Jails will FINALLY start jamming lags’ smuggled mobiles as rollout for high-tech blockers begins
The go-ahead follows Government pressure on telecoms giants to help crackdown on smuggled mobile phones
PRISONERS will finally be blocked from using mobiles next month under plans to roll-out ‘hi-tech’ smartphone jammers at 10 jails.
Prisons Minister Sam Gyimah is meeting telecoms execs next week to put the final touches to plans officials hope will call time on the explosion in mobile phone use behind bars.
Cutting edge technology will be used to create a huge virtual filter that detects any handset that hasn’t been approved by a prison governor and then blocks the signal.
Trials of the system – described as a “virtual spiders’ web” – will take place at 10 jails, in a mixture of rural, town and inner city locations across the UK – within the coming weeks. If successful, the kit will be rolled out nationwide.
The move follows Government fears that mobiles are increasingly being used by criminals behind bars to trade drugs, guns and even organise murders of rival gangleaders.
One lag used his illicit mobile phone to import a consignment of submachine guns into the UK from Germany.
Another managed to organise shipments of cocaine from South America. A staggering 15,000 Sim cards were confiscated by prison chiefs last year.
A Whitehall source said: “We want to stop prisoners from continuing their life of crime behind bars – dealing drugs and smuggling weapons from the comfort of their cell.
“That is why we’re determined to do all we can to stem the flow of phones with the help of leading mobile phone companies.”
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Prisons across the UK allow inmates to use monitored landline phones but mobile usage is supposed to be limited and must be approved.
New rules last year gave governors the green light to be able to cut-off phones without having to physically find illegally held mobiles.
Ministers last month called on the telecoms industry for help last month given fears that traditional jammers could take out the mobile phone signal in entire neighbourhoods close to a prison.