They may be behind bars, but that doesn't mean that prisoners are locked away from technology.
Forget shivs. "The smartphone is the most lethal weapon you can get inside a prison," says the director of security products at ITT Corporation; he goes on to compare it to a Swiss Army knife, for its versatility. The New York Times reports that in prisons across the country, inmates can buy smartphones from guards (ranging from $300-$1,000 depending on the data plan). The activities for which they use the phones range from the trivial to the deadly: Harvesting their FarmVille accounts one day, organizing strikes and approving robbery victims the next.
Yet even in this more dire context, the same technological mistakes occur: In Oklahoma, a killer was caught after he posted photos to his Facebook of the weapons he'd has smuggled into his cell. (Really.)
Because prison officials are unable to intercept all of the physical contraband, they've had to resign themselves to jamming the cell phone signals. Ironically, however, that's illegal--thanks to the Communications Act of 1934.
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