Jamming inmates cell phones – or not?

Cell phone zombie, originally uploaded by erin m.

Just because the inauguration is only a week away shouldn’t mean we avoid any other controversy. Like, for instance, a battle over jamming cell phone signals.

As Tom reported earlier, DC is going to test a system to jam cell phone signals coming from one of the DC prisons.

But, the prisoners have a new ally in the fight to keep those unlawful cell phones. CTIA – the cellular phone industry’s lobbying group – has filed suit today trying to stop the DC department of corrections from testing cell phone jamming equipment.

That’s right, you heard correctly. CTIA and their representative companies are looking out for all users, no matter their status. After all, once we jam the signals from prisoners, the next step might be jamming legal signals coming from other places.

If CTIA loses the fight to keep jammers off the air, I’m sure we can come up with other suggestions. Movie theaters, for example.  Anyone else have suggetsions that I should forward to them?

Jonathan Baker

came to DC, left for San Francisco, and then realized he couldn’t live without a daily fix of politics and came back. When not traveling to crazy locations, he speaks and writes for a major software house in CA.

3 thoughts on “Jamming inmates cell phones – or not?

  1. I think, and I’m speculating, that the idea is to eliminate the cell phones being used by prisoners. Those phone calls are not monitored, and can be used to continue to manage unlawful things from inside.

  2. Then they should renovate and turn the building into a faraday cage, which does the job they want without potentially screwing up life for the rest of us.

    Except I expect they probably want to have their cake and eat it too, and be able to turn it on and off for their own cell convenience.