GEORGE TOWN, Grand Cayman (CNS) -- The smuggling of cellphones into HMP Northward remains a constant battle for the prison management as inmates try various ways to stay in touch with the outside world.
While smart phones pose a problem to prison security, as they can be used by inmates to organise drug drops and other crimes, such as witness intimidation, many prisoners are also are using them to take ‘cellfies’ (pictures of themselves in their cells) and posting them on social media sites.
Prison Director Neil Lavis told CNS that so far this year officers have seized 44 phones in foiled smuggling attempts or after they were found inside the jail. Phones as well as drugs are often thrown over the parameter fences, despite the modifications and increased security measures to the fence. Despite being a low security prison, HMP Northward is home to a significant number of high security prisoners, which presents real challenges for the management. For several years prison inspectors have pointed out the pressing need for a new secure prison in Cayman, a need echoed by the director, even though he recognizes that spending cash on jails is hardly a vote winner.
Nevertheless, Lavis is faced with the same problem found in many jails around the world — trying to stop phones and drugs getting inside the facility. He said that prison officers keep up the pressure by constantly searching cells, and when phones are discovered, the inmates in possession of them are charged and fined.
He also pointed to various technology-related security measures that the prison has invested in to help tackle the problem. Everyone coming into the jail is searched, including staff, but as Lavis pointed out, no security measure is foolproof.
Where phones are not found but the prison receives intelligence that inmates are posting to social media sites like Facebook, officers follow up. Where it is clear that a pictures is a ‘cellfie’, that inmate’s privileges are revoked and the page is taken down, Lavis told CNS.
The director said the trend in posting ‘cellfies’, which are clearly incriminating for the inmates, are not just stupid but sometimes intended as a signal of disrespect for the system and authority. Lavis said prisoners believe they simply won’t be discovered.
However, they are frequently caught, and although the prison does not have the resources to enable 24/7 monitoring of social media, it follows up on all possible reports of ‘cellfies’ and the use of the internet and the telephone networks by inmates.