Select a technology that helps to maintain safety in prisons. Given that contraband is still found in prison facilities today, how would you recommend improving the technology that you have selected? Discuss this improvement and how it would help to stop illegal items from entering the prison while maintaining the safety of the officers and the incarcerated.
ANSWER THE ABOVE DISCUSSION THEN REPLY TO MY CLASSMATE’S RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE QUESTIONS AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU AGREE? (A MINIMUM OF 125 WORDS or MORE)
CLASSMATE’S POST
As a novice drone pilot, Delivery Drones fascinate me, and I did not immediately realize that they are being used to smuggle illegal substances into prisons. In June 2019, a prisoner in the Cuyahoga County Jail Complex in Euclid, Ohio, is seen on surveillance footage looking up into the sky and attempting to strategically position himself in a recreation area when suddenly a black package falls from the sky. Afterwards, the inmate covers up the package with an orange towel and retrieves that package. It was later discovered that the package contained drugs and a cell phone (2019).
It is all too common for a drone to lose its signal with the control pad and venture off on its own until the signal has been reestablished. The loss of signal can be caused by a myriad of things such as Wi-Fi routers, cell phone towers, microwave antennas, and high voltage lines. These components cause the drone to become inoperable and the user loses all control of the drone and could possibly lose the craft altogether causing it to crash.
Pilots use remote controls to connect with their drones and direct their flightpath, however the radio signals between the remote control and drone can be interrupted. A blanket term for this deliberate radio signal interruption is called jamming, but there are other ways to interfere with a pilot and their drone, including spoofing (Friedberg, 2018).
To alleviate this issue in the prison system, high frequency signal barriers can be created and installed to cover the complete square footage of the prison and the surrounding acreage. This barrier will make it virtually impossible for a drone to be controlled inside the barrier, thus making it difficult, if not obsolete, for anyone from outside the facility to control a drone in the area. Depending on the level of protection, the drone detection software can alert the control center and ‘spoof’ the drone or take over the complete control of the drone and pilot it to a secured area.
References
Friedberg, S. (2018, April 19). A Primer on Jamming, Spoofing, and Electronic Interruption of a Drone. Retrieved December 12, 2019, from https://www.dedrone.com/blog/primer-jamming-spoofing-and-electronic-interruption-of-a-drone.
Johnson, L. M. (2019, September 27). A drone was caught on camera delivering contraband to an Ohio prison yard. Retrieved December 12, 2019, from https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/26/us/contraband-delivered-by-drone-trnd/index.html.
