Tecore platform solves contraband cellphone access in prison

Contraband cellphones are the top problem today at prisons. Yet, attempts to block cellphone usage by prisoners has been a controversial topic – wireless operators don’t like cellphone jammers because they can block legal communications – and yet prison officials need to find a way to stop illegal cellphone usage.
Tecore Networks recently partnered with the Mississippi Department of Corrections and Global Tel*Link, which supplies communications services to prisons, to commercially deploy Tecore’s managed access system. Tecore said it is the first commercial deployment in the United States.
Tecore installed its Intelligent Network Access Control (iNAC) Managed Access system at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, Miss. The iNAC is a multi-carrier, multi-technology platform that prevents unauthorized cell-phone use, but allows legitimate calls and 911 calls. In essence, Tecore has agreements with the four cellular providers in the area so that calls within the 18,000-acre prison facility are directed to Tecore’s platform, said Casey Joseph, CTO at Tecore. “Tecore becomes the cell site of choice for the prison.” Tecore then checks the SIM or device against the database to see if the call is authorized or not. If it is authorized, it continues to the commercial carrier’s system. If it is not, the call is blocked. “The whole idea is illegal devices become paperweights.”
In the month that it has been in use, Tecore found 216,300 attempts from as many as 600 contraband cellphones to connect to the system. “No one was prepared for that amount of activity,” said Amit Malhotra, VP of marketing at Tecore.
Tecore has spent the last two years working with the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, as well CTIA, individual operators and prison authorities on the platform and to make sure it could be installed legally.
CTIA endorsed the system in a press release. “The wireless industry has gone on the record as being against cellphone jammers, arguing that they can stop legitimate communications from taking place, and that in general, carriers don’t want anything they don’t own attaching to their networks.
“Like a scalpel, technologies like managed access and cell phone detection allow officials to identify the location of a contraband phone, track its use and provide opportunities to retrieve the device and prosecute those in possession. The alternative technologies also can be used to identify how – and by whom – these contraband devices are being smuggled into facilities. These solutions are crucial for law enforcement that otherwise face an uphill battle trying to disrupt the illicit operations of prison gangs, like in the recent arrests of Nuestra Familia gang members in California and gang members in Maryland. These law enforcement techniques would not be possible with jamming,” the association said in a prepared statement.
While the Tecore system covering the Parchman prison facility is large, the platform can also scale down to cover the local city jail, Malhotra noted. Interestingly, as contraband cellphone usage decreased at the Mississippi prison, Global Tel*Link found revenues for its landline communications system increased 16%.