Mobile phone jamming technology to go live in Scottish prisons


An advanced technology designed to block mobile phone signals is set to be switched on across Scottish prisons over the next few weeks, a media news report on this topic has recently revealed.

Mobile phone jamming technology to go live in Scottish prisons image 1

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has announced that the move follows the passing of legislation allowing the Scottish Prison Service to interfere with mobile phone signals, thus granting prison authorities more power to detect and prevent prisoners’ use of contraband phones.

The SPS (Scottish Prison Service) has decided to implement this technology in 2 pilot sites at first, namely HMPs Shotts and Glenochil, with the two locations expected to go live by the end of the current financial year.

Possession of a mobile phone prisoners has been illegal since 2010, but even so, the SPS revealed that a number of 1,988 mobile phone handsets had been detected in Scottish prisons since 2011 – 212 of them in HMP Shotts alone.

While this measure is very likely to prevent a variety of illegal activities, such as the supply of drugs, organised crime and harassment, the truth of the matter is that close visitor supervision should also be taken into account as a preventive measure, and this is exactly where Tensor’s proven, reliable and affordable Visitor Monitoring System will really prove its worth.

Our company has an extensive experience in developing high-end, reliable and affordable access control and visitor monitoring solutions, all of which are specifically designed for registering each visitor, both on and off site, and enable HM Prison Service Officers to quickly check the identity and monitor the movements of visitors.

A digital or eyeball camera takes a photo of the visitor, which is later on printed on a bar-coded pass using a high speed printer so each visitor is easily identified. Then, at specific controlled monitor points, the visitor pass badge is simply swiped and a high quality digital image appears to the HM Prison Service Officers thus verifying that the correct person is passing through.

Furthermore, biometrics can be combined with the visitor badges to operate the system, since Tensor’s range of dermal fingerprint reading technology gives increased accuracy and reliability, and is perfect for when irrefutable proof of identity is required.

Tensor can offer various financing and rental packages to both private and public sector organizations who wish to install our products. If you’d like to find out more about it, just Contact Us or Book a Demo, our representatives will be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries.

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