FCC to consider allowing prison cellphone jamming, following push from Arkansas senator

The Trump administration is moving to partially lift a blanket federal prohibition on cellphone jamming, FCC Chair Brendan Carr said Friday — a move in line with efforts led by Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton to allow the practice via legislation.

Cotton, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in an afternoon press conference in Little Rock they are primarily interested in targeting prison inmates who use contraband cellphones to commit crimes. Carr said he’s ready to oblige via a rule change.

Federal law prohibits states or individuals from “willfully or maliciously” interfering with “licensed or authorized” radio communications — such as a cellphone.

“Over the years the FCC has authorized various different technologies to try to identify contraband cell phones and shut them down,” Carr said at the press conference. “They’ve worked in some cases, they have not worked in other cases. Other countries — and the federal government — have authority to jam within their facilities, but state and local officials have been denied that ability.

Carr said the long-standing federal ban was due to a “misreading” of law. The FCC will vote on a proposed rule at the end of the month that would change this.

“What we can do at the federal level is we authorize communications or we don’t authorize communications, and so what we’re going to do is we’re going to deauthorize the lawful use of contraband cell phones within the confines of prisons,” Carr said. “So once contraband cellphone use is not an authorized communication, then the federal law is no longer a prohibition to jamming it.”

The work-around, Griffin said, will allow prison officials to target illicit cellphone use that “kill[s] and endanger[s]” people.

“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.

Cellphones are typically considered contraband in state prison systems, and Arkansas officials and Carr said they are being used by violent criminals to order hits and other crimes against people on the outside. A memo addressed to Arkansas Division of Correction Director Dexter Payne provided to the Advocate by both the Department of Corrections and the attorney general’s office outlined how illicit cellphones contribute to gang violence inside and outside state prisons.

According to the memo written by Maj. Randy Shores of the division’s Office of Emergency Services, Arkansas prisons currently incarcerate 230 “Serious Threat Group leaders” who have been found with a cellphone 308 times.

“These 230 inmates are from all the known threat groups housed in the department including Bloods, Crips, Aryan Circle, White Aryan Resistance along with our largest group Gangster Disciples,” Shores wrote in the undated memo. “Further investigation led us to several incidents involving confiscated cellphones where these same inmates’ information was found … showing evidence of conducting illegal activities such as drug movement, drone activities, the movement of money and gang activities throughout not only the state of Arkansas but across the United States.”

Rand Champion, a corrections department spokesperson, confirmed that the state had observed a trend between cellphone confiscations and increased gang violence within the prisons.

A photo shown by Griffin that he said was taken at the Arkansas Department of Corrections’ Varner Unit showed dozens of cellphones, which he said had been confiscated from inmates.

Griffin said incarcerated people will have the devices smuggled to them via drone drops and that there have been numerous instances of inmates extorting Arkansans using illicit phones.

“I recall telling the story of an inmate who was contacting another inmate’s mother on the phone and saying, ‘If you don’t get us this money, we’re going to kill your son,’” Griffin said. “No credible person disputes the heinous crimes that are being committed with these cellphones.”

Cotton has been pushing legislation to allow cellphone jamming within corrections facilities and is the lead sponsor for the proposed Cellphone Jamming Reform Act. He has introduced the bill on at least two occasions, including once this past March, but it has never moved out of a Senate committee.

The proposed rule, Cotton said, will make it so that “contraband cellphones will be nothing more than dead paperweights inside our prisons.”

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