Meckenheim, 01 August 2016
1,426 mobile phones have been seized by the Berlin prison staff during 2015. This is almost 41 percent more than during the same period one year before. The figures published by the Berlin Senate Administration for Justice and Consumer Protection reveal: Illegally smuggled mobile phones are a steadily growing issue in the penitentiary system, especially since the dark figure of devices inside the prison walls is presumably many times higher. The City of Berlin responds to the growing security gap with technological armament.
After the first successful pilot where mobile detection and elimination technology has been deployed in a building section of the Berlin juvenile prison, installations in a new complex of JVA Tegel and another one of JVA Moabit for which comprehensive refurbishments will be carried out shortly are to follow. The planned effect of the technological measures: From the time of activation the mobile phones that are smuggled into the prisons at high risks and horrendous prices are entirely useless, as any attempt of a mobile connection will be immediately disrupted. As the test in the Berlin juvenile prison showed, the problem so will rapidly solve by itself. Since the date of the technology‘s activation to the present, not a single mobile phone has been found.
Increasing figures also in Brandenburg
In Brandenburg too, the number of illegally smuggled mobile phones increased distinctly over the last year. While 109 mobile phones were seized in 2014, their number already rised to almost 150 in 2015 and hence increased by almost 40 percent. Here too one prison facility which must not yet be disclosed to the public is testing technical equipment for the disruption of illegal mobile communication. And not only German prison facilities are setting up: Also in Austrian and Swiss prisons first testings of technology are under way, in order to stop what is likely to be the overriding security issue in the coming times.
