By C1 Staff
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Nothing is more dangerous inside a prison than a cell phone, something Robert Johnson can attest to.
He used to be the captain in charge of finding contraband at the Lee Correctional Facility, up until an inmate used a cell phone to call a hit on him. He was shot six times in the chest at his own home, according to Count On 2.
Johnson is still waiting on another surgery to continue his recovery, but until then he’s advocating changes at the prison to prevent what happened to him from happening to other officers.
The facility is currently building two new guard towers to the tune of $237,000 to prevent the influx of contraband, but Johnson says it’s not enough.
“This just makes them work harder,” he said. “They’re still going to have cell phones. But with the block, the cell phone blocking, that’s a wrap. It would completely close it.”
He’s talking about cell phone jammers, which would block cell phone signals within a prison. The technology was demonstrated for the Department of Corrections in 2008, showing that cell reception inside the prison was nonexistent but those outside of the walls were unaffected.
But the Federal Communications Commission won’t allow prisons to use the technology, citing the 1934 Communications Act, which prohibits the intentional disruption of radio signals.
What it will allow is something called managed access, which is currently being tested in states like Georgia, Texas and California.
Managed access places a cell tower close to or inside a prison to create a virtual umbrella over the facility. All calls would then go through that tower, and unauthorized calls like those from an inmate with a contraband cell phone would be blocked.
The drawback is that those living close to the prison have to get their cell phones authorized to continue making calls. Phone service providers also have to cooperate due to the tower needing to handle all the carriers’ signals.
It’s also costly, ranging between $400,000 to a million per prison.
The director of the South Carolina DOC, Bryan Stirling, finds it frustrating that the FCC won’t allow cell phone jamming, since it would be cheaper and more effective than guard towers.
“This is just one measure amongst many that we’re using at our institutions across the state to make them safer, but it’s not the catch-all. Blocking, I believe, would be a catch-all that would stop them from being able to reach on the outside and talk on the outside and continue their criminal ways,” he said.
It’s also unclear if the 1934 Communications Act would apply to jamming cell phones inside prisons. The actual wording of the law says “no person shall willfully or maliciously interfere with or cause interference to any radio communications of any station licensed or authorized or under this chapter or operated by the United States Government.” A prison inmate using a cell phone is not an authorized radio communication.
Another federal agency, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, does allow the jamming of unauthorized radio signals.
The FCC clarified, saying it wouldn’t allow the jamming due to it being illegal and because it would interfere with 911 and other emergency calls. It also might interfere with the legitimate business calls and those of people living near the prison.
The DOC says the prisons are far enough away from homes and businesses that a jamming signal inside one of its facilities would not interfere with legitimate cell phone use outside the walls.