How Mobile Phones are Increasingly Becoming a Threat in Jails

Andrew McIntyre is no school boy.  As the BBC reports, he had been convicted on numerous firearms and drug-related charges and was serving an eight-month sentence behind bars.

But that wasn’t enough to slow McIntyre’s burgeoning drug business.  From his jail cell he was able to direct his illegal operations by using smuggled mobile phones.

And use them he did: in one three month period McIntyre called or texted over six thousand times before being caught.

Earlier this month, also in Britain, prisoner Michael Long used a cell phone he illegally bought from a prison warden to record his life at Bullington Prison.  Worse, he emailed the images and videos to news agencies, which broadcast the images of lax security and other problems.

And today, showing the resourcefulness of those incarcerated, the New York Times is reporting that inmates in seven Georgia prisons…

“…have used contraband cellphones to coordinate a nonviolent strike this weekend, saying they want better living conditions and to be paid for work they do in the prisons.”

Correctional officers have known for years that as mobile phones become smaller, more powerful, and easier to connect to a variety of networks, they are also becoming one of the most highly-prized contraband items in prisons.  These phones have been used to threaten witnesses, direct payback ‘hits’ and even build illegal operations.

Now it seems the prisoners are getting smarter – not only communicating with the outside world, but among themselves.

As the adage goes, it seems information – like humans – wants to be free.