News Regarding the Center
Prison Plans to Shackle Cellphones
Wall Street Journal
November 21, 2008
A South Carolina prison's plan to test a cellphone-jamming system is
running afoul of the wireless industry but has sparked interest among
some lawmakers and law-enforcement groups. . .Blocking or jamming
wireless communications is illegal in the U.S., although the Federal
Communications Commission has some leeway in granting permission to
federal agencies. . . The FCC is in a gray area regarding the South
Carolina test, since its role is primarily enforcement, not debating
whether individual cases are legitimate. Rep. Gene Green (D., Texas), a
member of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet,
said that if the FCC can't authorize these state-level law-enforcement
exceptions, it should be authorized to do so. "You should be able to
control, particularly in a prison setting or a jail setting, who uses
cellphones."
"As technology gets ever better, and we're able to control it locally,
it's, I think, inevitable that these broad public policies will have to
be adjusted to accommodate local realities," said James Katz, director
of Rutgers University's Center for Mobile Communication Studies.
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