US Senate Passes Bill Allowing Cellphone-Jamming In Prisons

The bill, sponsored by the Senate Commerce Committee's ranking Republican, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, allows prisons to petition the Federal Communications Commission to use cellphone-jamming devices as long as they don't cause interference with bona fide communications.

"This legislation will disconnect the communications networks that prisoners and criminal enterprises have patched together using smuggled cellphones," said Hutchison.

The bill calls for the FCC to write rules on cell-jamming. The commission would be required to conduct field tests of proposed equipment and consider other available technologies designed to stop unauthorized use of cellphones in prisons.

Current law bans jamming devices in all but a few isolated instances.