COLUMBIA, S.C. – Federal prisons officials have tested a jamming technology that officials hope will help combat the threat posed by inmates with cellphones.
Assistant Attorney General Beth Williams told The Associated Press that Bureau of Prisons officials tested the cell signal-blocking technology for several hours on Wednesday morning at a federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland.
State and federal prisons officials have for years spoken out about the dangers cellphones pose in the hands of inmates, who can use them to continue their criminal endeavors behind bars. A South Carolina prison officer nearly died in 2010, after an inmate ordered a hit on his life using a contraband cellphone.
Last week, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told corrections officials that federal prisons will start testing the technology.
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Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP. Read more of her work at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/meg-kinnard/
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