BONUS! NCFCA Policy Debate: Managed Access (Cell Phone Blocking) (NEG)

Resolved: The United States Federal Government should significantly reform its policies regarding convicted prisoners under federal jurisdiction

Case Summary: The AFF plan implements “Managed Access System” in federal prisons.  This is a technology that is supposed to suppress the ability of inmates to make calls using illegal cell phones from inside prison.  Prisoners are not allowed to have cell phones at all, but sometimes they are smuggled in.  Some technologies try to block their use by jamming signals, but this is problematic because legitimate calls (by guards and prison officials, or by people in homes not far from the prison) get blocked as well.  MAS is different.  It lets all calls be initiated.  But it creates a “white list” of approved phone numbers that may be expected to be dialing out from the prison. If a call originates from a number not on the white list, the call will simply not be connected to its intended recipient.  Prison officials will all register their numbers on the white list, while no prisoner would have his illegal cell phone on the list, so prisoner calls will just ring and never complete.