Gov: Feds should let prisons jam cell phones

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Governor Mark Sanford is pressing federal regulators to let South Carolina prisons use equipment to jam the signals of cell phones being used illicitly by prisoners.

Sanford on Wednesday demanded that the Federal Communications Commission act on a petition to allow South Carolina to start a pilot program to jam illegal cell phone signals.

A decades-old federal law says the FCC can let federal agencies jam the public airwaves but prevents state and local authorities from stopping signals. The FCC says that law will have to change before they can let South Carolina jam.

Sanford was joined by Capt. Robert Johnson, who authorities say was nearly killed at his home earlier this year in an attack planned with a smuggled phone. Johnson oversaw efforts to keep contraband out of prisons.

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