Different methods are available to control cell phones in prisons and correctional facilities. Yet detecting and locating the cell phone is the most likely choice for invaluable reasons.

Here is a comparison of the different methods.

Managed Access

This method attempts to control the cell phone signal to a specific phone. It’s far more costly than detection and can run to 7 figures. So it is way beyond the budgets of many institutions or the willingness of politicians to approve the method.

Jamming

Another technique, which is based on jamming cell phone signals, is forbidden by the FCC. Even if it were allowed, it’s virtually impossible to confine the jamming effect inside the prison walls. In addition, it creates dangers by impacting legitimate calls, such calls to 911. It’s also dangerous because it can interfere with two-way radios used by guards and with “guard down” alerting systems.

Patrol-Type Detection

Patrol-type detection, which uses wands and dogs, tends to be inefficient, because it requires additional manpower. Most facilities, which are already stretched, simply don’t have the resources. The method can quickly become inefficient, too. Feedback from prison personnel who carry out wand-type portable detector searches say that prisoners are one step ahead. The prisoners quickly learn to recognize the devices and switch off their phones during the sweep.

Cell Phone Detection

Locating the cell phone, which is the method Cellbusters recommends, is the most popular choice for many reasons. It’s not only far more cost effective; it also provides additional important benefits, such as intelligence gathering from a recovered device and DNA identification.  Of course, DNA identification is critical. It can lead to further prosecutions, because it’s a felony to have a cell phone in the prisons and correctional facilities of some US states.

Why Cellbusters is the most effective and cost-effective choice

Cellbusters is an always-on detection and location identification solution. So it’s far more effective and efficient at locating contraband devices.  In addition, detection by Cellbusters gives institutions the ability to measure the extent of the problem and its progress at enforcing a no-cell-phone policy. Since these measurements can help determine ROI and justification for budgets, they’re extremely beneficial to prison management.

As a result of our advanced technology, Cellbusters offers much more effective control of cell phone use – and a much better investment.

The real need for cell phone detection

You’ll protect your staff, as well as innocent outsiders

Illicit cell phone use poses a real threat to the staff of prisons and correctional facilities. Disgruntled inmates can photograph and video members of your staff and send the identifying information to outsiders.  So the staff members can be threatened or harmed. You’ll also help protect innocent people outside of the prison, who can be threatened and endangered by prisoners with illicit cell phones.

The problem keeps growing – and so do the dangers

When you realize how valuable cell phones have become to prisoners, it becomes more understandable why prison officials report that it’s a daily battle to keep cell phones out of the hands of prisoners. In fact, cell phones are in such demand in prisons that people who smuggle them in can charge up to $5,000 for one.  So it has become a high-value business that isn’t going away without effective steps by prisons and correctional facilities.

The value of contraband cell phones has become so high that all sorts of tactics are employed to smuggle them into prisons, including resourcefully hiding them on a person, sending them “over the fence” by putting them in basketballs and even by using toy airplanes and helicopters. It’s true! Police reported that a remote-controlled helicopter that crashed near a prison in Asia was being used to smuggle mobile phones and phone parts worth millions in the local currency to inmates. Seven mobile phones, four satellite mobile phones, a number of SIM cards, eight mobile phone batteries and three mobile phone screens were found among the wreckage of the helicopter.

The value of cell phones in prisons and correctional facilities has also created potential for threats against lives and even riots. For instance, as reported in late November of 2011, a riot at Telfair State Prison in Albany, Georgia, occurred after inmates started fighting each other for illegal cell phones. Three inmates were injured, two were hospitalized, and one staff member was hurt. The Commissioner of the Department of Corrections stated that the riot emphasizes the serious dangers of cell phones that make their way into the prison system.

Yes, the problem of illicit cell phone use in prisons requires an effective and affordable method to control it.

Prison and correctional facilities can rest assured that, with Cellbusters advanced technology, it’s lights out for illicit cell phone use.

To learn more about the superiority of Cellbusters technology for use in prisons and other correctional facilities, we invite you to contact us.