FCC taking steps that would allow US prisons to jam prisoners' cellphone signals

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CHAPIN, S.C. (AP) — Federal officials on Friday said they are taking steps that will give state and federal prisons the right to jam the signals of cellphones smuggled to inmates, devices they argue allow prisoners to plot violence and carry out crimes.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Friday during a news conference in Arkansas that his agency would vote at its Sept. 30 meeting on a proposal to lift a restriction in place that prohibits state and federal prisons from jamming signals of phones that prisoners aren’t allowed to have.

The debate over using technology to make the devices — often smuggled behind bars and even delivered over prison fences by drones and hollowed-out footballs — has been ongoing for years, with prison officials saying these actions allow inmates to run criminal enterprises while incarcerated.

“It may not be a silver bullet, it may not be the right fit for every facility, but there are certainly lots and lots of facilities around this country where this type of solution will and can make a significant difference,” Carr said. “Every single day that goes by, we’re leaving the American public exposed, and we’re going to close that loophole.”

Officials said smuggled phones allowed inmates to orchestrate a 2018 gang-related siege that raged for more than seven hours at a South Carolina prison, killing seven inmates in the worst U.S. prison riot in 25 years.

They've also, according to officials, been used to orchestrate violence outside prisons. Robert Johnson, who worked as an anti-contraband officer at one of South Carolina’s most violent prisons, survived six shots to the stomach and chest as he prepared to head to work in 2010, becoming an advocate for the use of jamming technology.

Many incremental moves on the issue have involved South Carolina, whose former state prisons director Bryan Stirling became a national advocate for the use of jamming technology. In 2016, Stirling hosted then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to tour South Carolina prisons and hold a field hearing in the state.

In 2019, federal officials oversaw a test of jamming technology at a South Carolina prison. The state was also first to apply for a permit after the FCC in 2021 adopted a ruling that would allow state prison systems to apply for permits to identify and turn off illegal cell signals, but action on the application stalled.

Prosecutors from around the country have called on Congress to change a nearly century-old federal communications law that currently prevents state prisons from using jamming technology to nullify illicit cell signals, but those efforts have also failed. On Friday, Carr said that his agency's upcoming vote would technically “deauthorize the lawful use of contraband cell phones” in prisons, something he said would mean current federal law “is no longer a prohibition to jamming” them.

In a statement, officials with CTIA, a wireless industry group that opposes jamming, said providers are “committed to addressing the serious issue of contraband phones while fulfilling the longstanding Congressional mandate to protect legitimate communications, including vital public safety services, from interference.”

According to Carr, using jamming wouldn't be mandatory for any prison. Officials currently use other methods to keep out illegal phones, like scans and even netting put up along prison borders, to deter people from throwing phones over fencing.

In the 15 years since he was shot, Johnson said he's endured 36 surgeries due to the attack, but is thankful to see advancements he hopes will protect others.

“I could have died, but the beginning of the end, hopefully, has started,” he said, of the upcoming vote. “I really thought I would never see this day.”

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP