A Wilton company is developing systems to help prisons monitor cell phone calls made by inmates.
ICard Forensics Inc. is an affiliate of iCard Technologies Ltd., which was founded in 2003 to develop “smart cards” for cell phones that allow for secure calls and messaging.
The company has since expanded its product platform to cell phone “interrogation” ”“ iCard”™s Sensor-Net system detects and monitors cell phone transmissions, including calls and text messages, and can pinpoint the location of a handset and the duration of a call.
The detectors are designed to be covertly installed inside innocuous devices commonly found in buildings, such as smoke detectors, covering a 200-meter radius.
ICard”™s software issues an alert on a computer screen depicting a bird”™s-eye view of a complex, and can be programmed to connect to a facility”™s closed-circuit television monitoring system allowing guards to zoom in on the inmate using the phone.
The Connecticut Department of Corrections is currently testing devices strapped to guards”™ belts that vibrate when a call is detected. The state has only caught a handful of prisoners with cell phones, but it is an increasing problem nationally according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In California, officials have confiscated more than 1,000 handsets in the past year ”“ despite the presence of metal detectors at prison entrances.
DOJ fears not just drug deals or other crimes being organized from inside a facility, but also the potential for coordinated riots that could overwhelm response teams.
ICard is not the first company to address the problem of undesirable cell phone calls. A Florida company called CellAntenna sued the Federal Communications Commission, arguing that an FCC law prohibiting the jamming of telecommunications signals also  bars law enforcement agencies from preventing explosive detonations triggered by cell phone calls.
Texas-based Cell Block Technologies Inc. has spent most of the decade marketing a system that diverts the handset trackers that detect the presence of cell-phone towers, effectively preventing phones from placing or receiving calls. Because the company”™s system does not “block” the signal itself ”“ merely redirecting the tracker ”“ the company has argued that its system does not technically violate FCC rules.
Still, originally hoping to sell the ceiling-mounted devices to theaters, the company has since switched its focus to prisons and government agencies. Military branches and intelligence agencies, of course, are not governed by FCC rules and represent a market opportunity.
The DOJ is soliciting applications through Nov. 14 from companies with technology to identify and “defeat” cell phone calls ”“ while complying with FCC regulations.
DOJ says there is a need to not only detect and potentially jam the unauthorized use of cellular phones by inmates without assistance from mobile carriers, but also to allow outbound cell phone use by authorized prison officials.
In the past year, iCard has been making the rounds of various corrections conferences in hopes of bagging sales. Those confabs included the 137th annual Congress of Correction last August, and a mock prison riot in May in West Virginia to assess emerging technologies and strategies for quelling disturbances.
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