Contraband cellphones and the FCC jamming rule: what changes for SCDC

For more than a decade South Carolina officials argued that contraband phones let incarcerated gang leaders run operations outside the walls. In late September 2025 the FCC voted unanimously to let state and local prisons use targeted jamming technology. [1]

The case South Carolina made

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr cited Captain Robert Johnson of Lee Correctional Institution. Johnson was shot six times at his home in a hit ordered by an inmate on a contraband phone, and survived. [1] A 2024 Urban Institute study found more than 25,000 phones recovered in one year across 20 state prisons. [1]

Directing outside crime from custody is documented in federal court. In 2023 a Columbia gang leader was found to have kept coordinating drug sales from federal custody over recorded jail phones and email. [3]

What SCDC had before

SCDC's managed-access interdiction program can find and disable a phone inside a prison. Officials say it takes two to three days and catches about 75 to 80 percent of communications. [2]

Limits and objections

• The rule is voluntary, and Carr called it no "silver bullet": jamming won't suit every facility. [1]
• USC criminologist Hayden Smith warned that jamming can spill into nearby neighborhoods, and that many inmates use phones to reach family or document conditions. [2]
• Smith also said there is no evidence the same crimes couldn't be arranged through visitation or other channels. [2]

What to watch

Deployment depends on carriers and on the FCC framework that protects nearby communities. [2] We will log SCDC's first installations in the Wire as they are reported.