Corrections Officials Support Jamming Proposal in FCC Comments
The FCC received mostly support for a proposal to allow correctional facilities to jam cell signals, with an eye on curbing contraband phones, according to comments filed during the federal government shutdown. Wireless carriers have long opposed jamming but haven't filed comments. The FCC unanimously approved a further NPRM in September, with Commissioner Anna Gomez calling on the agency to move cautiously as it revisits the issue (see 2509300063).
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CTIA hasn’t commented beyond a statement released when the FNPRM was approved. Lawyers who represent carriers said last week that they expect the wireless industry to raise concerns once comments are due. Some pushback is “inevitable, from CTIA and maybe the carriers,” one lawyer said.
The FCC should “formally deauthorize transmissions originating from contraband cell phones inside state prisons and local correctional facilities,” the Correctional Leaders Association said in comments posted Thursday in docket 13-111. No pilot program is needed, it said.
State and local correctional facilities should be allowed to deploy jamming solutions “with proper safeguards,” based on a “good-faith negotiation” process with carriers, “with a Commission fallback licensing process,” the group said. The FCC should also “apply the latest evidence-based technical safeguards” and extend the jamming framework to cover Wi-Fi, satellite “and other noncommercial links.”
Several state corrections officials also filed comments while the government was closed. Jeff Zmuda, secretary of the Kansas Department of Corrections, said the proposed rule would “empower correctional administrators to implement narrowly tailored jamming systems that disrupt unauthorized wireless communications within prison boundaries without affecting legitimate service outside the facility.” Bobby Lumpkin, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, filed similar comments in support of jamming.
Contraband cellphones “are frequently used to coordinate criminal activity both inside and outside prison walls, including drug trafficking, fraud schemes, witness intimidation, and even violent crimes,” wrote Leslie Cooley Dismukes, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. “Despite our best efforts using currently authorized technologies, the proliferation of contraband cell phones remains a persistent and growing challenge.”
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections similarly argued that contraband phones “are not harmless conveniences -- they are tools of criminal enterprise.”
The FCC heard concerns as well. Actall, which deploys real-time location services and gear in corrections and mental health facilities, asked that its devices be exempted under the rules. Managed access systems, rather than jamming, remain “an incredibly promising means of combatting the use of contraband phones in correctional facilities,” the company said.
“Facilities should not be required to use jamming technology to the exclusion of other technological solutions,” said technology provider Via Science. “The ability to choose the most appropriate and effective solution should remain with the corrections authorities.”