Cell Phone Jamming in Prison- What's the Real Issue?

There's been quite a lot of coverage lately about prison systems possibly using equipment to jam cellular frequencies inside their facilities. It's illegal for non-federal government entities to use jamming equipment in the United States, but there's a company trying to sell its wares to correctional institutions in the US, as it does overseas.  It recently conducted an illegal demonstration of its services in South Carolina, although a demonstration scheduled for today in Texas was canceled when the chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice said they didn't want to break the law. Granted, Chairman Oliver Bell said the board is interested in working to change the law, but kudos to the Chairman Bell and other Texas officials for recognizing the current law. 

What I'd like to focus on is a couple of things I find interesting in this discussion. Number one- the commercial company hoping to sell its services to the prison systems claims Texas "chickened out" with its demonstration, according to a report earlier this week in TR Daily. Since when is following the law of the land "chickening out"! Do you "chicken out" when you stop at red lights or not steal from stores?  Just as ludicrous is the company president's suggestion that cell phone carriers are only interested in selling their service to prisoners. I can assure you that out of the approximately 175 billion minutes of voice calls that are made every month in the U.S., carriers would be quite content with not having whatever might be illegally coming out of cell block C. In fact, that position is preposterous!

Which brings me to the real issue here, and the one that I think we ought to be focusing on. Is anyone else besides me wondering how the cell phones are getting in prisons to begin with? And if it's so easy to smuggle a cell phone in, what else is getting into prisoners' hands? It seems to me that this is a far more important question that needs answered, and solving it would render this whole issue of jamming a moot point. 

CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent said in a letter to Texas State Representative Jerry Madden that the industry is working with the staff of U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn to "identify solutions that provide for an effective deterrent, but ensure the reliability of all wireless communications- both commercial and public safety communications in bands adjacent to commercial radio spectrum." That eventual solution could be one of many forms, but rather than taking away a valuable safety tool from corrections employees in possibly life-threatening situations, which jamming could most certainly do, and quite likely disrupting commercial service in adjacent bands, the mission should be focusing on a practical answer to the fundamental question of how cell phones are getting behind bars in the first place.