FULTON COUNTY, GA — The FCC will vote Tuesday, September 30, on a proposal which could ultimately pave the way for state and federal prisons to finally be able to jam the signals of contraband cell phones.
The FCC bans the use of cell phone jammers as they have the potential to “prevent 911 and other emergency phone calls made by the public from getting through to first responders or interfere with police and other law enforcement communications that are critical to the carrying out of law enforcement missions,” according to a statement this year.
Corrections officials across the country have pushed for a long time to change the policy, citing how smuggled mobile phones are a persistent public safety issue.
Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat says cell phones and drones jockey for number-one on his list of dangers, because with a cell phone, a detainee can coordinate not just but also real-time drone drops of even more contraband. That contraband often includes drugs and weapons.
“The technology to really create a safer environment by creating this cell-jamming atmosphere,” says Sheriff Labat, “that ultimately would cut down on contraband, cut down on organized crime. I believe that this is a game-changer.”
The Georgia attorney general’s office says in 2024, the State Department of Corrections (GDC) seized more 15,500 cell phones and 150 drones.
The head of the Dreaming Justice Project is no stranger to contraband cell phones.
“I became a journalist. I won my first journalist award from a prison cell on a contraband cell phone,” says Dr. Christy Perez, “reporting on prison conditions and exposing things that later on would be corroborated through various other sources.”
Perez says incarcerated people want mobile phones for a number of reasons: exposing prison conditions; pushing back against exploitation at the hands of companies using prison labor or charging exorbitant prices for phone use; staying in touch with loved ones, and helping find resources to plan next steps ahead of their release.
Writing under the pen name “C. Dreams,” Perez used contraband cell phones and documented instances of wrongdoing in Georgia correctional facilities. Those included prisoners being forced to sleep outside because groups of other inmates would steal their belongings and assigned rooms, through bullying or extortion; chronic understaffing; how prison staff repeatedly failed to document or follow up on sexual assault reports; the black market allowing drug sales and usage behind bars; and how the medical and housing needs of transgender inmates were systemically ignored.
All of these topics were detailed in the Department of Justice’s 2024 investigation which laid bare the horrifying, unconstitutional conditions in Georgia’s prisons.
More than once, mobile phones seized from prisoners have led investigators to the prison staffers who were involved in smuggling contraband.
Sheriff Labat says especially the people behind bars who have gang ties or organized crime connections can continue to run an illegal, even violent business just like they’re still free.
In July of 2024, an incarcerated leader of the Atlanta-based “Goodfellas” gang ordered a drive-by shooting which killed two 13-year-old boys, Ja’Kody Davis and Lamon Freeman. The boys were innocent bystanders who were attending Freeman’s birthday party in Atlanta.
“It’s about protecting victims. It’s about stopping organized crime. It’s about protecting those women and men--especially in the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office--that come to work every day,” says Labat.
Perez, however, pushes back against what she calls fear-mongering. She says it’s true that dangers do happen, but believes the good of the access to cell phones behind bars outweighs the bad.
“Even just ordinary things like watching Netflix to get through your time, or talking to your girlfriend on Facebook Messenger. I think the commonality of those things occurs much more than the pernicious narrative of the incarcerated drug lord or the mob lord who orders hits,” Perez says.
If the FCC approves to move ahead with the draft proposal, they would open a public comment period and collect feedback on how the jamming would be put into place, what rules might apply, and more.