a test to prove that cell phone jammers really can help. The Associated Press cites a governor spokesperson who says state officials are trying to show Congress how the technology can prevent inmates from using the contraband devices to commit crimes.
Prisoners using cell phones to organize crimes outside of jail is becoming a more common occurrence around the country. The AP reports that in July, corrections directors in 26 states submitted a petition to the FCC asking federal regulators' permission to jam cell phone signals inside state penitentiaries. Non-governmental radio communications fall under the jurisdiction of the FCC while NTIA has authority over federal uses of the radio spectrum.
Installing cell phone jammers in prisons is not a new idea. While it would seem like the most effective way to prevent the use of contraband cell phone among inmates, they also run the risk of blocking signals areas adjacent to the prison.
While waiting for action on their request, many prisons have been using specially trained dogs to sniff out cell phones.
Read the full story here.
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The jammers seem like a better idea, because cell phone calls in prisons are from prison employees who rent their phones to the convicts. The employees give their phones to the guys and get the phone back when their done. Dogs wont be able to prevent that. Phone jammers however prevent every call made. There are not much downsides except for the blockage range outside the prison, but who lives next to a prison?
Stop playing games. A prisoner caught using a cell phone should be put down like an animal. GAME OVER.
You can bet they aint using AT&T in there.
Stop playing games. A prisoner caught using a cell phone should be put down like an animal. GAME OVER.
Yeah! Why wait until they're even caught, though? Obviously if they're in jail in the first place they're worth less than other people and we should start summarily executing them. Prisons are overcrowded, after all.
Yeah! Why wait until they're even caught, though? Obviously if they're in jail in the first place they're worth less than other people and we should start summarily executing them. Prisons are overcrowded, after all.
If you do this, no disturbed women could fall in love with them. Oh, daddy.
This whole thing sounds really weird.
Aren't prisons usually surrounded by large open areas? The two that I have seen were.
well if prisons wernt full of electronics i would just say use a short range emp then they would just be fried
This is dumb, they should be setting up man-in-the-middle transceivers; like a Femtocell device that lets them listen in on the calls. Then, the inmates will think they are being slick calling their felonious buddies, but they will only be setting themselves up. Bonus points if the bust makes the guy on the outside look like a snitch, whom is then reunited with his pal behind bars for some 'thug justice'. Maybe then people will think twice before committing crimes or being associated in any way with those that do.
well if prisons wernt full of electronics i would just say use a short range emp then they would just be fried
Yes, because no prison actually uses computers or complicated electronics.
Blocking the signal completely is the easiest most effective way of disabling the cell phones. It may not be the cheapest (compared to a cell phone sniffing dog?), but it stops it all. Of course the inmates will find an alternative or revert to older slower methods, but at least it's not instant access to your leader or members.
Can we put short range versions in cars that'll be activated when the car is moving?
...they should be setting up man-in-the-middle transceivers; like a Femtocell device that lets them listen in on the calls.
How could you tell an inmate call from a private call made by another party like the warden? A prison can't be a place where the rights of the innocent are taken away...
How could you tell an inmate call from a private call made by another party like the warden? A prison can't be a place where the rights of the innocent are taken away...
Prison's are highly regulated, most of your rights are flown out the window the moment you walk through a gate.
Why not simply build Faraday cages around the prison cells? You don't need FFC approval, nor will they interfere with other devices.
deputies / prison guards and employees are not allowed to carry cell phones within prisons, if caught they will be fired and also posibly fined up to 2,500.00 for it. If security is that crummy to allow cell phones to get in the 1st place, that prison has far worse issues then worrying about a cell phone blocker. If that kind of ocntraband is allowed then good change worse stuff is getting buy as well. Need to immeadiatly remove the warden, the get a new warden in place, and have a full security audit and inspection on the prisons that are full of contraband abuse problems. No need to install cell phone blocker, when preventing the contraband to get inside in the 1st place would be more appropriate security methods.
...Or prisons could use landlines only. I thought cell phones in prison were called Walkie Talkies and intercoms. I think prisons need to get their priorities straight.
Taking cell phones away = no cost.
Use Landlines walkie talkies/intercoms/PA systems = far less or no additional cost than implementing some cell jammer crap.
Just goes to show as long as someone wants to spend money on prisons and its prisoners, people don't care where the money comes from, but only care about depriving inmates of something that shouldn't even be there (cell phones).
"Put up a 100ft wall around every jail in the US to thwart any chance of escape, like what happened last week in Rhode Island."
"Fuckin A, git r done!"
Why not simply build Faraday cages around the prison cells? You don't need FFC approval, nor will they interfere with other devices.
True, but the cost of that would be....more than twice the jammers + electrical fee for over a decade. That's a lot of renovating and metal.
Can't the cell phone service providers tell where a cell phone is (approximately) by triangulation? Just build an extra tower nearby if necessary, and disable all phones that triangulate to an area within the prison's geographic borders.
IM sure Scofield will engineer his way around it
These are being tested in Federal prisons run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons?
Check out this blog post by a former inmate at Schuylkill FCI in Minersville PA run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
http://fprison.wordpress.com/2009/ [...] rison-camp
A 24/7 party on your tax dollars.
Sadly, I know many people who live next to a prison. There's one in my town.
Hoe do you train a dog to sniff out a cellphone
How do you train a dog to sniff out a cellphone ?
The triangulation thing + listening would be a novel idea to get the heavy guys run amok each other.
It ain't bad, that extra tower will only have to be build once and after that only maintained.
Can I get one for my car? I'd love to block the a-holes talking around me!
Oh and EVERY movie theater needs to have them, too.
Can I get one for my car? I'd love to block the a-holes talking around me!
yes you can. all different sizes and effective ranges. you can even carry one around on your person when you go into a movie theater and have fun with the assholes who sit there and talk and text during the entire movie.
i would check out a product called the yapper zapper
Check out the Yapper Zapper.
phone jammer
cell phone jammer