Hutchison Vows Revisions on Cell-Jamming Bill
State officials argued for passage of a bill (S-251) to allow jamming of illegal cellphones in prisons, at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday. But public safety and the wireless industry pressed for alternative methods to solve the problem until the technology is refined enough to protect emergency and consumer communications from interference. Bill sponsor Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R- Texas, said she would include suggestions by industry and public safety in a revised draft of the bill she hopes to release next week. The committee ranking member said Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, signed on as a co-sponsor Wednesday.
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“These ideas are doable and we will work with you to really put the bill in shape,” Hutchison told representatives of CTIA and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International. APCO asked that only manufacturers of the jamming technology devices be allowed to do maintenance on them to prevent damage or sabotage to the equipment. “We want to help solve the problem,” said APCO President-Elect Richard Mirgon. CTIA President Steve Largent said he would support testing of jamming technologies, but urged it be done in different weather and seasonal conditions to collect the most complete data on how devices would perform.
“I am here to defend our customers,” Largent said. “Jamming is not a panacea.” Congress should “take great care” to consider the impact of approving use of any jamming technologies, he said. CTIA supports the underlying goals of the legislation, he said, but other steps should be considered before moving forward with approving the use of jamming. “Test first and then write the rules,” Largent said. He suggested preference be given to non-interfering alternative technologies (CD July 15 p1) to avoid potential interference problems jamming technology could cause.
The CEA would oppose Hutchison’s legislation as it stands, spokesman Jason Oxman told us in an e-mail Wednesday. “We appreciate Senator Hutchison’s efforts to prevent unlawful cellphone use by prisoners,” he said. “But we would prefer enforcement mechanisms that address the use of devices in prisons, rather than a wide-ranging technology that renders devices themselves non-functional. Such jamming technologies pose an unfair threat to lawful users of wireless devices and therefore should not be permitted.”
Hutchison said her bill would require device testing and include a mandate that the FCC maintain an inventory of approved devices to track where they are. The bill would not abolish the existing ban on most jamming devices but instead grant waivers with a sunset after five years to institutions that want to employ the technology. “We don’t have to harm our first responders,” she said.
“Careful consideration must be given to exactly which form of device may be approved,” said APCO’s Mirgon: “Allowing a ‘jammer’ may be allowing a device costing hundreds [of] dollars to cripple a public safety system costing millions of dollars.” APCO recognizes the danger that the proliferation of illegal cellphones in prisons poses, Mirgon said. But he said other methods of detecting and confiscating the phones are available.
Prison-system officials argued in favor of the bill, saying it would give prison administrators a chance to petition the FCC and ask to use a jamming device. “We do not believe that signal jamming will be the total solution, but it will put another option at the disposal of state correctional administrators,” Maryland’s public safety secretary, Gary Maynard, said in testimony file with the committee. He asked the committee to advance the bill.
“Signal jamming is the key component missing,” said John Moriarty, inspector general of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “The current situation is a serious national threat to public safety that can only be properly rectified by passage of this legislation.” State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, also urged passage of the bill because he believes jamming is the only way to solve the problem: “We need this.”
“It’s not for lack of effort” by prison officials that the problem is growing, Moriarty said. “You have to understand the desire to have the phones,” he said. Death row inmates pay thousands of dollars for the phones, often buying them from corrupt guards and then using them to threaten public officials. Whitmire told the committee he and his family were harassed by an inmate on death row who bought a contraband phone that he shared with nine other inmates before getting caught.
“Short of jamming and shutting down phone signals, I don’t think you can remedy the problem,” Moriarty said. “I am just appealing for a common sense approach,” he said, saying concerns of industry can be accommodated. Hutchison asked Moriarty why he believes existing tools are insufficient to handle the problem. “It is the size of the problem that makes it difficult to patrol,” he said. “It’s a war.”
Separately, a group seeking an overhaul of prision urged that S-251 include a House bill (HR-1133) that would impose rate caps on interstate phone calls charged inmates using pay phones. It’s believed that some prisoners and families smuggle in illegal cellphones so inmates can stay in touch with their relatives, said Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants.