CTIA Stresses Support for Senate Cell Phone Contraband Act

The CTIA (News - Alert)-The Wireless Association President and CEO Steve Largent has issued a statement in support of the Cell Phone (News - Alert) Contraband Act of 2009 (S. 1749), urging the Senate to stiffen penalties for prison inmates who use wireless services to conduct illegal activities.

 

The S. 1749 bill, introduced in October by U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), calls for strong measures to prevent inmates from using cell phones to commit crimes from inside prison walls.

 

The bill would close a loophole in federal law by prohibiting the use or possession of cell phones and wireless devices in federal prisons, according to Feinstein representatives. The bill also would classify cell phones and wireless devices as contraband material. Anyone who provides, or attempts to provide, an inmate with a cell phone could face imprisonment of up to one year.

 

“Inmates who possess contraband phones and those who supply them should be penalized severely and CTIA commends the Senate Judiciary Committee for approving Senator Feinstein’s bill,” Largent stated, responding to the Senate Judiciary Committee mark-up of the Cell Phone Contraband Act (S. 1749). “Our members have no interest in seeing inmates use wireless services to conduct unlawful activities or harass and intimidate the public. We hope the full Senate will act on S. 1749 soon.”

 

The bill comes in response to increasing concern over the use of cell phones in prison. A number of states took up this issue in 2009, with legislators striving to enact stronger laws to prohibit cell phones in prisons – and give greater punishment to criminals that sell cell phones on the black market.

 

In 2009, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sponsored state legislation (Senate Bill 434) to create a criminal penalty for contraband cell phone smuggling in state prisons. According to reports, the bill had strong bipartisan support, but the California State Assembly failed to pass the bill to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for his signature.

 

There are many ways cell phones smuggled into prisons could endanger the public.

 

In Maryland, a federal jury in Baltimore sentenced Patrick A. Byers Jr. to life in prison in April 2009 after the convicted drug dealer used a cell phone while incarcerated in a city jail in 2007 to plan the murder of a witness against him, The Washington Times reported.

 

Gary D. Maynard, secretary for the state’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said the dramatic increase in the number of cell phones smuggled into Maryland prisons in the past two years far exceeds other contraband items like drugs or weapons, The Washington Times reported.

In May, California Inspector General David Shaw released a report that found California prison inmates pay $500 to $1,000 per cell phone. The report noted that one corrupt correctional officer received approximately $150,000 in one year to smuggle cell phones to inmates.

 

“If you have one cell phone in a prison, somebody can get killed from use of that cell phone,” Maynard told The Washington Times. “We don’t know exactly what we don’t know about how many there are in there.”