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Voice From the Field: A Sheriff's Perspective of Cell Phones Behind Bars

Aaron D. Kennard, Executive Director, National Sheriffs' Association
NIJ Conference 2010
June 14-16

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Voice From the Field: A Sheriff's Perspective of Cell Phones Behind Bars

Aaron D. Kennard, Executive Director, National Sheriffs' Association
NIJ Conference 2010
June 14-16

Aaron D. Kennard: Cell phones, in jails as well as in prisons, are a very serious threat to the security of not only the inmates, but to the workers and the custodians of the jail as well. Now it also is an avenue for many of these prisoners to conduct illegal activities outside the jail while they are incarcerated. They intimidate witnesses. They will conduct illegal enterprises. They will, at times, order hits and try to make things uncomfortable and even try to escape from their confinement through these cell phones. So it's a very serious issue. We've looked at the technology dealing with jamming, with shielding, but cell phones can be disassembled, can be smuggled in quite easily, as you can imagine. And the technology of detection as well as jamming is something that we need to look at in regards to how do we help the sheriff — the 3,084 sheriffs in the country — deal with this and especially when many of them — 75 percent of all my sheriffs — are small agencies.

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NIJ Conference
Interview
June 2010
Aaron D. Kennard, Executive Director, National Sheriffs' Association

NIJ Conference 2010 Highlights

Date created: August 18, 2010