In prison, a cell phone is a dangerous weapon

When you think of all the things that prisoners aren’t allowed to have on them, cell phones might not top the list. But, for prison officials, they do. “Prison officials see this as the most dangerous form of contraband,” says Kevin Roose, senior editor at Fusion. US Prisons, says Roose, are spending millions of dollars to keep cell phones out of prisons. Mostly because they have been used in the past to harass victims or even coordinate crimes from behind bars. Now, prisons are trying out something called a “managed access system.” It acts like a cell tower, and intercepts data and calls from the person using the phone before they reach the carrier. If you are not one of the people authorized to be sending or receiving calls or texts, you’re blocked from doing so.