Tag: PRISON

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... Governments around the world have been implementing censorship programs, and arresting dissident bloggers and writers at an alarming rate. Iceland is reportedly attempting to become a safe haven for those beleaguered reporters with a parliamentary proposal that would provide the most protective free speech measures in the world. ...

Call us crazy, but giving an imprisoned crime lord access to Facebook doesn't sound like the best idea. After all, running a gang is essentially social networking without the Internet. But that's exactly what British authorities did with Colin Gunn, who is serving a 35-year sentence in a maximum-security prison. According to the Times Online, Gunn, who is behind bars for ordering the execution ...

It's a well established law of nature that thugs, like everybody else, need love. But do they necessarily need a Wii, too? The U.K. government seems to think so. The Sun reports that one high-security institution, home to serial killers, rapists, and murderers (oh my!), recently received £5,000 worth of taxpayer money (about $8,000) to purchase Wii consoles for their residents. Broadmoor ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2009/09/29/convicted-hacker-left-in-charge-of-prison-computer-system/'; In a twist of Alanis Morrissettian irony, a man serving a six-year prison sentence for stealing millions of dollars through online credit card fraud recently succeeded in (surprise!) hacking into his prison's computer network, effectively paralyzing the entire system. The really ...

Although we seem to daily hear reports of stupid criminals being foiled by technology, some deviants have devised some clever uses for their tech, including turning cell phones into weapons and hiding places. According to Newsday, an incredibly common way to smuggle a weapon in a cell phone (specifically a T-Mobile Sidekick) is to hide a razor blade within the battery compartment between the ...

According to BBC News, Brazilian prisoners -- hell bent on continuing their criminal business via cell phones -- recently enlisted the help of outsiders and a radio-controlled helicopter in order to get their hands on the devices. Today, the BBC reported that authorities at the Presidente Venceslau correctional facility in Sao Paolo recently discovered a three-foot model helicopter in the trunk ...

Sure, you can use the PlayStation 3 to play games and watch Blu-ray movies -- heck, you can even use it to study gravity. But the latest interesting and unique usage of the console comes from Britain, where the country's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) is alleging the gaming machine is being used to run massive crime syndicates. According to a recently-released report by SOCA, prisoners ...

Giving you yet another reason to not want to live in Texas, the Palestine Herald Press is reporting that an Anderson County inmate was sentenced to a staggering 60 additional years in prison after he was caught with a cell phone behind bars. The inmate, 38-year-old Derrick Ross, tried to run away from a procedural search, which correctional officers imposed on Ross after observing him acting ...

Dogs may be known as man's best friend, but one dog in particular is making life difficult for would-be cell phone smugglers incarcerated in Philadelphia prisons. Bomber, a 60-pound Belgian Malinois, is a specially trained pooch tasked with detecting smuggled cell phones in prisons. Since January, Bomber has sniffed out 10 phones while patrolling Philly's six prisons -- to put his success in ...

Back in late March and early April, when we first heard the terrifying tale of two shifty, hapless carrier pigeons intercepted while attempting to smuggle cellphone parts to inmates in a high-security Brazilian prison, we thought it was merely an isolated incident. Well, now that another pigeon has been caught -- this time outside a Colombian prison with a tiny suitcase full of cellphone ...

Prison has a way of transforming a two-bit criminal into frickin' MacGyver, so we weren't extremely surprised by this example of inmates thinking on the fly (no pun intended, there). Two weeks ago, guards at the Danilio Pinheiro prison farm in Brazil intercepted a cell-phone-toting pigeon after they spotted the aerial accomplice perched on an electric security wire with a small bag tied to its ...

We know that prison systems around the world are in desperate need of modernization, but did you really have to give them flat-screen TVs? Huh, Scotland? Some of our staff can't even afford LCD TVs, and (to our knowledge) they're not criminals. A privately-run prison in West Lothian, Scotland is getting a makeover that makes it nicer than your average college dorm. Electronic kiosks have been ...

Contraband cell phones are showing up in prisons at alarming rates, according to USA Today. Last year, South Carolinian authorities discovered more than 1,000 phones in the state's prisons, while Californian authorities confiscated 1,400. These extremely high numbers are largely due, corrections officers suspect, to a new method of smuggling, whereby smugglers use a sort of "launcher" to rocket ...

You may remember this little dumbell-looking Recon Scout drone we saw last year, when it had just been implemented in the military. If you'll recall, the robot selflessly allows itself to be thrown into wild and unpredictable situations deemed "too risky" for people, then transmits grainy video back to an Operator Control Unit. Well, it turns out that the California Department of Corrections ...

If you really needed proof that the statement "crime doesn't pay" had at least a semblance of truth behind it, here's your sign. Known satellite TV pirate Glenn White has been sentenced to a 14 month stint in federal prison after pleading guilty to illegally rebroadcasting DISH Network's programming. As the story goes, Mr. White was doing business in Wagram, North Carolina under the name Wagram ...