Cell Phone Sniffing Dogs

Corrections has come up with a way to prevent or minimize the smuggling of cell phones into prisons. Among other things, cell phones are being smuggled into prisons by visitors and even by the staff members and most of the time the staff do not realize it. Never send a man to do a dog’s job! Specially trained canines are the new way of detecting contraband at prisons. There are only two dogs in California that are trained to sniff out any cell phones at all 33 state prisons.

Cell phones are the most popular device that makes its way into the prisons because the inmates use it for many things from planning escapes to ordering hits outside of prison. Usually they are brought into the prisons by visitors and as disturbing as it is, they hide them inside their bodies. Not only do they insert cell phones into their bodies, but other artifacts that make me wonder how they even manage to get into their bodies. The creativity of the smugglers is pretty impressive, as they come up with the strangest ways to smuggle contraband into a prison. In a report by a San Francisco news station titled Smuggled Cell Phones Pose Prison Problems, cell phones and accessories are being brought in hidden in cakes, printers, VCRs and other things.

Correctional Officers and other staff are also responsible for some of the contraband found in the prisons. For this reason and because cell phone smuggling is a big issue in California prisons, cell phone sniffing dogs have come to the rescue. Last year at the prison in Solano there were 800 cell phones confiscated thanks to the help of the dogs. It is important to be strict about searching for cell phones because they are being used to commit other crimes even when the inmates are inside the prison and if staff members are part of the problem and can’t do the job, having these dogs is a great step forward. Perhaps inmates shouldn’t be allowed to have any kind of property in their cells, which would avoid any kind of contraband.