FCC Has Life or Death Decisions to Make on Contraband Cellphones, Marcus Says
The FCC has life or death decisions to make about contraband cellphones in correctional facilities, Marcus Spectrum Solutions said in a filing in docket 13-111. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated an order last week on the issue (see 1703020063). Marcus…
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put at the top of its filing photos of Carl Lackl, a murder witness who was murdered himself due to a “hit” ordered over a cellphone by a prisoner, and Capt. Robert Johnson, a South Carolina prison guard injured in a similar attack. “It is untraditional to begin comments with photographs, but we do this for an important point: this proceeding is very different from most FCC proceedings which usually determine economic benefits for one party or another,” Marcus said. “Not since the Commission’s 1990 deliberations over 2 deaths in a helicopter crash into a North Carolina cellular tower that violated the Commission’s Rules has there been such a clear matter of life and death at [the] FCC.” The FCC focused on managed access systems (MAS) preferred by carriers, but MAS isn’t enough, Marcus said. “As in the War on Drugs, true control of this problem will only come from working on both the supply problem and the demand problem,” Marcus said.