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Call to ban sale of mini mobile phones

bbc.co.uk

11–20 of 67 posts

Re: Call to ban sale of mini mobile phones

#11

Couldn’t you use a gsm jammer inside the prison instead?

You cannot use a jammer of any kind in the United States, for almost all values of you, including state and federal penal agencies. https://www.fcc.gov/general/jammer-enforcement

That's an interesting US fact, but the story is about the UK. Is it likewise restricted there?

Re: Call to ban sale of mini mobile phones

#13
post #2

Why not just let prisoners have free access to the phone? This has never made sense to me.

It’s to stop them from being able to continue to commit crimes from the inside.

Except that they can't without using proxies on the outside. Instead, we decide that they no longer have a right to communicate or express themselves to anyone outside the prison.

It seems like a more effective and humane method is to allow them free telephone usage, with the complete disclosure and knowledge that their conversations are being listened to/recorded. If crimes being driven by their command are executed on the outside, it can be found out how they communicated that command, and the people responsible for committing that outside crime also punished.

Re: Call to ban sale of mini mobile phones

#14
It's kind of funny to ban an item that's already being smuggled in through a ban. Seems like it might just add another layer to the smuggling scheme. We'll eventually get to a point where the phone travels from assembly line to prison cell entirely within people's butts.

Re: Call to ban sale of mini mobile phones

#15
post #12

Couldn’t you use a gsm jammer inside the prison instead?

As an alternative it'd be nice to see some higher-tech GSM detection technology that allowed them to pinpoint the phones (or at least be aware of their presence).

So, cell towers?

Re: Call to ban sale of mini mobile phones

#16
post #2

Why not just let prisoners have free access to the phone? This has never made sense to me.

I'm not sure that total deregulation of the prison phone market is a good idea, but at least in the United States, the current solution is pretty outrageous [0]. There is a a reasonable censoring role to be played by the prison (same as it is for mail), but like much else about prison system, seems served by rent-seekers [1]. [0] https://theintercept.com/2017/06/16/fcc-prison-phone-call-ra... [1] https://www.indystar…

Is there reason for censoring?

Most criminals don't have an empire to run from prison. I suspect there's very few prisoners where censoring makes any sense.

Consider the cost and benefit, and the value of maintaining contact with friends and family.

What exactly is the reasonable censorship role? I'm honestly curious..

Re: Call to ban sale of mini mobile phones

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s to stop them from being able to continue to commit crimes from the inside.

Except that they can't without using proxies on the outside. Instead, we decide that they no longer have a right to communicate or express themselves to anyone outside the prison. It seems like a more effective and humane method is to allow them free telephone usage, with the complete disclosure and knowledge that their conversations are being listened to/recorded. If crimes being driven by their command are executed…

Exactly how many prisoners have a criminal empire to run from prison.

Most of them have nothing. And communication would be of no concern, or am I missing something.

Re: Call to ban sale of mini mobile phones

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s to stop them from being able to continue to commit crimes from the inside.

This is an ongoing problem in mexican prisons, see: http://www.newsweek.com/el-chapo-puente-grande-mexico-582319

Large scale phone fraud seems like something that should be easy to stop... Even without monitoring all calls.

Assuming the officials aren't corrupt.

Re: Call to ban sale of mini mobile phones

#20
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an alternative it'd be nice to see some higher-tech GSM detection technology that allowed them to pinpoint the phones (or at least be aware of their presence).

So, cell towers?

I don't know a tremendous amount about cell towers, but I was under the impression that they couldn't very accurately pinpoint locations - I was thinking more of a [foxhunting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmitter_hunting)-style location, where you could (hopefully) find a phone's hiding place with relative ease.
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