On Monday, Global Tel-Link will activate a cellphone blocking system at Avenal State Prison which is located about 60 miles south of Fresno. In the next three years all 35 California state prisons are expected to have the cellphone blocking technology installed.
Last year CDCR confiscated 15,000 contraband cellphones from prison inmates. 8,000 cellphones have been confiscated from California’s prisoners so far this year. Global Tel-Link claims that its system will prevent inmates from making voice calls, sending emails, texting messages or accessing the Internet.
When an inmate tries to make a cellphone call under Global Tel-Link’s system, instead of a dial tone, he will hear "The cellular device that you are using at Avenal State Prison has been identified as contraband. It is illegal to possess."
Corrupt correctional officers and other prison workers will still be able to smuggle cellphones to inmates, but in order for the phones to work they must be registered with the cellphone service providers in their names. I suspect they will claim the phones were stolen whenever an inmate gets caught with one of their phones.
Since inmates like Charlie Manson will no longer be able to connect with family, friends and other outsiders by using personal phones, look for Amnesty International to jump in and declare that disconnecting inmates from outside contacts constitutes cruel and inhumane treatment.
1 comment:
Ten years late. Still, better late than never.
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Centurion
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