Mobile phones could soon be 'contraband' in federal prisons

Cell phones in federal prisons could soon be considered contraband, as the House of Representatives yesterday passed legislation similar to that in the Senate that prohibits the possession or use of wireless devices by federal prisoners. The bill now goes to a conference committee to resolve any issues between the two houses before it is passed on to the president.
However, the legislation only addresses the issue of whether it is illegal for federal prisoners to possess phones. It does not address accompanying issues such as whether cell-phone jammers can be used by state and local prisons to block RF signals at their facilities. Today only federal prison authorities can use cell-phone jammers. In October, the Senate passed the Safe Prison Act, which allows the director of the federal bureau of prisons or other authorities to seek FCC approval to deploy cell-phone jammers in their jurisdictions to block wireless coverage in correctional facilities. That bill has yet to be introduced in the House.
Interestingly, mobile phones are the No. 1 device snuck into prisons today, according to Howard Melamed, CEO of CellAntenna, which sells signal boosters and jammers. The Federal Communications Commission has a notice of proposed rulemaking to block the sale of cell-phone jammers and signal boosters.
The bill would call for a study of state and federal efforts “to prevent the smuggling of cell phones and other wireless devices into prisons and jails, including efforts that state and federal authorities are making to minimize trafficking of cell phones by guards and other prison officials and recommendations to reduce the number of cell phones that are trafficked into prisons and jails.” The House bill also calls for a study on how expensive it is to make collect calls from prison and a study on the cost and amount of cell phones in prison today and the amount of illegal activity conducted via the devices.