Prisons could use cellphone jamming systems under bill in Congress

WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Rep. David Kustoff of Tennessee reignited their push Wednesday to prevent incarcerated people from using contraband cellphones through device jamming systems.

The Republican lawmakers are reintroducing identical legislation in their respective chambers of Congress that would allow state and federal correctional facilities to use these systems, which disrupt and interfere with wireless communication.

Federal law currently prohibits the use of cellphone jamming equipment, as the devices can interfere with 911 calls and threaten public safety correspondence.  

“Within prison walls, contraband cellphones are dangerous weapons,” Cotton said at a press conference in the U.S. Capitol regarding the bill.

“For too long, we’ve turned a blind eye to this glaring public safety threat as crimes are planned, facilitated and ordered by convicted criminals already serving a prison sentence,” he said.

Cotton clarified that the equipment would not interrupt the normal communications of law enforcement and emergency first responders, and state officials would have “full discretion as to where and how this jamming equipment is used in prison facilities.”

The measure requires that the Federal Communications Commission — which has jurisdiction over the matter — “may not prevent” correctional facilities from using these systems.

The system operations would be limited to the housing units of the jail or prison.

Cotton said they would work with the FCC if the bill is passed to “make sure that it’s implemented in a careful and deliberate way that solves the problem that our correctional leaders have inside their prison without having any unintended consequences.”

Kustoff said “it really should not be possible for people behind prison bars to order hits on people, to conduct gang activity, to traffic drugs, while behind the walls of a prison.”

“The extent of this coordinated criminal activity carried out by inmates is a serious threat to everyone — those who guard and protect those in prison, as well as those in our communities,” he said.

The Urban Institute surveyed state correctional administrators and found that in 2020, more than 25,000 cellphones were recovered in their facilities across 20 states.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general led by Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and the U.S. Virgin Islands wrote to the leaders in the House and Senate, expressing their support of the measure and urging them to pass the legislation in their respective chambers.

They are joined by attorneys general in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

At the press conference, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said he and leadership at the state’s Department of Corrections and Arkansas State Police are “begging for this bill to become law.”

Griffin, who called the measure “fundamentally common sense,” cited examples of dangers posed by the use of these prohibited phones, including a convicted rapist who he said used a contraband cellphone to plan his escape from prison.

The FCC did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.