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If there's anywhere cellphones should not be allowed, it’s within the walls of prisons. Yesterday I co-sponsored a bill in the House called the Cellphone Jamming Reform Act. This is an issue SC Attorney General Alan Wilson has been concerned about lately.

In South Carolina alone over the last few years, there have been several cases of major drug trafficking operations being run by incarcerated prisoners using contraband cellphones. In fact, the most recent of those was tied to the Mexican drug cartel. If you remember back in 2018, there was a huge riot at the Lee Correctional Institute, right here in our congressional district, where seven prisoners were stabbed to death. That riot was organized by inmates using contraband cellphones.

Prisoners have no right to use cell phones. NONE. Unfortunately, federal regulations generally prohibit the use of cellphone jamming technologies. This legislation will fix those regulations by authorizing jamming within prisons. It’s sponsored by Rep. David Kustoff, with a companion bill over in the Senate by Sen. Cotton. This is a reintroduction of an identical bill I also co-sponsored during the last term of Congress.

As long as prison officials and emergency responders have effective ways to communicate using other types of radio systems, we ought to have no problem jamming cellphones inside prison walls. Hopefully this legislation will gain more traction now with the House under different leadership.