The Virginia Department of Corrections controls most facets of incarcerated peoples’ lives — including when and how communication with the outside world happens.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, who’s currently up for re-election, signed onto a letter alongside 22 other attorneys general to support a Federal Communications Commission proposal enabling the jamming of contraband cellphones at state prisons and local jails.
The FCC proposal includes language requesting feedback on the technology’s possible effects on 911 and emergency calls.
“I think often departments of corrections, because of their pattern and practice, want to control the information that comes out of prisons,” said Noelle Hanrahan, an attorney and founder of Prison Radio, a nonprofit advocacy group that works with incarcerated people to publish audio and written accounts of their experiences. “These phones have been used recently … to report on stories that are critical for us to hear.”
She called the FCC plan overkill and noted that incarcerated people incur significant costs associated with using communications systems, like JPay.
The letter Miyares signed says there’s been a “proliferation of contraband cellphones in prisons and jails” used to further criminal activities, putting corrections staff and the public at risk.
The AG’s office didn’t respond to an email asking for examples of phones being used in alleged crimes in the commonwealth or whether the technology would also impact corrections department staffers’ phones.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.