Jail Phone Jammers Will Keep Prisoners In The Dark
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday April 8, 2006
A TRIAL of mobile phone jamming devices in two high-security NSW prisons is being planned by the State Government as part of measures to prevent terrorism inmates plotting attacks or recruiting militants.
The Government began looking to install jammers in prisons after the September 11 attacks in 2001, but has been blocked by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which is concerned the devices will interfere with nearby phone coverage. It now wants to trial equipment - developed in Israel - that will not leak outside prisons.The Minister for Justice, Tony Kelly, said Telstra, Optus and federal police supported the trial and he was awaiting approval from the federal Communications Minister, Senator Helen Coonan. Mobile phones continue to be smuggled into NSW prisons despite efforts by corrective services to stem the flow."The use of illegal mobile telephones inside prisons is a growing international problem, especially in the terrorist environment where calls could be placed to organise attacks, recruit followers, or relay critical information," Mr Kelly said.The Department of Corrective Services' superintendent of operations, Ken Middlebrook, who has travelled to France, England, Israel and Singapore to study the detention of terrorism inmates, told the Herald: "If we don't do something about the communication aspect, we have just displaced the cell from the community to inside the prison."The department plans to trial the devices at Goulburn's Super Max prison and the maximum security prison at Lithgow. The state has 10 terrorism inmates, including four at Super Max. The Government has introduced special classifications for the inmates and is spending $1.3 million a year to hold them.The Corrective Services Commissioner, Ron Woodham, said he was concerned about terrorism suspects converting prisoners and staff to radical Islam. The so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid who tried to blow up an American Airlines plane in 2001, converted to radical Islam while serving a sentence in England for muggings."Prisons are a fertile ground to recruit radical activists," Mr Woodham said. "I am sure people have converted for the right reason, but we are very concerned about people recruiting converts to Islam for the wrong reason ... to get assistance to do harm to people or to get out of prison."A national plan for holding terrorism suspects, expected to be adopted next month, will allow inmates to be flown without warning to prisons in other states. A solicitor for eight terrorism suspects, Adam Houda, has said the inmates are not being fed properly and the conditions are "a form of torture". Mr Woodham said they received medical treatment, fresh air and hot food. Mobile phones are banned in prisons for staff and inmates, but the Independent Commission Against Corruption has urged the use of jammers because increasing numbers of phones have been found in cells. Last night Senator Coonan said the authority would allow a laboratory trial of the technology, to be carried out in a sealed room by Telstra. Only then would she consider lifting the ban on importing the technology, which would allow its use in prisons.LIFE OF A TERRORISM SUSPECT? Segregation from other inmates to prevent conversions and recruitment? Mesh covering exercise yards to prevent airborne breakouts ? Mail is read and copied? Seen by two staff members at a time to prevent conversions ? Transported by helicopter to prevent ambushes
© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald
