Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr hopes the FCC can stop illegal prison phone calls. He’s not alone. In January of 2023, Carr signed a letter urging Congress to solve the problem along with 21 other AGs.
“Because contraband cell phones continue to be used to plan and orchestrate violent attacks and other criminal activity, I strongly urge you to reconsider the FCC’s prohibition on the use of cell phone jamming devices in state and local jails and prisons,” says Carr in a letter to the FCC. He asserts “the FCC’s prohibition limits legitimate law enforcement tools, presents dangerous conditions for correctional officers, and leads to the escalation of criminal enterprises within the prison system.”
Brad King with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office said this problem goes beyond the prison walls. “It’s a public safety issue without a doubt,” King told WMAZ-TV.
Since 2023, more than 13,000 contraband cell phones have been confiscated inside Georgia’s prisons. Jamming would disrupt the RF signal between a phone and a nearby cell tower, making those devices useless, according to Carr.
Washington County Sheriff Joel Cochran said these cell phones give inmates power. “Contacting witnesses or harassing victims or you know scheduling or working with drug traffickers to make transactions that way so I mean that’s how serious a simple thing such as a phone can be,” he said.
The FCC’s ban against cell phone jammers was enacted in the early 1990s, “years before prison inmates began using contraband cell phones to plan and engage in unlawful and dangerous behavior,” Carr states. He believes it no longer serves the public interest and says the U.S. Bureau of Prisons is permitting the use of jamming devices at several penitentiaries, including at least one in Georgia.
The FCC has okayed tests of such jammers at prisons. However, ensuring it only works within prison walls and does not impede first responders’ use outside the prison, is an issue, Inside Towers reported.
King said inmates with phones are running scams to take money from people in the community without a trail of evidence. “We can’t track it because they are using burner cell phones. It just makes it very difficult to work these cases,” King said.
In his letter, Carr argues the technology would prevent inmates from having unauthorized access to anyone outside prison walls.
Cochran said the bottom line is that it’s all a public safety risk that includes prison staff and other inmates. “Their homes are at these facilities. We want them to have a safe environment to reside in. We want the public safety staff members in these facilities to be able to go in and do their jobs and do them safely,” Cochran told WMAZ-TV.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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