Brendan Carr plans to let prisons jam cellphone signals

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced the agency will vote on November 19th on rules that would allow prisons to use signal jamming to block inmates from using cellphones. The proposal would allow prisons to obtain licenses for jamming equipment, despite the current ban on such devices under Section 333 and the Communications Act of 1934, with few exceptions. The ban has been relaxed for use at some federal facilities already. The push for this change is being driven by law enforcement officials, including Arkansas AG Tim Griffin and Georgia AG Chris Carr, who claim that contraband cellphones are being used to coordinate violent gang activity and aid criminal enterprises. However, anonymous incarcerated journalists argue that the real reason for the push is to silence them as they use phones to distribute uncensored reports of civil rights violations to news media. The FCC's proposal states that prisons would need to get licenses to use jamming equipment, and it is unclear what the criteria for obtaining these licenses would be. The proposal also notes that the FCC has already permitted the use of jammers at some federal facilities. The vote on the proposal is scheduled for November 19th. The FCC's proposal does not mention any plans for a pilot program to test the implications of the jamming on surrounding areas, as suggested by FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez last year.