New state laws and technologies are helping to curb use of smuggled cellphones by prison inmates, a growing epidemic that has been linked to coordinating prison escapes as well as the continuity of orchestrated gang activity outside the prison walls.
Last week, Nebraska lawmakers advanced a bill that would make the smuggling of contraband illegal, punishable by a year in prison.
Nebraska state Sen. Norman Wallman represents the county where the bill was founded.
"They had an inmate that came from another facility and after a strip search they found a cell phone on her, but there wasn't anything they could really do to her," Wallman said via email. "They could only use in-house discipline in our jails when people had or brought in contraband."
Recently, other states have made advances in upgrading the technology used in securing their prisons.
In December, the Illinois Department of Corrections made inquiries to security companies regarding the cost of equipping scanning devices to detect mobile phone use, according to the Times of Northwest Indiana. A month earlier, California passed legislation to allow the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to identify calls leaving and entering the prison and blocking those that are unwarranted.
The technology of identifying the usage of mobile devices has progressed considerably in recent years.
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Scott Schober, President and CEO of Berkeley Varitronics, a telecommunications and engineering firm located in Metuchen, New Jersey, was called upon by emergency responders in an attempt to locate cellphones in the rubble at ground zero. Though they had some success, Schober found that the astronomical cost, size and range of the equipment was not practical at the time.
Today, Schober's cellphone detectors are less large and clunky devices than they are something you would see in a spy movie. In some cases Schober's company has created antennas for detectors that fit neatly into Sharpie pens. Small enough to be placed inconspicuously in a shirt pocket, the pen will begin to vibrate around any active cellphones.
Schober's company has been also hired to embed their detection devices into bullet-proof vests, water bottles, hollowed-out books, power strips, and wall-mounted thermostat units.
Schober said his technology has been used in hundreds of prisons in the United States and has also been used by the Drug Enforcement Agency to help in aiding drug busts and border patrol to help corral the smuggling of people from Mexico to the United States.
"This technology is getting smaller and more powerful," Schober said. "And because of the small size of our company we can get affordable equipment quickly to the market."
While Schober's detectors work to find cellphones already in possession of an inmate, other companies are founding technology in an attempt to stop cell phones from getting into the prison.
Peter Harris is the Chief Strategic Officer for Iscon, a company that sells standup and handheld devices that combine infrared and heat transfer to find objects hidden in or under clothing.
The devices can be used for visitors entering the prison or inmates detained within.
Harris said the standup unit costs one-fifth the price of the current body scanners used in airports and unlike an airport unit, does not intrude on privacy by penetrating the clothing or use radiation.
"It works by running some warm air over the inmate's clothes," Harris said. "This is followed by a sensitive flare."
The flare creates a black and white image similar to an X-ray, which shows the imprint of an object against the clothing.
Harris said the handheld device is better for use with more confined spaces such as cells, where random inspections can reveal objects hidden in mattresses not visible to the naked eye.
Another advantage to the scanner is the elimination of pat downs which are routine in a prison setting.
"This technology is a very safe and non-intrusive way to see inside clothing." Harris said.
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