State and local prisons may soon gain the ability to jam illegal cellphones smuggled into correctional facilities under new rules the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to vote on next month. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced the measure Wednesday in Arkansas during a roundtable discussion with law enforcement, alongside Attorney General Tim Griffin and U.S. Senator Tom Cotton.
Contraband cellphones have fueled criminal activity within prisons, allowing inmates to coordinate violent gang activities, exploit children, and even order killings, according to Griffin’s office. The proposed rules, if passed at the FCC’s November 19 meeting, would permit correctional institutions to use jamming technology to block signals from unauthorized devices.
Carr emphasized that the measure is not mandatory but provides an optional tool to facilities grappling with the issue. “While the FCC has authorized a range of solutions in the past, it has stopped short of allowing jamming. That ends today,” Carr said in a statement.
Griffin praised the move, citing the grave risks posed by inmates communicating with the outside world via smuggled cellphones. “These contraband devices enable dangerous prisoners to continue their criminal conduct from behind bars, threatening correctional officers and the public,” said Griffin.
Senator Cotton underscored the national urgency of the issue and called for congressional action to support the FCC’s initiative. He urged passage of his proposed Cellphone Jamming Reform Act, which would enshrine the measure into law. “Contraband cellphones threaten everyone from law-abiding Arkansans to law enforcement officers,” Cotton said.
The announcement builds on momentum from a September 2025 event in which Griffin, Cotton, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Carr unveiled plans to address contraband cellphones. That same month, Griffin led a coalition of 23 states in petitioning the FCC to adopt measures supporting cellphone jamming in correctional facilities. Carr pointed to recent incidents where inmates used smuggled phones to victimize young girls and create child sexual abuse material as evidence of the growing threat.
Carr noted that jamming may not be suitable for all facilities and that its implementation would be left to the discretion of individual prisons and jails.