New bill to jam cell phones in prisons

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A South Carolina senator is sponsoring a bill that would allow prisons to jam cell phone signals so inmates couldn’t use cellular phones smuggled behind bars.

Federal law prohibits blocking the signals, but the bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint would allow a federal prison director or governor to ask for ermission to use a jamming device.
   
Prison officials say cell phones are a major security threat because they allow inmates uncontrolled access to talk to each other or people outside prison walls.

South Carolina Corrections Director Jon Ozmint has pushed for the jammers and thanked DeMint for backing the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009.
   
A Florida company demonstrated jamming technology inside a South Carolina maximum security prison last year.