Prison Commissioner Ahmed Mohamed-Fulhu has said that the antenna installed to prevent the use of mobile phones in Maafushi Prison is showing results, and they can now monitor the prison's mobile network.
After the press conference held last week by the Maldives Police Service, Maldives Correctional Service, and Ministry of Home Affairs, the Prison Commissioner confirmed to "Mihaaru" that the Honeypot antennae installed at the prison facility allowed them to monitor calls made from within the prison.
He said that the antennae allowed them to determine which mobile phones were permitted to be used on the premises and which were not.
"We are now monitoring all the calls, which has enabled us to identify and blocking scam callers. We are seeing its impact now," Mohamed-Fulhu said.
The persistent use of mobile phones in prisons has led to an increase in scam calls. A jammer was previously installed in Maafushi Prison to combat the issue; however, since Maafushi Prison is located on a residential island, the authorities had trouble making proper use of it as it interfered with the networks the locals used.
After consulting with telecommunication providers, a special antennae was installed at the prison. However, Mohamed-Fulhu noted that the information gathered this way could lead to privacy issues.
He said that this was not a problem they can solve on their own.
"We can only resolve this issue when the problems within the system are fixed. It cannot be solved by just the home sector. Service providers need to change their approach to issuing SIMs. Similarly, data sharing problems need to be addressed and laws relating to this issue should also be amended," he said.
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