Cell Phone Jamming Now Allowed in Prisons

Late Monday, October 5, 2009, the Senate approved a bill that will allow prisons to petition the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to use devices that jam cell phone airwaves as long as they don’t interfere with other legitimate communications.
Recently, the problem of cell phones being smuggled into prisons has reached state and national levels. Certain states, like New Jersey, are taking measures to reduce this problem, but it’s not that simple. Cell phones have continued to find their way into the hands of those that are serving time, allowing these prisoners to continue to conduct illegitimate business.
So now, the idea is to jam the airwaves, rendering the phones useless. Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who approved the bill, says “This legislation will disconnect the communications networks that prisoners and criminal enterprises have patched together using smuggled cell phones.” The current law bans all jamming devices except in select cases.
This is not good news for cell phone carriers, who are sure to lobby for the bill not to pass. The CTIA-The Wireless Association is one of these groups. They say that rather than jam cell phone use, correction officers can use cell phone detection hardware to track calls and that maybe would help bust those who use them.
There is a group that this could be good news for: prepaid phone card companies. If prisoners say in Texas, want to be able to make calls then they would somehow need to secure a Texas inmate phone, with a Texas offender prepaid debit phone card. That way they can still make their calls, but only in the presence of an officer who can monitor what they are saying.
JPay provides prepaid and debit phone cards allowing prisoners to stay in touch with their friends and family. Prisoners don’t need cellphones to speak with their loved ones. In Texas, friend and family can fund inmate phone accounts using JPay.com.