Thousands of Mobile Phones seized in UK Prisons - evidence of corruption ?

wtwu

on December 6, 2007 3:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

Of all the places in the United Kingdom, one would have expected that Her Majesty's Prisons could be kept free of illegal mobile phones.

It should be trivial for the mobile phone networks to detect any unauthorised mobile phones physically within Prisons and to alert the authorities automatically (after, no doubt, charging them a suitable Location Based Services fee). It should be technically easy to install radio triangulation equipment which spots and accurately locates a mobile phone within a Prison, as soon as it is switched on, even for a few seconds.

However, according to these figures published in Hansard, it appears that the Ministry of Justice (and the Home Office before them) are failing to prevent the smuggling of mobile phones into prisons.

They claim to have seized 3,473 mobile phones (or SIM cards) in the last year (October 2006 to September 2007)

This must also imply that there is a huge illegal drugs smuggling racket as well, and that it seems very likely that corrupt Prison Staff must be involved:

Dec 2007 : Column 1261W
[...]

Prisons: Mobile Phones

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many mobile telephones were seized in prisons in England and Wales in each of the last 12 months. [170463]

Maria Eagle: Prison establishments are required to send all seized mobile telephones to HMPS Security Group for interrogation. The following table contains the number of mobile phones (which includes handsets, handsets containing SIM cards, and individual SIM cards) seized and sent for interrogation in each month from 1 October 2006 to 30 September 2007.

5 Dec 2007 : Column 1262W

Month Total number submitted for interrogation

October 2006 230

November 2006 249

December 2006 178

January 2007 310

February 2007 330

March 2007 240

April 2007 272

May 2007 400

June 2007 302

July 2007 334

August 2007 333

September 2007 295

Total 3,473

Month	Total number submitted for interrogation
October 2006	230
November 2006	249
December 2006	178
January 2007	310
February 2007	330
March 2007	240
April 2007	272
May 2007	400
June 2007	302
July 2007	334
August 2007	333
September 2007	295
Total	3,473

We would like to see some statistics on how long it takes for these illegal mobile phones to be detected and confiscated.

The figures for each individual Prison should be also be published.

A Further Thought:

Given that modern mobile phones can also include BlueTooth and/or WiFi,then the radio security defences of Prisons should also check these methods of sending messages. An extended range antenna and/or an illegal amplifier, in a vehicle in the car park or in neighbouring streets could well penetrate the walls of the Prison, without making use of the actual mobile phone network.

Cordless DECT phone handsets might also be illegally amplified to reach in and out of a Prison.

13 Comments

By wtwu on December 6, 2007 4:25 PM

There are also figures for three Prisons in Northern Ireland in the last year:

Commons Hansard 5 Dec 2007 : Column 1215W

Totals for December 2006 to November 2007:

Maghaberry: 28
Maghilligan: 41
Hydebank: 2

By Chrus Fleming on December 6, 2007 4:32 PM

I'm not sure that it would be trivial for the mobile phone networks to detect any unauthorised mobile phones physically within Prisons.

To start with, how would you distinguish between phones in Visitor or prison officer area's vs phones in the prison.

What about people just outside of the prison?

By Chrus Fleming on December 6, 2007 4:36 PM

Thinking ahead, the best way to do this would be to filter out IMSI's used outside of the prison area. Phones that don't have the mobility would be suspicious.

It's one thing to find out that people are using phones inside a prison area, but another as to finding who's they are.

By wtwu on December 6, 2007 5:22 PM

@ Chris -

"To start with, how would you distinguish between phones in Visitor or prison officer area's vs phones in the prison."

What is so hard about forcing all visitors without exception, to hand in their phones at the gate ?

Any emergency mobile phones used by prison staff should be pre-registered ones only.

From the figures, the prison authorities obviously do detect and seize phones, but the fact that they continue to have to do so, month after month, shows that there must be ongoing corruption or ineptitude, or both.

Finding out who calls whom is just involves a routine Communications Traffic Data request under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 - drug dealing or planning an escape etc. are easily serious enough crimes to justify this.

Since the number of SIMs obviously exceeds the number of handsets, a check on the IMEI is also required (although, obviously, that can be forged, depending on the model of phone)

By wtwu on December 6, 2007 5:58 PM

Wandsworth Prison Independent Monitoring Board Report is quoted by The Times

The Times
December 3, 2007
Prison drug barons thrive on illicit phones
Richard Ford, Home Correspondent
Inmates in the biggest jail in Britain are ordering drugs, continuing to run criminal activities and plotting escapes using mobile phones that are smuggled into the building, according to a watchdog report.

The "apparently limitless" supply of mobile phones in Wandsworth prison is increasing the supply of drugs on the wings as well as "fuelling a whole group of new users", the report said. Almost 250 mobile phones were found inside Wandsworth, in southwest London, in the first five months of this year, the report from the prison’s Independent Monitoring Board disclosed.

"We still have very serious concerns about the apparently limitless supply of mobile phones in the prison that drive the easy availability of drugs and that are also used in bullying and intimidation," the report, which covers 2006-07, said. "Mobile phones are used to facilitate the delivery of drugs to prisoners, continue criminal activities from within, pressurise vulnerable prisoners, contact families of prisoners and staff, plan escapes, bullying, intimidation and a host of other unsavoury activities."

The report said that it was only a matter of time before a "very serious incident" took place because of mobile phone use. It said that more officers should be on duty during religious services to prevent worship being used as a cover for illicit activities, particularly drug dealing. It added that for three years it had warned the Home Office, which until earlier this year had responsibility for prisons, about mobile phone use by prisoners, but no effective action had been taken.

The board called for a jamming system around the prison but it is understood that this cannot be done because it would affect the use of mobile phones on roads outside.

[...]

The Independent Monitoring Board report for Wansdworth is available online as a .pdf file.

http://www.imb.gov.uk/annual-reports/07-annual-reports/Wandsworth_2006-2007.pdf

By 1327 on December 6, 2007 7:49 PM

No need for all this technology really. All it needs is a few officers in each prison to be issued with a near field receiver. These cost around £10 to make (so probably a £1000 for the govt to buy !). In short they are a short range radio receiver that receives all radio broadcasts within a few tens of metres and GSM cell phones make a distinctive sound on them. If there was a suspicion of illicit cell phone use within a wing one of these receivers would soon find it.

By wtwu on December 6, 2007 8:25 PM

@ 1327 - presumably the illegal mobile phones are not powered up for very long, to save batteries etc. which might make it hard for short range equipment to detect them, assuming that there the usual human lookouts watching out for patrols.

If certain wings, in certain prisons have become "no go" areas for Prison Officers, then the arrogant criminals may keep their phones on for longer.

By wtwu on December 6, 2007 9:00 PM

The Irish Independent reports that

Over 2,300 mobile phones seized since 'Liveline' call By Tom Brady Saturday December 01 2007
MORE than two thousand illegally-held mobile phones have been seized by prison officers in the past year.

New figures show a massive increase in the confiscation of mobiles from prisoners since the introduction of tougher measures outlawing their possession.

The statistics reveal that 2,344 phones were recovered in prisons during the past 12 months.

And more than a third, or 832, were seized in Mountjoy in Dublin.

According to the jail authorities, much of the increase in seizures in Mountjoy can be attributed to new walk-through detectors at the jail at the start of August.

Given the relative sizes of the Irish and English prison populations, does this mean that the English seizure figures only repreent a small fraction of the number of phones

The Economist notes the expense and long queues for the monitored landline prison phone service, run by British Telecom

Mobiles are forbidden (though many inmates possess them), and most prisoners have only two hours a day in which they may use the payphones. These are limited in number and often broken, and the queues tend to be long. The charges are high, too. The minimum rate for a call to any United Kingdom land-line number is 10p, which buys 55 seconds of chat, after which it is 1p for every 5.5 seconds. To call a mobile costs 19-65p per minute. These rates are less egregious than those charged by other providers to many hospital patients, who are similarly unable to shop around. But they are higher than in public call boxes and for prisoners, whose average wage is £8 a week, they are mountainous.

By wtwu on December 8, 2007 1:56 PM

B.O.S.S (Body Orifice Security Scanner) chair - see photos and prices and some technical specifications

This metal detector configured in a chair is in use at Wandsworth and perhaps at some, but not all, other UK prisons.

By wtwu on December 8, 2007 6:31 PM

BBC Radio 4 IPM programme and blog featured this story today.

We will be watching our webserver logfiles for visits to Spy Blog from the Ministry of (in)Justice or other Labour Government political spin doctors, probably on Monday morning.

It was worrying to hear from the Chairman of the Wandsworth Prison Independent Monitoring Board, that, as we suspected, the number of seizures is just the tip of the iceberg, and that there are lots more illegal mobile phones being operated within prisons.

The spokesman from the Prison Officers' Association was rightly worried about mobile phones being used to threaten and intimidate inmates and possibly Prison Officers or their families (who are also at risk from the HMRC missing CD discs data disaster).

He also pointed out that Ministry of Justice response that they were doing various things (including trying out the BOSS system, mobile detection equipment, search dogs etc.) is all very well and good, except that the patches of good practice, do not appear to
extend to the entire Prison estate in England and Wales - over 150 prisons.

The report of the incident whereby a prisoner was beaten up by gang inmates and his injuries were photographed on a mobile phone camera, with the threat that the images would be sent to his family is another foreseeable consequence of allowing mobile phones to have become so prevalent in prison,

Remember that crude jamming or Faraday cage shielding of mobile phone signals could easily affect mobile phone services well outside the perimeter of a prison, if done stupidly or on the cheap.

Unless appropriate micro or pico cell transmitters or repeaters are also installed, then the shielding or jamming of a prison, will create a mobile phone reception "dead zone" shadow, which will prevent normal mobile phone use where the prison happens to be directly between a Cell Phone Mast and a mobile phone handset.

This includes a "dead zone" for
ringing the Emergency Services, so inappropriate jamming or shielding done on the cheap could contribute to injuries or loss of life.

By wtwu on December 22, 2007 1:21 AM

BBC News has followed up this story with a report -Care to sit on the Boss chair? which involved a visit to HMP Woodhill high security prison near Milton Keynes, focusing on the Body Orifice Scanner chair.

The Labour Prisons Minister David Hanson is quoted as vaguely promising to see if these will be installed in every prison.

Given the other broken promises and calculated political lies (e.g. announcing the building of 3 new "Titan" prisons each with a capacity of 2,500 inmates, without the actual budget to do this), we remain to be convinced that sufficient numbers of such scanner equipment will actually be installed in every prison.

By Adonna Wickham on February 26, 2008 7:16 AM

Mobile Phones are being brought into prisons by corrupt prison officers. Having visited Belmarsh recently, my son advised me that prison officers bring in drugs and mobiles for large sums of cash paid to them by people on the outside for prisoners.

By wtwu on September 25, 2008 6:11 AM

The Government Response to the Wandsworth Prison Independent Monitoring Board Annual Report for 2007, published 5th November 2007, mentions some Mobile Phone blocking trials:

http://www.imb.gov.uk/annual-reports/10-ministers-replies/Reply-Wandsworth_2006-2007.pdf

Right at the end of this image only .pdf (no copy and paste of text allowed !) is a section entitled:

[...]

HMP WANDSWORTH: INDEPENDENT MONITORING BOARD ANNUAL REPORT FOR JUNE 2006 - MAY 2007

Prison Service comments on matters raised in this report

[...]

Access to Drugs and Mobile Telephones

Mobile telephones pose a risk to the safety and security of prisons. Security Group in Prison Service headquarters in conjunction with the Home Office Scientific Development Branch continues to address this concern from technological, procedural and legislative perspectives.

As part of this process , the high security prisons have carried out operational pilots of small portable reactive blockers. The positive point drawn from the initial findings is that the theory of blocking does work and is clearly the way forward in disrupting the use of mobile telephones by prisoners. An evaluation of these devices is currently underway.

What is the "callateral damage" effect on mobile phones in the immediate area outside of the prison ? Are emergency services 999 / 112 calls affected ?

A pilot is about to commence at Ashwell and Manchester prisons which will test a signal detection system that will have the ability to add reactive blocking. A further pilot is taking place at Long Larton which tests the blocking of the whole of one of the residential wings.

Under the Offender Management Act, it will be a criminal offence to take a mobile phone into or out of a prison without authorisation. It is envisaged that this section of the Act will come into force in April 2008. This will provide the Prison Service with strong legislative support in their efforts to prevent illegal activities inside prisons.

[...]

Mobile phones are specifically mentioned, as are cameras and sound-recording devices etc.

Strangely, no other radio devices seem to be banned by statute, although they might be in individual prison regulations, especially if those devices are not specifically being used to plan or aid an escape, but "only" to help conduct outside criminal activities etc. What about WiFi, BlueTooth or even USB 3G data devices (not technically mobile phones) etc. ?

See the Offender Management Act 2007 section 22 Conveyance of prohibited articles into or out of prison which amend s the schedule of prohibited articles under the section 40 of the Prison Act 1952, and comes with a penalty of up to 2 years in prison and / or a fine up to level 3 on the standard scale (currently £1000)

This section 22 came into force on 1st April 2008 though SI 2008/504 The Offender Management Act 2007 (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional Provision) Order 2008

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wtwu: The Government Response to the Wandsworth Prison Independent Monitoring Board read more
Adonna Wickham: Mobile Phones are being brought into prisons by corrupt prison read more
wtwu: BBC News has followed up this story with a report read more
wtwu: BBC Radio 4 IPM programme and blog featured this story read more
wtwu: B.O.S.S (Body Orifice Security Scanner) chair - see photos and read more
wtwu: The Irish Independent reports that Over 2,300 mobile phones seized read more
wtwu: @ 1327 - presumably the illegal mobile phones are not read more
1327: No need for all this technology really. All it needs read more
wtwu: Wandsworth Prison Independent Monitoring Board Report is quoted by The read more
wtwu: @ Chris - "To start with, how would you distinguish read more

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The United Kingdom suffers from tens of thousands of pages of complicated criminal laws, and thousands of new, often unenforceable criminal offences, which have been created as a "Pretend to be Seen to Be Doing Something" response to tabloid media hype and hysteria, and political social engineering dogmas. These overbroad, catch-all laws, which remove the scope for any judicial appeals process, have been rubber stamped, often without being read, let alone properly understood, by Members of Parliament.

The text of many of these Acts of Parliament are now online, but it is still too difficult for most people, including the police and criminal justice system, to work out the cumulative effect of all the amendments, even for the most serious offences involving national security or terrorism or serious crime.

Many MPs do not seem to bother to even to actually read the details of the legislation which they vote to inflict on us.

UK Legislation Links

UK Statute Law Database - is the official revised edition of the primary legislation of the United Kingdom made available online, but it is not yet up to date.

Intelligence.gov.uk - Cabinet Office hosted portal website to various UK Intelligence Agencies and UK Government intelligence committees and Commissioners etc.

Anti-terrorism hotline - links removed in protestClimate of Fear propaganda posters

MI5 Security Service - links to encrypted reporting form removed in protest at the Climate of Fear propaganda posters

Secure Your Fertiliser - advice on ammonium nitrate and urea fertiliser security

Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure - "CPNI provides expert advice to the critical national infrastructure on physical, personnel and information security, to protect against terrorism and other threats."

Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) recruitment.

Government Communications Headquarters GCHQ

Serious Organised Crime Agency - have cut themselves off from direct contact with the public and businesses - no phone - no email

Defence Advisory (DA) Notice system - voluntary self censorship by the established UK press and broadcast media regarding defence and intelligence topics via the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee.

National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit - keeps a watch on animal extremists, genetically modified crop protesters, peace protesters etc.
(some people think that the word salad of acronyms means that NETCU is a spoof website)

UK Public ~~CCTV~~ Surveillance Regulation Campaign

NO2ID Campaign - cross party opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card and National Identity Register centralised database.

Gary McKinnon is facing extradition to the USA under the controversial Extradition Act 2003, without any prima facie evidence or charges brought against him in a UK court. Try him here in the UK, under UK law.

FreeFarid.com - Kafkaesque extradition of Farid Hilali under the European Arrest Warrant to Spain

Parliament Protest blog - resistance to the Designated Area restricting peaceful demonstrations or lobbying in the vicinity of Parliament.

Data Retention is No Solution - Petition to the European Commission and European Parliament against their vague Data Retention plans.

Save Parliament - Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (and other issues)

Open Rights Group

The Big Opt Out Campaign - opt out of having your NHS Care Record medical records and personal details stored insecurely on a massive national centralised database.

Tor - the onion routing network - "Tor aims to defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal anonymity and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Communications are bounced around a distributed network of servers called onion routers, protecting you from websites that build profiles of your interests, local eavesdroppers that read your data or learn what sites you visit, and even the onion routers themselves."

Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor - useful Guide published by Global Voices Advocacy with step by step software configuration screenshots (updated March 10th 2009).

Amnesty International's irrepressible.info campaign

BlogSafer - wiki with multilingual guides to anonymous blogging

NGO in a box - Security Edition privacy and security software tools

Home Office Watch blog, "a single repository of all the shambolic errors and mistakes made by the British Home Office compiled from Parliamentary Questions, news reports, and tip-offs by the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs team."

Reporters Without Borders - Reporters Sans Frontières - campaign for journalists 'and bloggers' freedom in repressive countries and war zones.

Committee to Protect Bloggers - "devoted to the protection of bloggers worldwide with a focus on highlighting the plight of bloggers threatened and imprisoned by their government."

Icelanders are NOT terrorists ! - despite Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling's use of anti-terrorism legislation to seize the assets of Icelandic banks.

No CCTV - The Campaign Against CCTV

Thousands of Mobile Phones seized in UK Prisons - evidence of corruption ?

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