Prisoners need mobiles too :)

Looks like there is a worldwide problem of Mobiles in the jails. Nearly everywhere mobiles are illegal in jails but people somehow manage to sneak them in.

First, this news from India about an inmate found with a mobile inside the prison. Apparently these phones are used by inmates to create co-ordinated attacks, etc. Sneaking a mobile in India is probably not too difficult because you bribe the policeman and he will get one for you ;)

In Brazil, it difficult to probably get a phone by bribing the policemen. That is why the prisoners have to ask someone to send mobiles using pigeons as carriers. Pigeons are carrying parts of mobiles which are being used by the inmates to assemble and create working mobiles. Maybe they can fix my old Nokia 6280 as well. Unfortunately couple of pigeons were recently caught and thats how authorities found out about them.

The Australian authorities in New South Wales have already passed a law stating that if someone is found smuggling mobiles in prison then they will face 2 years jail and $2200 fine. They are training dogs to sniff out mobiles.

In India a member of public (normal human being like most of us) has demanded that 'rude' mobile users should go to prison:

A petition filed by Gurjit Singh, a member of the public, demands that carrying mobiles at funerals and temples should be made illegal and the installation of mobile phone jammers on school buildings to block students from making calls mandatory.

Mr Singh also wants phone companies to roll-out apparatus would disable mobiles on the roads to avoid traffic accidents, and a law under which civil servants could be imprisoned if they make personal calls on their handsets during office hours.

His final demand is that mobile phones fitted with cameras be outlawed “for the safety of women”.

The measures may appear extreme, but have already won significant backing, including from The Times of India, the country’s most-read English language newspaper. “Mobile phones have made us less considerate for each other,” it said.

The newspaper went on to admit – somewhat ruefully – that banning mobile phones outright was not an option, but added: “The problem will only get worse, unless the parliamentary panel’s observations are taken seriously.”

India’s mobile phone market is one of the few corners of the global economy to have remained impervious – so far – to the effects of the credit crunch. In January, the country added a record 15 million subscribers, making it the world’s fastest growing, with customers from the country's poor rural areas driving the surge.

The industry's success has a dark side, however: in cinema theatres across India audience members can often be heard chatting on their new handsets, discussing the plot of the film as it unfolds on screen.

While even doctors commonly answer calls while treating patients.

The problem is made worse as the phone companies force as many conversations as possible through a limited amount of infrastructure, a cost-cutting measure that executives privately admit lessens the clarity of calls and means users often have to shout to make themselves heard.

There are, however, doubts over whether tough new penalties would work, especially when laws banning other public nuisances such as spitting have failed. A spokesman for RCom, India’s fastest growing mobile provider, insisted that while the industry takes the etiquette issue seriously there is a limit to what it can do. “This is really a matter of personal responsibility,” he said.

My solution for the Indian government is that mobiles should be allowed only in prisons :-)