Arkansas – Sen. Tom Cotton pushes prison cellphone jamming as FCC moves forward, warns contraband devices fuel fraud and violent threats
“Contraband cellphones are an ongoing issue in our prison system. I’m glad the FCC is moving forward to jam these dangerous devices,” Sen. Tom Cotton said as he renewed his push for legislation that would allow correctional facilities to use cellphone jamming technology.
The Arkansas Republican said Congress should pass his Cellphone Jamming Reform Act to make the change permanent and “keep Arkansans safe from fraud and violent threats.”
Cotton’s comments come as federal regulators have moved toward allowing prisons and other correctional facilities to use technology designed to block signals from contraband cellphones. The issue has been a major focus of Cotton for years, particularly because of concerns that inmates can use illegally obtained phones to conduct criminal activity from behind bars.
The Cellphone Jamming Reform Act, introduced by Cotton and a bipartisan group of Republican senators in 2025, would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from prohibiting state or federal correctional facilities from using jamming equipment. The bill was introduced as S. 1137 and referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
The legislation is intended to address a longstanding problem for prisons and jails, where inmates are prohibited from possessing cellphones but contraband devices can still make their way inside facilities.
Supporters of the legislation argue that simply confiscating phones is not enough when inmates can continue obtaining replacement devices. Jamming technology works by disrupting cellular signals within a designated area, preventing unauthorized phones from connecting to wireless networks.
Cotton has argued that the devices are not simply a prison-security problem. He has repeatedly pointed to their use in fraud and threats against people outside correctional facilities.
That concern has received renewed attention following recent reporting on scams allegedly being operated from inside prisons. The Wall Street Journal reported that inmates using contraband cellphones have targeted people across the country in fraudulent schemes, including scams in which victims were persuaded to send large amounts of money. In one case cited by the newspaper, a victim was tricked into sending nearly $12,000 after an inmate posed as a bail bondsman.
The report also described a Georgia investigation involving inmates accused of participating in scams targeting more than 100 victims. Investigators traced some of the activity back to a state prison and found that contraband phones could allow inmates to exploit online information and manipulate caller identification to make fraudulent calls appear more legitimate, per reports.
The push to authorize cellphone jamming has been underway for years. In September 2025, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency would move toward allowing correctional facilities to use cellphone jamming technology, following a visit to an Arkansas maximum-security prison. The Arkansas Advocate reported that Carr said the longstanding federal prohibition on jamming was based on what he described as a misreading of federal law.
Cotton welcomed the federal action but is now arguing that Congress should codify the policy through legislation rather than leave the issue dependent on regulatory action.
The senator has previously said that contraband phones can be used by inmates to continue criminal operations beyond prison walls. His legislation would give state and federal correctional facilities greater authority to block those communications, while maintaining the focus on phones that are illegally brought into secure facilities.
The proposal has also faced broader concerns over the potential effects of cellphone jamming technology. Because jamming can interfere with cellular signals, questions have been raised about the possibility of disrupting legitimate communications near correctional facilities, including communications involving people who are not incarcerated.
Still, Cotton and other supporters argue that the growing use of contraband phones inside prisons presents a significant public safety threat that requires stronger tools.
For Cotton, the latest FCC action represents progress toward a policy he has pursued for years. But he is now calling on Congress to take the next step by passing the Cellphone Jamming Reform Act and establishing in federal law that correctional facilities can use jamming technology to shut down contraband cellphone communications.
The Arkansas senator’s renewed push comes as reports of prison-based fraud continue to draw attention to the ways inmates can use unauthorized phones to reach victims outside prison walls. Supporters of the bill say cutting off those communications could make it harder for inmates to use contraband devices to coordinate scams, threats and other criminal activity.