By C1 Staff
AUCKLAND – Recent footage of a ‘fight club’ inside a maximum security prison in New Zealand was recorded with the use of cell phones, despite multi-million dollar jammers installed to prevent such use.
Stuff reports that the Department of Corrections has confiscated 284 cell phones throughout the country’s prisons between 2013 and 2014.
The jamming system cost $10.9 million and was installed between 2007 and 2009. It’s been upgraded to the tune of several million dollars since, including $1.3 million in 2011.
But the jammers don’t seem to be discouraging inmates from smuggling the phones into facilities. This year saw an imprisoned gang leader use a cell phone to direct his gang and arrange drug supply from his cell; last year, a convicted murderer used a cell phone to post selfies to Facebook.
Prison drug and alcohol counsellor Roger Brooking said that while it’s important to keep cell phones out of the hands and prisoners, he would rather have seen the money spent on health care and counseling for inmates.
The DOC said the jammers were intended to block cellular access to the internet, but would not comment on whether mobile band networks were covered.