Attorney General Kris Mayes has joined forces with a bipartisan choir of lawmakers, pushing for Congress to usher through critical legislation that stands to change the game on contraband cell phones thriving in the pocket shadows of America's correctional institutions, as reported by the Arizona Attorney General's office. The proposed bills H.R. 2350 in the House and S. 1137 in the Senate eye a future where jamming systems can blanket the inside of prison walls to staunch the flow of unlawful communications.
The impetus behind this bipartisan push is clear, with Mayes emphasizing that contraband cell phones empower, saying that "dangerous individuals the power to direct drug trafficking, commit fraud, and threaten innocent people from behind bars," while the current state of affairs leaves prisons largely defenseless against such technologically abetted threats. A supporting coalition stretching across the country, including attorneys general from states like Alabama, Texas, and even spanning to the U.S. Virgin Islands, calls for Congress to act post-haste, citing that this is not a question of politics but rather a pressing necessity for public safety.
The legislation underlines the imperative to keep crucial signals like 9-1-1 unstifled while locking down felonious communications. The risks, underscored by the recovery of 25,840 contraband cell phones by corrections departments in a 2020 survey, have painted a troubling scope of this communications crisis, according to the Arizona Attorney General's office.
