Mayor wants cellphone signal jamming at Pollsmoor

MINISTER of Correctional Services, Dr Pieter Groenewald has earmarked five facilities for a pilot project announced last year aimed at cellphone signal-blocking technology including Pollsmoor Prison which is set to be implemented by the end of the year, as Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis calls for its use.

- BRANDON NEL

In a statement released on Friday, Hill-Lewis said he had written to Groenewald, informing him that extortion and other crimes were being coordinated from within the prison.

"The City has received various reports that crime and extortion activity is being coordinated by phone from within Pollsmoor," Hill-Lewis said.

"On a recent roads project inspection in Bishop Lavis, I was informed that the contractor had left the site due to extortion threats made by phone call from an underworld figure inside Pollsmoor.

"This shows we must do more than just jail criminals, we have to prevent their ability to coordinate crime from within prisons.

"I have written to [Groenewald] to offer the City's full support to pilot sophisticated signal-blocking tech at Pollsmoor.

"We have to flip the switch on cellphones in prisons, and we welcome the minister’s public commitments to cracking down on this."