Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:55 pm
Top corrections official from more than two dozen states have appealed to a Senate committee to make signal-jamming technology legal inside state prisons to thwart inmates' forbidden mobile phone calls.
"Prison systems from every corner of this country, from Georgia to New York to California to South Dakota, have signed this petition," said Corrections Director Jon Ozmint. "These are the people who understand prison best and who realize just how dangerous it is for an inmate to possess a cell phone."
The petition, which was filed Monday with the FCC, includes signatures from corrections directors in 26 states, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
Handsets are being smuggled into prisons, often by the thousands, by bribed correctional officers, contractors and visitors -- hidden inside food shipments, concealed in body cavities and simply tossed over prison walls. Inmates then use the devices to run criminal activities.
"Short of jamming and a complete shutting down of those phone signals, I don't think we can remedy the problem," said Texas Sen. John Whitmire. "It is a public safety problem."
But critics say jamming signals, is not an exact science, wouldn't fully address the issue and could interfere with 911 calls and other legitimate services.
"In order to sufficiently block signals in an entire facility, one would have to deploy a technique that will result in overjamming," said John Walls, a CTIA, the Wireless Association, spokesman. "The laws of physics cannot stop and start at prison walls or fences or streets. Interference beyond a facility is inevitable. The fact is that there are a number of legal, viable and effective alternatives available today to take care of the same problem."
Instead Walls proposed cell detection, a technology that would use electronic scanners to find contraband handsets inside correctional facilities without sending interfering signals.
By detecting device, Walls said officials could find and confiscate phones without having to interfere with public safety channels.
Ozmint said cell detection would be less effective and more costly than jamming all signals. To block all signals at a maximum security prison would cost about $250,000, he said, while using scanning machines would cost more than $1 million.
"We know this jamming technology works," said Ozmint. "The only question is, are we going to avail ourselves of this technology before somebody else gets hurt?"
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