As mobile phones have become smaller and easier to conceal, they have increasingly been smuggled into prisons all over the world. More stringent search techniques by Corrections staff have helped cell-phone detection, but have not stemmed the tide.Once inside, the phones could be used to intimidate witnesses and organise criminal activities.
In New Zealand, Corrections has been working with Vodafone and Telecom to find and evaluate solutions to the problem. Out of that evaluation we have identified fourtypes of useful technology which are now being put in place:
Chief Executive Barry Matthews says a combination of these technologies will be used at different sites so that legitimate cellphone users will not be affected outside of prison boundaries.
“I am confident that regardless of the site, Corrections has a mix of solutions to manage the unauthorised use of cell-phones by prisoners or any other person within the prison confines,” Barry said.
For example, at Rimutaka Prison, which is isolated from any residential area, we will be considering cell-phone blocking towers. At Mt Eden Prison in central Auckland we’re looking at a combination of local blanket jammers and detectors.
One of the first prisons to get the new technology is Hawke’s Bay Prison. Project Manager Richelle Mucalo says the recent testing of the fi rst two local blanket jammers at Hawke’s Bay went very well.
“As we were walking past one of the prison units during the evaluation, we heard a prisoner saying ‘what the **** is wrong with my phone,” she says. “Needless to say an immediate search of the cell concerned located a cell-phone and charger.”
Richelle has also overseen the successful installation of a cell-phone blocking tower at the Northland Region Corrections Facility near Kaikohe.“The tower at Northland is working well.The next step is to go back to Hawke’s Bay and finish installing the rest of the jammers within the next couple of months,” she says.
The cell-phone jamming technologies complement other initiatives to manage contraband in prisons, such as single points of entry to make searching easier and stiffer penalties for people found with a cell-phone inside a prison.
Corrections officers are still not allowed to do cavity searches of people entering prisons, but if they suspect that someone may be carrying a phone internally they will contact the Police. The approximate cost of implementing the cell phone jamming technology across New Zealand’s 20 prisons is $5 million.
A cell-phone blocking tower at the Northland Region Corrections Facility.
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