Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

"Let's ban tiny phones" - UK Government

shkspr.mobi

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 79 posts

Re: "Let's ban tiny phones" - UK Government

#11

Post by DanBC »

Banning tiny phones is stupid. These people have already shown that they don't care about the law - that's why they're in jail[1] and having a cell phone in prison is already not legal. What's it going to be now? Double plus unlegal?

Surely faraday cages and cell-phone jamming would be easier and less restrictive for regular people. (The BBC article says they're changing legislation to allow them to block signals in prison) From the BBC article:-

> More than 7,000 phones and Sim cards were confiscated in prisons in England and Wales last year.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_prison_populati...)

> Using the figures below from 2009 and 2011, the UK prison population stands at around 97,000. As of October 4, 2011 the population of women in prison in the UK is 4,635.

I don't know how many phones they're not finding. Or how long prisoners have had phones before being caught.

[1] Although England and Wales sends too many people to prison and there was a problem with women not paying tv licence fines, and then going to jail for not paying the fine.

Re: "Let's ban tiny phones" - UK Government

#13

Post by nicholassmith »

gazrogers wrote: post #4

Wouldn't it make more sense to make prisons mobile signal dead-zones?

It's a tricky one, legally running jammers in the UK is a no-no on the books (http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/enforcement/spectrum-enforc...), however I'm not sure whether there's an exemption clause for prisons, or whether you can apply for a license for a jammer for specific circumstances.

Re: "Let's ban tiny phones" - UK Government

#15

Post by Shivetya »

gazrogers wrote: post #4

Wouldn't it make more sense to make prisons mobile signal dead-zones?

In the US its not allowed in most states to do that, some however our looking into it, what is the law like in the UK?

Great article about the problem in US prisons and how the FTC and mobile carriers don't want the bans against blocking removed. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/us/03prisoners.html?pagewa...

Re: "Let's ban tiny phones" - UK Government

#17

Post by fetbaffe »

Yes, yes! Ban it!

We should also travel back in time and ban the fist mobile phones. Who needs it when you have the remarkable British telephone wiring system?

http://www.google.se/imgres?q=telephone+wiring+pole+mess&biw...

But wait... how about British plumbing? Can't the prisoners climb down the wall on the pipes that are conveniently located outside of the wall? Ban it!

Re: "Let's ban tiny phones" - UK Government

#18

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

Shish2k wrote: post #3

> UK officials are considering banning the sale of small mobile phones designed to resemble car key fobs. Prisoner with a phone-shaped object: suspicious. Prisoner with car keys: not suspicious?

Prisoner with car keys: not useful. Prisoner with a phone: useful.

Re: "Let's ban tiny phones" - UK Government

#19

Post by [deleted] »

fetbaffe wrote: post #17

Yes, yes! Ban it! We should also travel back in time and ban the fist mobile phones. Who needs it when you have the remarkable British telephone wiring system? http://www.google.se/imgres?q=telephone+wiring+pole+mess&biw... But wait... how about British plumbing? Can't the prisoners climb down the wall on the pipes that are conveniently located outside of the wall? Ban it!

[deleted]

Re: "Let's ban tiny phones" - UK Government

#20

Post by onetimeonly »

I've been to jail in the UK. I served 4.5 months in B and C category prisons. Phones are so easy to get hold of, I don't think most people would believe it. During my time I emailed photos from inside the prison to friends outside using a smartphone. Approx. every other prisoner had a phone, and everyone had access. They were so popular that I was able to keep myself safe (i.e. useful) by offering a phone unlocking service. Top-up voucher codes were a currency, even more than tobacco.

The thing is, they weren't small phones. People didn't smuggle them in their colons - they used code systems to arrange for their friends to throw things over the fences in particular places. Mini-riots were organised to coincide with throwovers. Drugs get in the same way.

There were a whole lot of more inventive methods used too. Suffice it to say that the problem is not the size of phones. It's that if you deprive people of their freedom, they spend all their time thinking about how to get it back. They will eventually work out how to get a little piece. Tiny phones won't make the blindest bit of difference.

Post reply on HN