Drone Deliveries into Prisons
Seems it’s now common to sneak contraband into prisons with a drone.
Entries Tagged "prisons"
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Nigerian Prison Break
There was a massive prison break in Abuja, Nigeria:
Armed with bombs, Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPGs) and General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG), the attackers, who arrived at about 10:05 p.m. local time, gained access through the back of the prison, using dynamites to destroy the heavily fortified facility, freeing 600 out of the prison’s 994 inmates, according to the country’s defense minister, Bashir Magashi….
What’s interesting to me is how the defenders got the threat model wrong. That attack isn’t normally associated with a prison break; it sounds more like a military action in a civil war.
Identifying People Through Lack of Cell Phone Use
In this entertaining story of French serial criminal Rédoine Faïd and his jailbreaking ways, there’s this bit about cell phone surveillance:
After Faïd’s helicopter breakout, 3,000 police officers took part in the manhunt. According to the 2019 documentary La Traque de Rédoine Faïd, detective units scoured records of cell phones used during his escape, isolating a handful of numbers active at the time that went silent shortly thereafter.
Applied Cryptography is Banned in Oregon Prisons
My Applied Cryptography is on a list of books banned in Oregon prisons. It’s not me—and it’s not cryptography—it’s that the prisons ban books that teach people to code. The subtitle is “Algorithms, Protocols, and Source Code in C”—and that’s the reason.
My more recent Cryptography Engineering is a much better book for prisoners, anyway.
Inmates Secretly Build and Network Computers while in Prison
This is kind of amazing:
Inmates at a medium-security Ohio prison secretly assembled two functioning computers, hid them in the ceiling, and connected them to the Marion Correctional Institution’s network. The hard drives were loaded with pornography, a Windows proxy server, VPN, VOIP and anti-virus software, the Tor browser, password hacking and e-mail spamming tools, and the open source packet analyzer Wireshark.
Another article.
Clearly there’s a lot about prison security, or the lack thereof, that I don’t know. This article reveals some of it.
Inherent Bias in Recidivism Algorithm
Really good investigative reporting on the automatic algorithms used to predict recidivism rates.
Movie Plot Threat: Terrorists Attacking US Prisons
Kansas Senator Pat Roberts wins an award for his movie-plot threat: terrorists attacking the maximum-security federal prison at Ft. Leavenworth:
In an Aug. 14 letter to Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, Roberts stressed that Kansas in general—and Leavenworth, in particular—are not ideal for a domestic detention facility.
“Fort Leavenworth is neither the ideal nor right location for moving Guantánamo detainees,” Roberts wrote to Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter. “The installation lies right on the Missouri River, providing terrorists with the possibility of covert travel underwater and attempting access to the detention facility.”
Not just terrorists, but terrorists with a submarine! This is why Ft. Leavenworth, a prison from which no one has ever escaped, is unsuitable for housing Guantanamo detainees.
I’ve never understood the argument that terrorists are too dangerous to house in US prisons. They’re just terrorists, it’s not like they’re Magneto.
Data and Goliath Confiscated from Chelsea Manning
One of the books confiscated from Chelsea Manning was a copy of Data and Goliath.
The Economist on Guantanamo
Maybe the tide is turning:
America is in a hole. The last response of the blowhards and cowards who have put it there is always: “So what would you do: set them free?” Our answer remains, yes. There is clearly a risk that some of them would then commit some act of violence—in Yemen, elsewhere in the Middle East or even in America itself. That risk can be lessened by surveillance. But even if another outrage were to happen, the evil of “Gitmo” has recruited far more people to terrorism than a mere 166. Mr Obama should think about America’s founding principles, take out his pen and end this stain on its history.
I agree 100%.
This isn’t the first time people have pointed out that our politics are creating more terrorists than they’re killing—especially our drone strikes—but I don’t expect this sort of security trade-off analysis from the Economist.
Prison Escape
Audacious daytime prison escape by helicopter.
The escapees have since been recaptured.
EDITED TO ADD (4/12): Other helecopter prison escapes.
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.