Mobile phone use in prisons on the radar again

THE use of mobile phones by gang bosses inside the country’s only high-security prison has again caused a storm.

When gang leader John Daly rang RTÉ’s Liveline programme on his mobile phone from his cell on E1 landing in Portlaoise in May 2007, it caused outrage, not least to then justice minister Michael McDowell.

It led to a crackdown and the promised introduction of security measures aimed at stemming the flow of mobile phones and drugs into prisons, as well as research into technology to block the use of phones from prisons.