Bipartisan AG coalition pushes for prison cellphone jamming legislation

The group calls on Congress to change federal law to help corrections officials stop inmates from using contraband phones to commit crimes

April 04, 2025 11:53 AM

contraband cell phones — FILE | Confiscated contraband cellphones.

The Sanford Herald, N.C.

RALEIGH — On Wednesday (March 26), Attorney General Jeff Jackson co-led a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in sending a letter urging Congress to pass legislation allowing states to deploy cell phone jamming systems in jails and prisons.

The legislation aims to disrupt inmates’ ability to commit crimes using smuggled cell phones by giving governments the authority to deploy targeted jamming systems within jails and prisons while avoiding disruption of emergency signals like 911.

“North Carolina has seen how much harm someone can cause by using a cell phone in prison or jail,” Jackson said in a release.

“Incarcerated people can use these contraband cell phones to keep breaking the law and put innocent people and law enforcement officers in danger on the outside,” he said. “This bipartisan legislation would help curb drug trafficking, fraud, witness intimidation, violence and other offenses while making North Carolina’s justice systems and communities safer. We’re asking Congress to help make this law.”

The coalition’s letter to Congress highlights how inmates exploit contraband phones to:

Direct drug trafficking operations;
Orchestrate violence inside and outside prisons and jails;
Run sophisticated fraud schemes preying on vulnerable citizens;
Intimidate witnesses and terrorize victims’ families; and
Plot escape attempts that endanger law enforcement and the public.

North Carolina is all too familiar with the danger that an incarcerated prisoner can bring to our communities. In 2016, a gang member incarcerated at Polk Correctional Institution in Butner used a cell phone to orchestrate the kidnapping of a prosecutor’s father.

You can learn a lot from phone calls, such as plans for contraband being introduced to your facility or planned assaults on staff or other inmates. In the video below, Gordon Graham discusses the importance of checking inmate’s phone records.

Federal law currently bans states and local governments from using cell phone jamming technology, leaving correctional facilities defenseless against an escalating threat.

“This is not a partisan issue—it is a matter of public safety,” the letter stresses. A 2020 survey of 20 state corrections departments uncovered 25,840 contraband cell phones in a single year, a stark reminder of the scale of the crisis.

The attorneys general coalition includes Alabama , Alaska , Arizona , Arkansas , Connecticut , Florida , Georgia , Indiana , Iowa , Kentucky , Louisiana , Maryland , Michigan , Mississippi , Nebraska , Nevada , New Hampshire , New Mexico , North Dakota , Ohio , Oklahoma , Oregon, Pennsylvania , South Carolina , Tennessee , Texas , Virginia , West Virginia and the Northern Mariana Islands and U.S. Virgin Islands .

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