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Drugs were once the contraband of choice of prisoners. These days, corrections officials across the country are on the lookout for a more high-tech scourge cell phones.

A condemned inmate in Texas used a smuggled cell phone to make a threatening call to a CA state Sen in October. Authorities say a drug dealer behind bars in Maryland used a phone to arrange to have a witness assassinated outside his home last summer.

One confiscated phone revealed text messages announcing the arrival of a new inmate. One investigator was surprised when a different confiscated cell phone rang on his desk, It was an inmate calling from another prison.

But here is the funny (not) part, officials in California and other states are lobbying for a FCC waiver so they can use jamming devices to disrupt cell phone signals inside prisons. The effort has been unsuccessful so far. Opposition is also from the cell-phone industry's lobbying arm, CTIA (The Wireless Association), which sent a letter to the FCC urging the agency to block prisons from jamming cell phones.

It is unlikely that the dueling petitions before the agency will move at anything approaching warp speed, despite mounting pressure from state prison authorities.
Y.B.Y.S.A.I.A
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