High-tech Jammers To Beat Cell Phones
Sun Herald
Sunday June 15, 2003
JAMMING devices should be installed in top jails in New South Wales to stop convicted criminals communicating by mobile phone with their associates on the outside.
Justice Minister John Hatzistergos yesterday called on the Federal Government to amend laws banning the use of jamming devices so that state-of-the-art equipment can be introduced at maximum security jails.
The high-tech equipment now available on the international market is the latest weapon being sought by the NSW Corrective Services Department to fight drug-crime bosses and gangs.
After photographs were taken by mobile equipment during stock trader Rene Rivkin's periodic detention last weekend, Mr Hatzistergos warned that to smuggle a cell phone into jail was a criminal offence punishable by up to two years' jail.
A just-released prison survey reveals that mobiles illegally used by inmates were linked to major crimes including:
• Conspiracy to murder a Crown witness.
• Control of a city drug syndicate.
• Threats to investigative prison staff.
• Smuggling drugs into prisons.
• Money laundering activities.
``The issue of the possession and use of mobile phones by inmates is a worldwide problem," said Mr Hatzistergos.
``But with the co-operation of the federal authorities, we can render mobile phones useless inside prisons."
In a world where terrorism had become a primary concern, prison authorities had a duty to eliminate illicit phone communications which could be a direct security threat, he said.
He revealed that 181 mobile phones and 162 SIM cards had been seized in a two-year blitz on illegally-held phone equipment in the state's 33 correctional facilities.
He admitted that mobiles had become the hottest contraband in the jail system with friends and families of criminals going to bizarre lengths to smuggle them through security.
``The decreasing size of phones makes them easier to conceal, sometimes in body cavities, despite the use of stringent searching routines," he said.
Prison officers have uncovered mobiles hidden in bags of groceries such as cans of food, sardine tins, cans of cooking oil, margarine tubs and inside hollowed-out blocks of cheese.
Electronic equipment is another favourite hiding place.
During intensive searches, officers have found mobiles inside Walkman cassette players, television sets, radios, fridges, toasters, rice cookers and fans. A vigilant officer caught a visitor exchanging a pair of shoes with an inmate and subsequently found a mobile phone hidden under a false sole.
An internal security report said recent raids have uncovered phones hidden inside mattresses, pot plants, wall cavities, laundries, cupboards and light fittings.
One of the most elaborate hiding places was the S-bend of a toilet with the phone suspended in the pipe by a piece of string.
The report said attention needed to be focused on the latest generation of mobile phones which have video and sound recording capabilities.
Mr Hatzistergos said while the department had an excellent track record in discovering and confiscating mobiles phones ``this success is hampered by the limits of technology and the guile of inmates".
He said the next logical step was to install high-tech jamming equipment which can prevent unauthorised communications between criminals and their gangland associates.
He had been advised by the Australian Communications Authority that jamming devices are prohibited under federal law because they might fall into the wrong hands.
But he argued that they had a vital security role to play in stopping illegal phone traffic from jails.
``The limitations imposed by the Radiocommunications Act are an impediment to the administration of justice in NSW and elsewhere," Mr Hatzistergos said.
``I call on the Commonwealth to act quickly and decisively on this issue because the whole community will benefit from the substantial removal of this threat to security," he said.
Mr Hatzistergos has sent his proposal to other state justice ministers in advance of their summit in July asking for their support for a national approach to jamming mobiles in prisons.
GETTING A LINE OUT
• Sentenced inmates are allowed one landline phone call per week.
• Unsentenced inmates are allowed three calls per week.
• Additional calls are permitted to legal representatives, to oversight bodies such as the Ombudsman, to support agencies or for humanitarian reasons such as births, deaths or illnesses in the family.
• Calls are subject to monitoring by the Department of Corrective Services to ensure that inmates are not attempting to orchestrate illegal activities from inside prison.
• Persons caught trying to smuggle mobile phones into jail can be jailed for up to two years and lose their visiting rights.
OILS AIN'T OILS
On January 16 this year a 500ml tin of Spanish-imported olive oil was inspected during a routine visit. On opening the lid prison officers found 100 per cent pure oil in the top of the can. But then they discovered a false bottom and, once removed, they found a mobile phone packed in cotton wool so that it could not be detected if the can was shaken during the normal search.
UNCHAINED MELODY
A prison officer casually inspected a Sony Walkman cassette player when a family member presented it as a gift to a prisoner in maximum security on January 15 last year. It seemed in normal working order but he conscientiously decided to inspect the batteries. On removing the back of the player he discovered that the wiring had been
re-arranged and a mobile phone inserted.
BEANS MEANS PHONES
A can of red kidney beans, a regular ingredient in prisoners' salads and soups, was confiscated from a food parcel by prison officers on October 14 last year during a family visit. The original base of the can had been replaced by a fake screw-on bottom. The beans had been removed and replaced with a mobile as well as a square piece of lead to give the can its correct 400g weight.
SOMETHING'S FISHY
The $1.10 can of sardines in oil in the prisoner's cell looked innocent enough during a routine inspection early last year. The 106g tins, with a ring-pull top, are a delicacy many prisoners receive in food parcels from their relatives. But on closer inspection the officer noticed the original lid had been replaced with a carefully soldered false one concealing a mobile phone.
© 2003 Sun Herald
