Members of Congress have introduced a bill to prevent the use of contraband phones in prisons. This measure, sponsored by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC), allows state and federal prisons to use cell phone jamming systems. Members of the House of Representatives David Custoff (R-TN) and William Timmons (R-SC) introduced a related bill in the House of Representatives.
Correctional officials say the use of prohibited mobile phones is very common in federal and state prisons. In 2017, more than 14,000 devices were confiscated in California prisons. Prisoners use smuggled mobile phones to conduct illegal activities, including ordering beatings outside the prison walls, conducting illegal drug operations, illegal business transactions and organizing escapes to endanger detainees. Employees, other prisoners and members of the public, correctional officials and lawmakers said.
The Cell Phone handheld jammer Reform Act gives state and federal prisons the power to establish jamming systems in prisons. They must report this usage to the Bureau of Prisons, which will have final authority over the system.
The bill is not mandatory, but a choice of prison officials. It allows the authorities to choose from a wide range of interference technologies, including management access technology, surgical interference technology, beacon technology, or any technology that may restrict the use of prohibited mobile phones in the future. It does not specify the specific types of technologies that facilities must use.
In the past, the FCC cited decades-long prohibitions against interrupting signals from state agencies to prevent the agency from allowing cell phone interference. The prison authorities insisted on being able to use them.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai challenged the mobile phone company last year and asked it to participate in this work. According to “Inner Tower”, Pai held a hearing at the FCC headquarters in South Carolina and Washington, DC. Members of Congress, prison officials, and representatives of the wireless communications industry participated in the hearing.
After the 2018 meeting, Representative Kostov told the Associated Press that he was encouraged by the committee’s actions. Representatives of CTIA also attended the meeting. They thanked Pai for convening the meeting and told its members that “they recognize the real threat posed by smuggled equipment in prisons across the country”, and we thank all stakeholders for identifying and implementing a legal solution to this problem. ”
In January 2018, officials developed cell phone jamming technology in a federal prison in western Maryland. The previous problem was the lack of control over the signal coverage area. The problem is how to interfere with illegal signals from cell phones in prisons, such as those from emergency personnel, without interfering with legal signals in cells outside the prison walls. Proponents of these tests say that the technology had developed at that time and its scope is now more predictable.