FCC to Let Prisons Jam Contraband Cell Phones

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2025 – The Federal Communications Commission may soon give state and local prisons authority Congress has repeatedly declined to grant.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Friday the commission will vote Sept. 30 on a proposal to let state and local prisons jam contraband cell phones – effectively cutting off the smuggled devices inmates use to communicate with the outside world. Carr stressed it would be voluntary and not a federal mandate to jam.

“Contraband cell phones are the root of so many evils taking place, not just in prisons, but across the country, for the crimes that people are phoning in and enabling,” Carr said, speaking at the Arkansas Attorney General’s office in Little Rock, following a tour of Varner Prison. “We need to do something about this serious threat to public safety.”

Carr said the proposal would sidestep federal law by declaring that calls from contraband cell phones are not “authorized communications” under 47 U.S.C. § 333, the statute that bars jamming. By de-authorizing those communications inside prisons, the FCC would clear the way for state and local facilities to deploy targeted jamming technology without running afoul of federal restrictions.

“Once contraband cell phone use is not an ‘authorized communication,’ then the federal law is no longer a prohibition to jamming it, and that’s well within the FCC authority to give that reading to federal law,” Carr said.

Carr was joined in Little Rock by  Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), and Arkansas AG Tim Griffin (R), to press for stronger measures to curb contraband phones.

Cotton in particular has repeatedly introduced legislation in Congress, the Cellphone Jamming Reform Act, to give prisons jamming authority, arguing that cell phones are “the central contraband” enabling gangs and violent criminals to continue operations from behind bars. But those bills have so far failed to clear Congress.

National Sheriffs’ Association executive director Jonathan Thompson joined Carr at the event to emphasize law enforcement’s support.

Carr framed the broader crackdown on prison communications Friday as aligned with President Donald Trump’s push to restore “law and order.”