The Vale de Judeus Prison, in the Lisbon district, is set to begin constructing mobile phone and drone signal inhibitor towers, nearly two years after an escape involving seven inmates. The Ministry of Justice revealed that the inhibitor system is "installed and is in the testing and fine-tuning phase."
The escape that occurred at Vale de Judeus involved seven prisoners, including Portuguese national Rui Pinto, creator of Football Leaks, who managed to escape on a Sunday in August. The case caused great political turmoil and led to the resignation of the prison's director and the Director General for Reinsertion and Prison Services.
Authorities moved forward with the tower project as a measure to strengthen the facility's security, attempting to prevent inmates from maintaining unauthorized communications with the outside world. However, prison guards have expressed concerns about vulnerabilities that still persist in the prison's infrastructure.
The Ministry of Justice assures that the system is operational, but the fine-tuning and testing process has not yet been completed. Guards continue to warn of security flaws that could allow new escape attempts or irregular communication by inmates.
