After finding 775 prohibited cell phones in Texas prisons so far this year, state officials are petitioning federal regulators and the U.S. Senate for the power to jam cell phone signals in lockups — joining 27 other states who want the same authority.
Texas and other states hope to use jamming technology to keep cell phones out of the hands of inmates, who can use them to order criminal acts outside prison walls. “It’s critical,” said the Texas prison system’s inspector general, John Moriarty. “The cell phones are the most immediate threat to public safety in Texas. … We’ve had a lot of crimes orchestrated over those phones…”
But cell phone jamming by states is apparently prohibited by a 1934 federal law that bans states from interfering with federal airwaves.
“The problem with jamming technology is that’s it’s imprecise,” John Walls [representing wireless carriers] said. “We’re certainly not at odds on the intent. There’s not one legitimate customer that we have behind bars, and shutting that off is as much of a concern to the industry as anybody else.”
Walls said they want a solution that will “protect legitimate use while still solving the problem.”
Tell you what. Let the fracking cell phone companies come up with a technology that does what they want. Meanwhile, jam the signals in the prisons. Save the “what-ifs” for your favorite soap opera.
I don’t understand why the prison isn’t already a faraday cage. The cell phones shouldn’t work in there at all period anyway. The only thing that has to be done is the radios the guards use would touch receiving equipment in the prison that can broadcast out of the prison, so guards on the exterior of the building can communicate with the ones inside. other than that, no radio devices should ever work inside the prison period.
Some sort of Faraday cage technology seems like a good alternative to me. Especially as hard as it is for the unconfined to get a signal. It also sounds like the visitors aren’t being adequately searched either. They should fix the holes before changing laws.
Spark-gap transmitter!
So are they using the cell phones outside, or are the walls not thick enough to block a signal?
#4 How do you think the prisoners are getting the cell phones? I do not think that relying of the guards to enforce this is the way to go. Also, I am not saying that every guard is bringing in the phones. You only need a handful of corrupt guards.
#7: My original question’s sarcasm, understatement and irony do not translate well to the printed word.
#25: Very true. So who’s watching the watchers?
“The cell phones are the most immediate threat to public safety in Texas..”.
And I thought it was the restaurants.
Why not just turn the entire prison into a faraday’s cage.
This is odd, one one hand we have people like EFF.org saying that the feds are wiretapping everyone, and on the other hand, we have a “problem” with prisoners using cell phones while in prison “commandeering crime” and the claim that money has to be allocated for and laws have to be changed to “solve the problem” by jamming their signals? Anyone see the pattern yet? It’s there, right in front of you.
Based on the picture, just how (and where) do they plant to jam the phones. Try doing that with a landline!
This is ridiculous. They jam radio and telephone frequencies on military bases, whenever it suits them. Supposedly to prevent spies from communicating military secrets, turning alerts. But REALLY, to keep most service personnel in the dark, as long as possible. Because the “outside world” usually already knows whats going on. And the brass don’t want the soldiers to get confused with the truth, before they’re officially fed the standard lies.
A few years ago, I remember hearing about movie theaters and other public places, that were considering jamming cellphones, so their patrons entertainment was uninterrupted. And at that time, there was no objection by the FCC. So why suddenly are they objecting now?!
If the government is going to come to the defense of jailbirds’ use of cellphones (essentially). Then they should provide every law abiding car owner in the US an “OnStar” box for emergency calls, that wants one. They already funded those Tv converter box. And those had nothing to do with saving lives.
I think some movie theaters used to do it before they were stopped. The tech exists but it is against the law.
They can use various tech to run down the approximate locations but then things get…messy.
I suppose in time all phones will have a tracker chip in some part that is critical and can’t be removed nor inactivated without killing the phone.
Faraday-cage prisons? $$$$. Triangulation? Obvious (e911, anyone?). Tapping? Problematic to ID the bad guy vs. the rest of us. Jamming: in the sense of non-connected cell sites, that all phones would connect to, but would not be able to access the outside network: easy and not privacy-violating. Seems easy and relatively cheap.