Another way for prisoners to evade prison wiretapping is to obtain their own mobile phones. The prison authorities found that prison inmates can easily get their previous mobile phones (which can be activated with a charger). One tip came from the mother of a prisoner who complained in a jail guard at a Texas state jail that her son’s cell phone was not well received.
In addition to known prisoners committing crimes by telephone, the accessibility of mobile phones has become a serious problem in prisons. When members of the prison have mobile phones, gangs can organize themselves more easily. For example, it is reported that in 2006, gang leaders imprisoned in Brazil used their mobile phones to plot a large-scale simultaneous riot, with the purpose of proving their influence and even being locked up in prison. The group caused an uprising in more than 70 prisons. At the same time, members outside the prison caused riots and caused serious damage to public buses and police stations. Gangs have also surpassed American prison cells, where gang leaders can exercise power from inside the prison walls and even order the killing of gangs.
So, how do prisoners use mobile phones? Obviously, it is well known that visitors and corrupt prison guards provide these calls to prisoners. To help eliminate this phenomenon, some states try to combat it by making the consequences more serious. The court allowed penalties for people who were discovered with a mobile phone, because these conversations cannot be monitored and are therefore a security threat. Several states have criminalized the possession of mobile phones by prisoners, while others hope to increase this crime to a felony level.
Unfortunately, for prisons, cell phone signal jammer (interfering with radio waves to prevent cell phone communication) from the “prison jamming” system is not a viable option-at least in the United States, because cell phone jamming devices are illegal under property laws. In addition, even if the prison obtains permission to block cell phone signals, jammers may also interrupt the prison’s radio signals. Despite these concerns, prisons in other countries (such as England) have also implemented jammers due to the widespread use of mobile phones.