Jam illegal cell phones in prison

A recent riot at Lieber prison demonstrates how dangerous it is for the guards responsible for maintaining security. Two were overpowered by inmates in lockdown and were beaten with a pipe.

And while working with hard-core criminals will never be without risk, there is a simple measure that could help. The Federal Communications Commission could allow prisons to jam signals to and from cell phones within their walls.

Contraband phones, smuggled in or thrown over the fence, have been used to arrange crimes outside of prison, including a hit against a prison guard at his home. Two thousand were confiscated from prisoners in South Carolina in 2010.

Evidently, they are in clandestine use at Lieber. In fact, an inmate phoned The Post and Courier after the riot using what he said was a contraband phone.

One concern has been that jamming phones in the jail could interfere with other phones in the area and could disrupt emergency calls.

But research shows the most recent jamming technology does not interfere with signals beyond prison walls.

When inmates can make use of communications technology, that's one more bump in a guard's already bumpy road. It also is more evidence to support cell phone jamming.