By Javon L. Harris
The Herald
ROCK HILL, S.C. — The Federal Communications Commission approved a proposal allowing state and local prisons in South Carolina, and nationally, to block illegal cell phone usage by inmates.
In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the FCC passed a rule permitting state and local correctional facilities to use a targeting technology that will jam illegal cell phone communications by inmates. The vote comes amid a years-long effort to curb crime on the streets facilitated by orders issued from incarcerated crime bosses.
“I applaud the FCC for taking this crucial step toward a safer America,” South Carolina Department of Corrections Director Joel Anderson said in a statement. “Inmates with illegal cellphones commit serious crimes. It’s that simple. South Carolina looks forward to working with the FCC and other stakeholders to make this a reality.”
It’s a move S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson also praised when the proposal was first announced earlier this month, and praised again in the wake of Tuesday’s approval.
“This is something I’ve fought for for years because criminals behind bars are using contraband cell phones to order hits, intimidate witnesses, and continue committing other crimes,” Wilson said in a Tuesday statement.
In the video below, Gordon Graham discusses how to combat contraband in correctional facilities.
The new rule makes it voluntary for state and local prisons to jam contraband cell phone use and authorizes targeted jamming technology that “can be precise enough that it doesn’t interrupt the regular communications of law enforcement or community members in the vicinity,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said before the vote Tuesday.
“Contraband cell phones have been pouring into state and local prisons by the tens of thousand every year,” Carr told the commission. “They’re used to run drug operations, orchestrate kidnappings and further criminal enterprises in communities all across the country.”
In support of the proposal, Carr cited a S.C. correctional officer, in charge of finding and confiscating contraband cell phones, who was shot multiple times at the direction of an inmate.
“Captain [ Robert] Johnson was getting dressed for work one morning in his home when his front door was kicked in and he was shot six times in the chest at point blank range,” Carr said. “It was a hit called in by an inmate using a contraband cell phone.”
Johnson, who worked at the Lee Correctional Institute in Bishopville, served the corrections department for 15 years and miraculously, survived the attack, Carr said.
While federal prisons have long been afforded the ability to jam illegal cell phone usage, state and local prisons have not, Carr said. Prison guards and law enforcement officials, like Johnson, asked the commission “to change this,” he added.
For a decade state leaders and prison officials— spearheaded by former state corrections director, now S.C. U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling — have tried to combat contraband cellphone use to no avail. A 2024 study by the Urban Institute, for example, found that prison authorities recovered more than 25,000 cell phones across 20 state prisons in a single year.
Carr acknowledged the new rule will not be a “silver bullet,” noting that jamming cell phones won’t be feasible for every facility.
“But there are many places where it will be the right solution,” he said.
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