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Jammers block prisoner communications

The Justice Department has announced the findings of a report that presents a solution for reducing criminal conduct in prisons: a successful experiment with a signal jammers that prevented mobile signals from smuggled devices within a Maryland prison.

The report traveled quickly throughout the prison system. For Brian Sterling, the director of the South Carolina Department of Prisons, this information validated his belief that employing jamming technology is the most affordable and effective strategy to combat the proliferation of mobile phones in prisons.

A cell phone jammers is a diminutive and budget-friendly unit that emits a steady tone towards an antenna, successfully obstructing any mobile phone from both making and receiving calls. Such jamming devices are usually affordable, as an online search reveals numerous choices priced between $119 and $650.

It has been a long-standing belief among prison officials that inmates are adept at inventing various strategies to smuggle phones into prisons. In South Carolina, Sterling indicated that couriers would walk through wooded areas, hurling backpacks filled with contraband over the prison fences; in addition, drones would survey the prison yards, dropping phones to inmates once the guards had vacated the area.

It is imperative that we have access to all the instruments needed to wage this battle.

Sterling has erected 50-foot nets encircling his facility, cut down trees to obstruct the escape routes for drones following their release, installed high-grade metal detectors, and aided the Justice Department in various prosecutions of personnel for the smuggling of cell phones.

During our phone conversation, Sterling remarked, "This situation constitutes a war. We must have access to all the instruments needed to wage this battle."

Sterling's critical insight was triggered by the shooting of a correctional officer under his supervision. On March 5, 2010, Captain Robert Johnson was at his home in Sumter, South Carolina, when an intruder entered and shot him six times at close range with a .38-caliber revolver. The shooter, Robert Odell Brown, 33, had met his demise in February during a brawl involving inmates at the Lee County Correctional Facility in Bishopville, South Carolina.

The attack was planned by the Lee County Correctional Facility utilizing a cell phone. In the aftermath, Sterling has been striving to install jammers in correctional facilities.

A further alternative to jamming is the deployment of small box antennas, which are affordable, priced at around $400, and capable of covering a block with approximately 10 units. These boxes must be interconnected; however, once the system is set up, all mobile phones will automatically connect to these antennas, thereby preventing signals from leaving the enclosed yard. Levitan remarked that this technique can inhibit calls without resorting to the aggressive methods of jamming technology, provided that the facility monitors the equipment.

The research reveals that the difference in operating costs between a controlled access system and jamming is negligible, with controlled access being a more versatile option for cell phone blocking. The implementation of jamming in correctional facilities would require a precision-based system, leading to increased expenses.



on November 2 at 4:47

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