The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote on a proposal later this month that will allow prisons, jails and other detention facilities to jam cell phone signals along their perimeter.
The proposal was revealed during a press event on Friday, during which FCC Chairman Brendan Carr claimed contraband phones obtained by prison inmates were allowing them to run criminal enterprises and commit illegal acts while incarcerated.
Thousands of contraband cell phones have been confiscated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons over the past decade, most of which turn up at minimum and low security prisons and camps where it is easier to smuggle them in.
Correctional officers and prison guards are usually the primary source of illegal phones given to inmates, though prisoners have also used drones to get them into facilities. At minimum and low security prisons, family members and friends sometimes hand phones to prisoners during visitation hours, during which as few as one guard might be on duty to supervise dozens of inmates and visitors.
While some inmates use phones to commit crimes, others use them as a way of keeping in touch with family members and friends in a facility where prison phone rates can add up to hundreds of dollars per month.
Last year, the FCC voted to reign in exorbitant prison phone rates, capping them at $1.35 per call in federal prisons and $1 per call in state prisons and jails. The initiative was expected to go into effect this year, but was delayed a few months after Carr became chairman. Carr said the new phone rates won’t take effect until at least 2027.
Carr is instead focused on ensuring those with illegal access to phones in prisons and detention facilities have a harder time calling out. Later this month, the FCC will vote on an initiative that exempts prisons and detention facilities from the agency’s rules regarding cell phone jamming.
Ordinarily, jamming cell phone signals is illegal. Carr wants prisons exempted from the rule, so they can block cell phone signals originating from their facility.
“For years, thousands upon thousands of contraband cellphones have been pouring into prisons, and some of the worst possible offenders have been using them to order hits, coordinate violent gang activity, and aid criminal enterprises. While the FCC has authorized a range of solutions in the past, it has stopped short of allowing jamming,” Carr said in a statement.
He continued: “It is time to empower law enforcement to put additional solutions in place — including jamming.”
In a press release issued Friday, the FCC said the proposal to exempt prisons from cell phone jamming rules would involve outreach to the wireless industry for “targeted” jamming of illegal phones. Beyond that, it isn’t clear how prisons will differentiate between illegally-obtained phones used by inmates and devices used by prison guards and other staff members.
