Cell Phones
Inspired by this post on the we'll be looking at the issue of mobile phones in prisons. Prisoners aren't allowed phones in jail for good reason: mobiles have been used to deal drugs, continue to run criminal activities, and plot escapes.
As the Spy Blog reports, the figures for the number of phones taken from prisoners in the last 12 months, were released (the same day as ).They show phone seizures at a pretty constant level of around 2-400 a month since Oct 2006 (3473 phones and sims in total up to the end of Sept 07). Add to that a report which spoke of an "apparently limitless" supply of mobile phones in , and while there have been recent attempts to bring technology to bear on the issue, clearly there is a continuing problem.
There are technical aspects to this too: we know it's possible to jam phones, we know it's possible to track phones and to detect cell phone transmissions, so why is it difficult to stop prisoners using them in jails? We'll try to find some of the answers Saturday.
UPDATE: We spoke to David Jamieson of Wandsworth Prison Independent Monitoring Board and Brian Caton General Secretary of the Prison Officers Association. I also recorded an interview with a former prison governor who gave his reaction to the report and the general issue of mobile phones in prison, which purely because of time constraints didn't make it to air. Long versions of those interviews are available in the player below:
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