Editorial
Installing jammers in prisons
But how did the cell phones get in anyway?
THE authorities have, as we understand, decided to install cell phone jammers in the country's prisons. The move comes in light of the recent instances of a number of high profile prisoners making use of cell phones to keep themselves in touch with families, friends and followers outside their places of confinement. We would like to think that jamming cell phones, especially within the perimeters of the nation's jails, is a necessary step because it will prevent the breach of rules that has lately been going on. However, we cannot at the same time ignore the question of whether the jail authorities are resigned to such wrongful use of cell phones by prisoners and whether they believe the only way of deterring such behaviour is a use of jamming devices. In reality, matters should have been handled differently. A full, efficient observance of the jail code should have been enough to combat the offence.
It has become clear, though, that the jail authorities have been singularly unable to understand or explain how the cell phones were able to make their way to these high profile and other levels of prisoners. It is standard practice, which again is enforced by rules, that prisoners are thoroughly searched before they begin their confinement and are therefore in no position to carry any items of a sensitive nature inside. It therefore becomes rather mystifying as to how these inmates were able to come by cell phones. If these phones were given to them by family members on their authorised visits to the jails, the question of the lapses occurring on the watch of prison security will naturally come in. But if families are not responsible, the suspicion grows that the provision of cell phones inside the prison premises may have been an inside job. It is hard to believe that the prison authorities are not aware of how these cell phones came into the hands of the prisoners. The matter of jamming devices apart, the jail authorities on their own must launch an inquiry into whether or not men and women on the prison staff have been involved in the matter.
Let the prison system not be made light of. If the jail code can so easily be breached by cell phones, greater risks could well lie ahead.
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