South Carolina Sees Breakthrough in Fight Against Contraband Phones
Officials may soon get FCC approval to jam illicit prison phones.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2025 – After years, South Carolina corrections leaders see a breakthrough coming in the battle to keep contraband cell phones out of prisons.
The state, which has already spent more than $18 million deploying technology to detect illicit phones, could soon benefit from a proposed rulemaking the Federal Communications Commission will consider on Sept. 30.
If approved by the three-member FCC, the measure would carve out an exception to the Communications Act of 1934, which bars states from using jamming equipment to interfere with “authorized” radio signals. That would allow state and local officials to block illicit cellphones inside prisons in the same way federal facilities already do.
South Carolina has poured millions into detection systems that currently identify contraband phones and forward information to carriers to shut them off – an approach the FCC endorsed in a 2021 order adopted under then-Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (D).
In 2024 alone, those systems flagged and disabled roughly 2,600 devices across six institutions in South Carolina. State officials say the process has helped, but it remains cumbersome and incomplete.
Former Director of the state’s Department of Corrections Bryan Stirling once compared it to a game of “Whac-A-Mole”: every time one phone is shut off, another enters the prison. Stirling has been pressing Congress and the FCC for more than a decade to give states jamming authority,
“What we have today, it’s really helped us a lot, but it can be better,” current Director Joel Anderson told reporters last week.
Officials said jamming would also block Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals necessary to fly drones over prisons, which inmates were increasingly using to deliver cellphones, drugs, tobacco and other contraband over prison fences.
Recent cases of drone smuggling in South Carolina include: two Columbia men accused of flying contraband into Broad River Correctional Institution, repeated airdrops at Evans Correctional Institution in Bennettsville, and roadside stops where police discovered drones alongside packages of phones and narcotics.
Not alone in pressing the FCC
South Carolina was not alone in pressing the FCC forward. Attorneys general and corrections leaders in Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma have pressed for the same authority, pointing to similar patterns in their facilities.
With the technology South Carolina has already invested in, officials say they could move quickly if the FCC gives the green light. The $18.5 million detection system was purchased with an option to add jamming capability, meaning the state would not have to rip out or replace equipment.
The FCC has circled the issue for more than a decade. It first opened the proceeding in 2013 to examine contraband interdiction systems, then in 2017 streamlined approvals for managed-access networks that block illicit phones while letting authorized devices connect.
When the FCC under former Chairman Ajit Pai (R) issued a public notice in 2020 re-opening the debate on cellphone jamming it was met with stiff opposition from the wireless industry.
AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and CTIA warned that jammers could not be contained within prison walls, risking “spillover” into nearby communities and interfering with 911 calls and FirstNet public safety networks. When CTIA met with the FCC on the matter more recently, in 2024, the trade group continued to urge the FCC to expand managed-access systems rather than authorize signal jamming.
If the FCC votes to advance the plan on Sept. 30, a public comment period would follow before a final decision later this year.
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