Button "Off." It doesn't work

Why is the idea to block mobile communications in colonies doomed to failure

FSIN did not succeed, it will not work out for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This is about the initiative of the Board of the Ministry of the Interior on November 1: by July 30, 2020, the police, together with the Federal Penitentiary Service, FSB and Roskomnadzor, work out the issue of installing cellular cell blockers in the territory of correctional institutions.

A curious detail: not to block mobile phones in colonies and prisons is proposed not because cellular communications in correctional institutions are prohibited. The Ministry of Internal Affairs sees this in one way to combat telephone fraud: a third of telephone crooks “work” in the colonies-in illegal call centers.

The deputy of the State Duma from United Russia and the deputy chairman of the Committee on Security and Combating Corruption of Alexander Khinshtein, it turns out, is already ready to amend the laws that limit the use of mobile communications in colonies. Khinshtein proposes to oblige cellular operators to terminate the provision of services for numbers of certain subscribers after the application from the head of the correctional institution.

The deputy explained: “With the help of mobile phones, convicts can not only make fraud, but also put pressure on witnesses, coordinate criminal groups, etc.”.

And he cited such a figure: about 60 thousand mobile phones are seized annually in the colonies.

Both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Khinshtein’s intention, of course, good. But I'm afraid that all these measures are meaningless. "Anti -mobility" laws simply will not work. Because while the head of the colony sets the phone numbers from which calls to the will are made, while he writes a letter to the cell operator, the prisoners will already have new SIM cards. 60 thousand mobile phones seized in colonies are the best confirmation of this. After all, before these mobile phones were seized, they somehow got into the territory of a regime institution. I will not be mistaken if I assume that their employees themselves carried the lion's share of the phones to the territory of the colonies.

When I was serving a sentence under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code for inciting social growth in relation to the social group “Regional Power” in IK-10 in Mendeleevsk, in our detachment all activists (the so-called red-those who serve the administration’s interests) went with mobile phones. And they used cellular communications, not even hiding. Periodically, officers of opera operators visited the hut with sudden checks (shmons). And they left with a catch prohibition - a dozen mobile phones. But only a few days passed, all the “red” phones appeared again. Often - the same tubes that were seized just a few days ago. And this cycle of mobile phones did not surprise anyone, because it was considered one of the elements of prisoners.

The proposal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to block cellular communications in colonies due to illegal call centers looks like a recognition of the fact that it is more difficult to calculate the place where mass calls come from, in a very local territory, limited to barbed wire and towers, than to disconnect the cellular connection in the colony. Apparently, the Ministry of Internal Affairs decided to go out with such an initiative, realizing perfectly what

All centers of telephone fraud work under the auspices of the leadership of the colonies.

In principle, it is not difficult to block mobile communications in the territory of the zone. Because ten years ago in IK-10 he himself witnessed how mobile phones did not work there for several weeks-neither the Reds nor the employees. And this happened after the FSB on duty at the duty department received a call to mining the chemical plant to them. Karpova, who in those years was engaged in the disposal of chemical weapons and cleaning industrial waste containing radioactive substances.

The chemical plant is located in the vicinity of Mendeleevsk-through the fence from IK-10. Law enforcement agencies quickly calculated that the call with a threat came from the colony. The FSB operatives came there and very quickly calculated the exact location of the mobile phone and a specific telephone terrorist. And the technical services of the FSB installed the “muffler”, which blocked mobile communications. Colony officers said that

The “wilderness” was the size of a suitcase, and they talked that it was necessary to resolve the issue of its disconnection at the level of the leadership of the regional department of the FSB.

This says this about one thing: the technical opportunity to disable mobile communications in the colonies was ten years ago. Only the management of correctional institutions, apparently, is not necessary.