Washington, D.C.— Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today introduced the Cellphone Jamming Reform Act, legislation to prevent contraband cellphone use in federal and state prison facilities by allowing state and federal prisons to use cell phone jamming systems. Senators James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), John Boozman (R-Arkansas), Mike Braun (R-Indiana), John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), and Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee) are original co-sponsors of the bill. Representative David Kustoff (R-Tennessee) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. House Of Representatives. Text of the bill may be found here.

The Cell Phone Jamming Reform Act gives state and federal prisons the authority to implement a jamming system to protect inmates, guards, and the public at large.

"Prisoners have used contraband cell phones to direct illegal activities outside prison walls, including hits on rivals, sex trafficking, drug operations, and business deals. Cellphone jamming devices can stop this but the Federal Communications Act doesn't allow facilities to use this technology. My bill would fix this problem so that criminals serve their time without posing a threat to the general public," said Cotton.

“Cell phones are being slipped into jails and prisons, but federal policy prevents local law enforcement from jamming the cell signal. That needs to stop,” said Lankford. “After years of work and conversations with law enforcement, the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Justice, and Oklahoma prison leadership, we finally have a bill to allow states to jam illegal cell phones in their prisons to prevent prisoners from contacting their victims or coordinating even more crime while they are incarcerated. This bill simply allows state and federal prisons to use cell phone jammers to ensure they have the tools they need to combat illegal activity in a prison.”  

"In correctional facilities across our country, inmates are using contraband cell phones to conduct illegal activities, including running drug operations, facilitating sex trafficking, and organizing escapes,” said Kustoff. “These contraband cell phones are a major problem and Congress must take action to protect the public from dangerous criminals who continue their illegal activities behind bars. I am pleased to join Senators Cotton and Graham in reintroducing this important bill that will keep our communities in West Tennessee and the United States safe."

This legislation is supported by the Correctional Leaders Association, the Council of Prison Locals, the American Correctional Association, the National Sheriff’s Association, and the Major County Sheriffs of America.

Background:

The use of contraband cellphones is widespread in both federal and state prison facilities. Inmates have used contraband cellphones to conduct illegal activities, including ordering hits on individuals outside of the prison walls, running illegal drug operations, conducting illegal business deals, facilitating sex trafficking, and organizing escapes which endanger correctional employees, other inmates, and members of the public.

In 2018, a gang fight over territory using cellphones to trade contraband sparked a brawl inside the Lee Correctional Institution near Bishopville, South Carolina, and left seven inmates dead and 20 injured.

Bureau of Prisons Correctional officer Lt. Osvaldo Albarati was murdered in 2013 for interrupting an illicit contraband cellphone business. His actual assassination was initiated by an inmate using a contraband cellphone to contact the gunman as outlined in the indictment.

A 2018 report showed an FCI Fort Dix inmate arranged murder and assault from a smuggled phone in a Jersey prison.

Contraband cell phones aren't only allowing violent criminals to continue their nefarious activities. In 2019, the Wall Street Journalreported that Martin Shkreli, the disgraced pharmaceutical executive sentenced to seven years for securities fraud, was still making decisions at Phoenixus AG through the use of a contraband cellphone.