Senate Seeks FCC Approval To Jam Prison Cell Phones

INFORMATION WEEK.com ^ | July 15, 2008 04:00 AM | By W. David Gardner

[Cindy]

Senate Seeks FCC Approval To Jam Prison Cell Phones

Legislation aims to stop organized-crime members from using smuggled cell phones to conduct criminal activities from prison.

By W. David Gardner InformationWeek July 15, 2008 04:00 AM

With strong bipartisan support to permit the jamming of cell phone signals in prisons, the issue will head to the Federal Communications Commission, which has had longtime jurisdiction over wireless jamming and interference measures.

The debate has received widespread attention this week in hearings conducted by the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee. The Safe Prisons Communications Act, co-sponsored by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), calls for the FCC to give correctional facilities a waiver to operate cell phone signal jamming devices at their prisons.

The hearings produced several horror stories of prisoners using contraband cell phones to order assassinations and harass state legislators from death row.

Senator Mikulski discussed how organized-crime members in prisons used smuggled cell phones to conduct criminal activities.

[_Jim]

An already-legal answer is to set up local cell phone “towers”

_Jim shakes head ... OVERKILL Red Neck, besides, you won't be able to contain the RF strictly to the 'grounds'.

Recommend instead a 'leaky radiating coax system' around the periphery of the building fed by a broadband mult-carrier or white noise source on the uplink frequency so the subscriber/prioner phone doesn't ever see/find the downlink signal ...

[_Jim]

Just turn off the electricity to any area that prisoners are allowed to be. In a day or two, all the cell phones will be dead.

So ... additional BATTERIES are smuggled in ....

Besides, it would take MORE than just a 'day or two' to be effective ... do you/have you operated one of today's little technical marvels?

[_Jim]

Inside of 5 minutes on that site I was unable to ‘locate’ said jammer ... any clues where I might look?

[_Jim]

All that is needed is a set of receivers on the prison grounds that can detect and locate cell transmissions.

GREAT idea, except, do you know how many 'reflections' occur in/around structures and buildings? (and ideally you want resolution down to the individual 'cell' where the phone is not just the building or cell block ... then there is the multi-floor/elevation aspect - a further difficulty to resolve)

The term 'multipath' (literally: "multiple paths" for/of the RF on its way to any particular intended or unintended receiver) is truly applicable here ...

[itsahoot]

I would just have the ability to monitor any cell phone conversations originating on the property, then use tapes of the talks to indict and convict those who plan murders from there via their cell phone.

There used to be no communication out of a prison, and with good reason. You could send and receive mail, but it was highly scrutinized and censored. Maybe we could pay Haiti to take them :)

[itsahoot]

“does not allow prison employees to use their cell phones.”

They have other communication devices. Besides the Guards are the likely suspects in getting the phones in the prison in the first place.

[mysterio]

I have no problem with this. I'm for a major cleanup of our prisons. No prisoner should be allowed to be in a gang, a prisoner who attacks another prisoner should lose his access to other prisoners, and the warden should be fired if one person is raped in his or her prison.

Remember, each and every one of us is one good false accusation away from the inside ourselves. We are one of the most over-legislated societies on the planet. If the powers that be want you in prison, you'll be there, innocent or guilty. So they should be tightly controlled, safe places, and the people running them should be held responsible for the prisoners' safety at near zero-tolerance levels.

[skepsel]

Agreed.
There follows a modest proposal flowing from that...
(with a nod to Sam Clemens!)

From now on we should recruit our political class from among the lifers in the pen. The cons can be bussed to their offices at morning and returned to their cells the same way at night.

The content of their character will be known before hand, removing any need for speculation.

The cost of corruption will go way down, even the common citizen will be able to afford to move legislation and affect judicial outcomes...despite the recent increase in federal cigarette taxes.

The cost of compensation will go down too, no more gold plated congressional/civil service pensions and expensive health care plans.
The lifer inmates already receive free food, shelter, clothing, transportation and medical care for life.

If we can’t get enough inmates to participate in federal service because of the perceived loss of status perhaps we could simply transfer the existing political class as a whole to the penal system.

[_Jim]

I have no problem with this. I'm for a major cleanup of our prisons. No prisoner should be allowed to be in a gang, a prisoner who attacks another prisoner should lose his access to other prisoners, and the warden should be fired if one person is raped in his or her prison.

I think the application of 'shock aversion therapy' would do the trick to 'change' the behavior of these incorrigible individuals.

Nothing else seems to work, and believe me, *I* avoid being shocked at all costs (having been bitten in the past from a wide variety of things in different scenarios; the memory lingers and I have no desire to repeat the experience!)

Establish a strong enough connection between the prohibited activity and painful memories/ recollections/ and fear of a return for 're-treatment' and such behavior drops drastically.

[Bobalu]

http://ladyada.net/make/wavebubble/index.html

[dfwgator]

“What we have here is failure to communicate.”

[_Jim]

Thanks.

We also find more of who 'designed' this device:

Much of the RF gain-stage design and layout was done in collaboration with Adam J. O'Donnell and the Cult of the Dead Cow

So, anyway, she had help.

The final product doesn't look much like the device whose picture you first posted where it looks like the RF amplifying devices in-line from the packaged VCO appear to be MiniCircuits ERA-3 or ERA-5 devices (in a Micro-X package) whereas on the website it looks far different.

In fact, the final design looks to be a three-board stackup with .25 or so spacers between, with the 3rd board having two different (870 and 1900 MHz) printed copper foil antennas.

Again, thanks for the link.

[Bobalu]

She is big into arduino tech.
I’m more into the P8X32A as I like the idea of an 8 dollar processor with eight 32bit cores running at 250mips. Each core has its own video hardware....makes is mighty easy to create a real solution quickly.

You can see more detail of her jammer here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladyada/sets/72057594103963559/

She has 2 designs that I know of...the earlier picture is the 2nd jammer design.

She is a VERY smart gal!

You are pretty smart too I’d wager....

[_Jim]

Hmmm ... in that set of photos on flicker she/someone is ‘reverse engineering’ an already built jammer (looking at the sawtooth or triangle waveform sent to the VCO, then inspecting the RF spectrum on a Spec An). That does not look anything like the previous models/designs show so far!

By the time one reaches IMG_3481.JPG it looks like her/their design ...

[Bobalu]

She has posted many interesting photo sets
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladyada/

[_Jim]

So, where did the PicMicro (microchip.com Pic16 family etc) crowd go? Pic Basic - is that still around?

P8X32A, the propeller chip; interesting. Too bad there isn’t an on-chip ADC/DAC combo.

[Bobalu]

Lots of folks still playing with pics...I did too back in the day. I bet pic basic is still around.

Many just add the propeller chip to a board to use its video abilities and precision timing strengths.... goes great with an arm, pic or avr.

yup, adc/dac would be nice.

[sionnsar]

Try: http://www.ladyada.net/make/wavebubble/index.html

[_Jim]

Got it, thanks (several times it appears!).

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Maryland “Freak State” PING!