FCC taking steps that would allow US prisons to jam prisoners’ cellphone signals
September 5, 2025
Federal officials are moving a step closer to allowing state and federal prisons to jam cellphone signals from devices smuggled to inmates. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr on Friday announced the agency’s plan to vote on September 30th to lift a restriction that currently prohibits signal jamming in prisons. Officials argue that smuggled phones enable prisoners to plot violence and run criminal enterprises. The debate has been ongoing for years, with prison directors saying the smuggled devices are dangerous because they allow inmates to continue committing crimes from behind bars.