Attorney General Lynn Fitch issued the following statement.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch joined a coalition of 22 state attorneys general in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) supporting a new rule that would allow correctional facilities to use cellphone jamming technologies to disrupt cellular transmissions coming from contraband cellphones. "Contraband cellphones are a problem in prisons in Mississippi and all over the country," said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. "These phones pose a real threat, allowing criminals to conduct criminal activity while sitting behind bars and coordinate violence within correctional facilities. I am encouraged that the FCC is addressing this important issue and giving states the tools to combat this security risk." The current FCC interpretation of federal rules prohibits the use of jamming equipment, even in highly controlled environments like correctional institutions. This blanket restriction fails to account for the unique security needs of these facilities. Inmates routinely use smuggled phones to coordinate criminal enterprises, intimidate witnesses, and orchestrate violence both inside and outside prison walls. These activities compromise the safety of correctional staff, other inmates, and the public. The proposed rulemaking would empower correctional administrators to implement jamming systems that disrupt unauthorized wireless communications within prisons, without affecting legitimate service outside the facility. This targeted approach balances the need for security with the preservation of lawful communications. In addition to Attorney General Fitch, the attorneys general of the following States also signed on to the letter sent by Arkansas: Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.Earlier this year, General Fitch and a coalition of 30 state attorneys general, wrote to the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in support of legislation introduced by Senator Tom Cotton (S. 1137) and Representative David Kustoff (H.R. 2350) that would give States the authority to implement cell phone jamming in correctional facilities.
40 comments:
MDOC employees ,all the way up the line to burl cain, are going to bitch like crazy about this cause the majority of said employees spend their entire shift talking on their cellphones.
cell phone jammers jam em all , not just contraband phones.
This is needed. The FCC should allow this.
Works for me.
This looks to me like more piggy-backing by Lynn Fitch.
How's that lawsuit against China coming along? Did she ever get service of process?
There's a good chance Lynn could score some new furniture.
Running for guv every chance she gets.
Fitch/Governor<=Horne/Mayor
This would be a useful thing for prisons. Isael has been jamming cell phones for a long time so they cannot be used to detonate terrorist bombs. Israel also blew up a lot of terrorists with their own cell phones.
Sir,
I know you got fired by Lynn and you’re hurting, but let it go. I can’t wait to vote for you Mr. Anonymous for AG. How do I donate to YOUR campaign ?
And when you are AG, I know YOU will not join in these piggybacking games. I mean who cares whether it’s actually a good idea or not.
Warmly,
Anon
You can tell by the increased media whoring.
If not for piggy-backing
What would piggy-backers do?
Piggy-backing is light-weight work,
And it don't fool me or fool you!
Uh...How will that affect the medical staff or the guards at their duty stations?
Damn this is a no brainer and should have been done years ago!
Very good idea. I worked at the Rankin county sheriff office jail phones do not work in the facility. If employees were caught with their phones you could’ve been fired on the spot. I worked their 3 1/2 years I never found a phone. Getting rid of the phones in prisons starts at the top.
For years the MDOC has had systems in place to intercept and monitor cell phone communications. The information was used to monitor criminal activity within the prison. I guess that the criminals have shifted from traditional calls/texts to unhackable apps (e.g., Signal), so the only remaining choice is to block it all. Too bad for the MDOC employees who rely on illicit phone sales to supplement their incomes.
No....because you can't make a cell phone jammer stop working at the prison border
There is nothing wrong with Fitch joining suits or requests initiated any another AG, but I still wish she would have one original idea re how to make MS a better, safer place to live.
I can see the point you are making. My question is, what did all these prisons do prior to the development of cell phones? Were they able to do their jobs?
We should have a national month of cell phone outages in this country. People would have to actually start functioning again in public.
Install Jammers and employees can use secure wifi, if available, with WiFi calling enabled. This isn't difficult unless there isn't the wifi option. If that is the case, they can use a regular ole phone.
Then the guards will just give the WiFi password out to the inmates when they bring in illegal cellphones. They used to have a system that would jam phones that were not registered with the MDOC system, but they never could really make it work properly.
Jamming is never allowed for anywhere or any frequency but interception is already allowed. If you look at any of the solutions on the market they are all cell phone interception systems. They basically set up a system that intercepts the frequencies and allows you to pass on the phones you would like to pass on to the real towers. So the jail administrators cell phone for example will have service everywhere in the facility and be passed onto the real towers but a phone smuggled in will be intercepted and blocked. You can also do such things as allow it to pass on but record the call and call information so the inmate is busted for the phone. These systems have been around for years as I worked somewhere where one was needed and was on a team demoing different solutions from different companies. The AG bringing this up and pushing it is a big nothing burger as jamming is illegal but interception is perfectly legal and is done in jails already. We don't do it here because the departments do not want to spend the money on the solutions nor employee halfway intelligent people to maintain them.
You can. It just takes a lot of testing and site surveying to correctly adjust the power output of the device. This is constantly done with the cell phone interception equipment that is frequently used in prisons which intercepts the cellular frequency but allows you to pick if it goes to a real tower or not. It technically doesn't jam the signal but accomplishes the same thing.
The reason people believe you can't stop it from working at a border is because most places don't want to pay competent IT workers that would be testing that system frequently and adjusting the power output levels to keep it within the borders.
They have walkie-talkies. Duh!
It doesn't matter what apps they use. An interception system can still stop all traffic from passing to a real tower if it is maintained and setup correctly. The issue with MDOC is they wanted it more for information gathering and not stopping cell phones. They can take any current interception system and begin blocking all non-approved devices from sending data off the local network to the real towers and accomplish the same thing as a jamming system.
Put a jammer in all city, county, and state offices which would produce productivity 1,000%.
10:07, there ya go.
Utilize Wifi within the system and jam cell signals. Setup EAP-TLS for security so that a certificate has to be installed on authorized devices, triage requests for access to WiFi through the administration for authorized staff. Helpdesk tickets and a cheap software / network scanner called Lansweeper can report on connections by IP address to the system and can track who has access at all times. The licensing costs for that software is one dollar per device.
"...would increase productivity..."
6:45 a.m., I can't run for AG because I wasn't anointed by Boss Hogg back in the day.
If Lynn Fitch wants to do something useful, how about suing phone number spoofing services and companies for providing the means of harassing the residents of Mississippi 5-10 times a day, every day.
I can think of no legitimate purpose for the those services, other than to facilitate crime. So how about it?
Are the current generation of jammers capable of blocking 100% of the devices? What would be the cost to cover a large area such as one of the MDOC main facilities?
I agree, this should get done if not overly expensive and the solution is reliable.
Can someone please explain in simple terms why inmates should have cell phones? Can someone please explain next why, and I know it's coming - it is a violation of their civil rights to have an illegal cell phone? I don't care who the AG is, who is running, etc. Cut off the cell phone usage for prisoners. They are in PRISON for a reason. Seems simple to me.
Cell jammers should be standard equipment on prisons. If the guards don't like, tough shit. Most people don't get to use a cell phone a whole shift. Do your damn jobs.
@10:06 or maybe I've worked in wireless engineering for 25 years and have a hint about what I'm talking about
I figured they already had something but then again, the prisoners are always posting some how. In my job, I have to go into CMCF in Pearl about every month or so and as soon as I cross the front gate, my reception goes away. You cant send a text or make a phone call and it is like that until I leave and get almost to the Whitfield before it starts to come back - and this is with Verizon.
This lawsuit is a decade behind. cell phone jammers would have been great 10 years ago, but the issue now is wifi hotspots. She might as well ban AOL in the prisons. Nothing sandwich.
Stunning and Brave Leader Lynn Fitch boldly joined after more than 20 others had already stepped forward. Yes, we will all benefit from her leadership as she marches into the future behind the trailblazers. Where others ask “What can we do?” A.G. Lynn Fitch asks “Is it safe to join in?”
Way to stand up and take a stand, Fitch (if you can hear me in the back of the line).
Mississippi should ask, “What good is she?” SMH
I wish Lynn Fitch would lead the charge against phone number spoofing service providers.
How do you think wifi hotspots work? Hint: They connect to the cellular network.
Jammers are not needed though. They need to use the already available interception systems.
There is little medical staff there anyway. MAYBE an RN and a few LPNs. They either talk by land line or walkie talkie though. It is amazing how out of touch they are. They dont know who is where or anything. CMCF is an absolute joke.
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