'Safe Prisons Communication Act' passes Senate, inmates won't be able to hear you soon
By Tim Stevens 
posted Oct 7th 2009 9:04AM
posted Oct 7th 2009 9:04AM
[Via textually.org]
Please note: If you're a current Engadget commenter, you do not need to re-register. Simply login and you will be prompted to select a username.
Let's jam the phones in the room pictured above. Maybe then, they can get some work done...
+1
Also, to top it off, let's get rid of lobbyists.
lot of good thinking here...
lets make prisoners fight to the death, with cars and stuff.
Good one......
lobbying to get rid of lobbyist, more irony
In regards to 'DR house' his comment, does obama's health care plan include mental health care? That might help the internet a lot.
hmmm.... so if the kidnap and shove u into those cells under mass quarantine of the 'swine'..cant make no phone calls =\
oh poo
DAM U FEMA CAMPs
-1, uninformed outrage
Cell phone use is already prohibited on the floor. You have to gout to the coat room.
this is MADNESS!!!!!
This is SPARTA!
sparta?
This is madness!
No, I'm Patrick!
Let's see, parts of the country have been decimated by illegal immigration, and these old farts are worried about convicts having cell phones? Like many things before it, try this jamming technology on prisons, then spread it to the general public.
ONE STEP BEYOND!!!
@p3t3b2
Decimated by illegal immigration? Which part of the US do you mean? NYC? The South West? California? How have they decimated our country? By picking the lettuce, tomatoes and vegetables that no citizen of our country would want to pick because we would never work low paying agricultural jobs? Quit listening to Rush and Glenn Beck, and start reading engadget.com and maybe you would not be such a Right Wing Kook.
Lol p3t3b2, do you even know what decimation is? That's when you kill about a tenth of a population. Are you telling me 10% of Americans have been killed by Mexicans? I think I would have heard about that if it happened.
the term decimation comes from punishment dished out to the army back in ancient rome. if they did something bad enough, say mutiny, then each of the smallest groups (10 men) had to kill one their own.
i dont think illegal immigrants are doing anything like that lol
I laughed a lot at the end of this post.
This act is actually targeted to people with a 'cellphone jammer fetish'. Now they don't really have to worry about using them illegally as even if they go to prison the government will take care of their needs.
Yo Dawg! We heard how much you like using cell phone jammers.. so we put a cell phone jammer in your new....
....errr
How are the guards supposed to update their facebook status if their iPhones are jammed?
Oh yes, WiFi of course!
Ah wifi...
Would inmates resort to VOIP now?
This is like a game of where's Waldo, except that Waldo is the Verizon guy....
Nice Photoshop guys!
I scrolled up to see that - Good catch, lol.
Is that the Verizon guy in the lower left?
LOL! Sure is!
I wonder how much he makes for those commercials...
That sure is the Verizon guy there, I was hoping someone else would catch it. That's hilarious!
I think he was appointed to the Senate when Obama left.
So, what flavor are they getting ? Strawberry or Grape?
"Can you hear me now? I'm sitting next to Dubya, Trump, and some random dude!"
Wow, you really don't know what the senate is, do you?
Wow, you really don't know what a lame attempt at a caption is, do you?
This is going to spread once it becomes law. I wonder how the FCC feels about getting stepped on...
I was wondering the same thing...Ultimately this is up to the FCC unless congress has the ability to trump them...
You guys seem to think the FCC are some sort of gods right? WTF
FCC is Congresses bitch!
as soon as it becomes law, someone will make a work around, like using the 700MHz spectrum or piggybacking on a baby monitor.
This is being passed to prevent a revolution in the near future. They figure if they severe the head of the rebellions by placing them in prison with no communications what so ever then the revolution will just stop.
Don't be fooled by the trivial excuses they hand out. The real reason is the government is trying to establish complete control over the people.
"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."
- Declaration of Independence (for those of you who have forgotten.)
hehe, you're such a silly goose!
@DanielT
LOL. You caption matches your avatar.
wake up sheeple!
Okay, I fukken lol'd. You really believe they wouldn't just outright kill you? If you were a threat to this super secret conspiracy, they'd just put your ass in the ground and make you disappear.
tweet tweet the jailbird sings no more, yay!
Not on Twitter anyways.
The prisons could save money on cell phone jammers and just let them smuggle in AT&T phones instead...
no lack of bars there.
Interesting resolution indeed on the government's part! So we shut down/jam the ability for cell phones to operate over the air in prison areas. What happens when the frequency bleeds over and abnormally effects/jams a guard's radio, or when a hostage has a chance to call out via a cell phone. Why not just detect cell phone use?:
http://www.eaprotection.com/profesesional-cell-phone-detector-detects-cell-phones-quickly-and-easily.aspx
Geez, don't they know that prisoners can STILL play games with a jammed cell phone!
Because tracking them down and taking away their 'phones would be subject to all kinds of silly lawsuits. The "see no evil; hear no evil" approach is not nearly as effective or surgical, but avoids all kinds of litigious nonsense.
Can you think up anything more ridiculous than arguing that a 'hostage has a cellphone'? That's youtube-comments quality talk.
They've been deliberating this in the UK for ages, why don't they just do it?
In the UK, you have inmates going onto Facebook using a smuggled phone and bragging about their nice life inside, rubbing the victims' faces in it and uploading photos of themselves in their cells with their scummy friends yet somehow the prison authorities ignore it and never seem to act on it.
Ban it here too, please. The technology exists and has been extensively tested.
Now how about we pass the same law for the classroom? All these kids who have death grips on their mobile phones will recognize that when the bell rings your call will end so get your ass to class anyway.
Did anyone else see the Verizon guy in the picture?
Nope, your FIRST Chris! Did anyone else notice he didn't read the comments?
And you mean "you're." Did anyone else see the guy who doesn't understand grammar?
I'm on the AT&T network, so no cell phone jammer is necessary. My phone is rarely usable unless I travel far from my apartment.
If anyone is going to figure out how to defeat jammers, it'll be someone with nothing better to do all day than to figure out how to defeat jammers. For twenty years with good behavior.
Rather than Jamming the cell phones, how about they triangulate their location? Find the cell phones and punish the offenders.
Because that would make sense... this is congress remember. The same crew so concerned about our country they investigate steriod use in professional sports.
See the guy in the front left, in the front row on the left side? The guy with the glasses, it looks like his head was superimposed onto that body. It looks a little like the guy from the verizon commercials. "can you hear me now?" Engadget did you guys have something to do with that, or is that just a stock picture that someone had edited.
You are definitely right...good eye.
Does jamming apply to women's prisons also? Because that would be considered cruel and unusual punishment.
Ed
Cellphone jammers should not be illegal anyway, as long as there is a notification like with the "Microwave oven in use" signs. The problem would be to ensure that the jammer only jams signals in the designated area and cell frequencies.
Do we have freedom or not? If an individual has the freedom to carry a cellphone, the property owner should have the freedom to jam cellphone signals.
Some theaters use a different approach - signal blocking paint.
Concerning pro/con terrorist blocking: It is widely recognized that improvised remote detonators usually use cellphones as triggers. Just watch any action show or movie. I think that even if cell jammers aren't allowed in general use (which I think they should), they should be allowed around extremely sensitive targets, like the President. One of the Secret Service guys could just carry a small jammer with him, or maybe one could be added to the nuclear code case. Obviously, the President and Secret Service would have to use an alternate method of communication, or special jam-resistant phones. Which they may sue anyway.
Really??? Cellphone blockers aren't legal?! I did not know that...I used to go to a high school and as soon as you stepped inside your signal just dropped (unless you had Sprint which most didn't...except for staff of course). We always assumed the building (since it was brand new in 03 or 04) was built with cellphone blockers or something. Saying that there is just no service in that area makes no sense because outside of the building everyone has fine service...
Too bad you guys in supermax! Back to tossing salads!
I'd hate to be a prison guard then. Well, for a lot of reasons. But lack of phone access would trump dealing with violent criminals and all.
+1 for the irony reference.