Are there more effective ways to search out illegal cell phones?
Officials constantly conduct random manual searches, use metal detectors, visitor searches and patrol fence perimeters. Trained dogs are the latest weapon, or deterrent, in searching out illegal cell phones.
Many cell phones are the type that come without registry and use prepaid time cards, making them untraceable if authorities find the phone or a signal. Any detection method is labor intensive and prison officials are always on the look-out for ways to combat the problem.
Under the 1996 Communications Act, cell phone jammers are illegal in the U.S., even in prisons. A series of petitions pending before the FCC are forcing a hard look at whether they should be.
Jamming technology has been around for a while, but is prohibited because of the FCC Act of 1934, which allows federal agencies but not state or local government to jam signals, the fear being phone signals interfere with other communication signals. As it is, the FCC has authority to grant waivers only to federal agencies, not state facilities, and then only in cases in which the public is in imminent danger. Under those guidelines, even the federal prison system doesn't qualify for jammers.