More and more phone service for the imprisioned population is run through a single company. The ACLU writes that the company which handles prison phone calls, Securus, is also surveilling people who aren't in prison. This last week Senator Wyden (D-Oregon) described Securus' ability to obtain and share the cell phone location information of virtually anyone who uses a phone.
Real-time cell phone location tracking of a suspect requires a search warrant under federal law and, as some courts have held, the Fourth Amendment. Normally, when police want to track a suspect's cell phone in real time, they provide a warrant directly to the phone service provider, which reviews the warrant to confirm that it is valid before complying with the request. The major cellular service providers have law enforcement compliance teams comprised of trained staff who review warrants and other law enforcement requests and regularly reject or narrow requests that are improper or overbroad.
However, major phone carriers appear to have allowed Securus to bypass these procedures. Government investigators contracting with the company upload documentation justifying a request for cell phone location data to Securus' system. Securus, functioning as a middleman, pays other middlemen, who then pay major telecommunications carriers for the location information.
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More jails replace in-person visits with awful video chat products
After April 15, inmates at the Adult Detention Center in Lowndes County, Mississippi will no longer be allowed to visit with family members face to face. Newton County, Missouri, implemented an in-person visitor ban last month. The Allen County Jail in Indiana phased out in-person visits earlier this year.
All three changes are part of a nationwide trend toward "video visitation" services. Instead of seeing their loved ones face to face, inmates are increasingly limited to talking to them through video terminals. Most jails give family members a choice between using video terminals at the jail—which are free—or paying fees to make calls from home using a PC or mobile device.
Even some advocates of the change admit that it has downsides for inmates and their families. Ryan Rickert, jail administrator at the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center, acknowledged to The Commercial Dispatch that inmates were disappointed they wouldn't get to see family members anymore. Advocates of this approach point to an upside for families: they can now make video calls to loved ones from home instead of having to physically travel to the jail.
These services are ludicrously expensive. Video calls cost 40¢ per minute in Newton County, 50¢ per minute in Lowndes County, and $10 per call in Allen County. Outside of prison, of course, video calls on Skype or FaceTime are free.
A previous story on Ars Technica noted "grainy and jerky" video quality that periodically froze up altogether.
Related: Company That Handles Prison Phone Calls is Surveilling People Who Aren't in Prison
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @01:00AM (3 children)
TSA gropping those moving in, agencies intercepting all comms, deadly force against any minor issue.... maybe it's a prison. Free range kind, but prison.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Fluffeh on Monday May 14 2018, @01:02AM
That would certainly explain the whole "fence/wall" thing and why the people on the OTHER side are being asked to pay for it...
*sips coffee*
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @04:57AM (1 child)
There's an analogy with the minimum security Federal prison camps. There's free movement within and not even a fence outside but communications are monitored and patdowns and strip searches are routine. Step outside the fence and it's a five-year sentence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @07:01AM
Have you ever tried stepping outside ... into Cuba?
*malicious grin* I suggest you do!
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Monday May 14 2018, @01:01AM (1 child)
It seems, it's not breaking the law if a bunch of people almost break the law each combine their efforts nicely to a better-than-the-sum-of-parts result.
Guess this is one of those things that just slips through the cracks - until it doesn't - and now it will have to be stopped after the appropriate level of anger/crankiness/shame/outrage/apology is shown by the politicians.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @01:26AM
hahaha no itll be ruled legal
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @01:01AM (1 child)
You have the capability, use it! Warrants are for pointless justifications.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @06:07PM
Warrants are so evidence holds up in court. Extrajudicial actions don't need evidence.
I suppose you could make the case that warrants shield the agency from lawsuits, but that doesn't seem to be a factor, either.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snotnose on Monday May 14 2018, @02:21AM (2 children)
So they seriously overcharge people who have no other options for talking to loved ones, and that's not good enough for them? They have to track everyfuckingbody in the hopes the cops will come up with a warrant that lets them sell the data?
This is one fucked up company that deserves to die.
Every time a Christian defends Trump an angel loses it's lunch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @04:15AM
Yeah, they seriously overcharge people. They all do. Cost me a fortune to make bail, just to set it up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @05:58AM
So no different than the Canadian telecom oligopoly, then.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by frojack on Monday May 14 2018, @02:31AM (3 children)
Sorry but TFA seems a little vague. I don't trust the source either.
What is a suspect? Someone actively talking to one of the prisoners incarcerated? Or any person they so choose, such as Hillary Clinton?
The phone company can't even track you any closer than which lobe of which cell tower you may be connected to, and that takes a while to be coughed up.
911 can track you closer, if you call 911 it forces your GPS on, and sends that data to the tower, which the police get some few minutes after the call starts. (They call in phase two location).
The fact that the story talks about middlemen without naming them suggests there is a lot of inventive reporting going on.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Whoever on Monday May 14 2018, @04:03AM (2 children)
I just love it:
Frojack:
Government: Taxes are theft. Violently imposed monopoly.
ACLU reports private company doing something similar: Don't believe it.
Take off your blinders and stop worshiping large companies.
(Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Monday May 14 2018, @05:27AM
Not that it will help convince him, the EFF is also covering it with Senator Wyden Demands Answers from Prison Phone Service Caught Sharing Cellphone Location Data [eff.org] as well as CNet with This senator wants to know why police can track any phone in seconds [cnet.com].
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday May 14 2018, @07:06AM
You must have me confused with someone else.
I've never uttered those words, other than in derision of the delusional fools who spout them.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday May 14 2018, @03:40AM (2 children)
One can send snail mail to inmates without any i
But email to inmates at the Clark county jail requires hirez images of a government issued photo ID as well as text entry of my name, street address and phone number
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @02:39PM (1 child)
Snail mail is supposed to have your return address which is linked to your government issued photo ID as well as your name street address, and the building's phone number. So unless you lie about the return address, there's nothing different.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @06:15PM
You seem to be overestimating the importance of a return address. It is not generally required. Here [usps.com] is how the USPS website explains addressing: