Fixed telephone to combat the proliferation of mobile phones. The measure was announced in January last year. Attorney General Nicole Belloubet clarified the terms and schedule on Sunday. She explained to the microphone of the grand jury Le Figaro / RTL / LCI that in “about two years”, the fixed telephone will be connected to each of the 50,000 French prison cells. The detainee will add that the detainee will have access to four pre-registered numbers and “obviously have no access to the Internet”. This generalization “is related to another method, namely cell phone jammers.”
In order to communicate with relatives by telephone, detainees must currently use a telephone booth fixed in the passage and accompanied by a supervisor. More expensive and exchanged point by point. It has nothing to do with Montmédy Prison in Meuse, where the landline has been tested for two years. There, residents can make calls day and night, which is 20% cheaper. Through this measure, seal breeders hope to help prisoners keep in touch with their families to promote their reintegration into society. But not only that. The proliferation of landline telephones is mainly a way to curb mobile phone traffic that has exponentially increased in prisons. According to data from the General Administration of Prison Management, more than 40,000 telephones and accessories from 70,000 French prisoners were confiscated in 2017. Ten years ago, only 62,000 prisoners used 5,000 portable jammer devices.
The government said that fixed-line contact should also allow certain prisoners to be better monitored by eavesdropping. Nicole Belloubet said: “We believe that this is related to security, which makes it easier for superiors and family relationships.” The second axis of combating mobile phones: the most destructive. These devices already exist-804 is used in French prisons-but they are usually outdated. In July last year, the jammers did not prevent prisoners in Réau Prison from shooting and playing the helicopter escape of the magnificent robber Redoine Faïd. They also did not cover up photos of rapper Kaaris, who was detained in Fresna prison after fighting online with his rival Booba a month later.
Nicole Belloubet said that there is now a new jammer. She said that the company has signed a new contract, “due to its scalability, it is very effective.” These second-generation jammers were unveiled at the Paris Health Prison. It has been closed for four years and should be reopened on January 7. It will be the pioneer of the system. Subsequently, the Minister continued that the jammer was first used in the “safest facility” and then used throughout France. She said: “It will take us about 18 months.” She admitted, but there are many problems, for example: For health, “This is very complicated because the residents are nearby”, so there is a danger of blurring the residents’ signals.