Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr is leading a 23-state coalition urging the Federal Communications Commission to allow states to use jamming technology to block contraband cell phones inside prisons and jails.

Carr claims the devices are being used to order violent crimes that put the public at risk.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin and Carr sent a letter to the FCC supporting a proposal that would allow states to deploy FCC-approved jamming equipment in correctional facilities. Current FCC policy broadly prohibits jamming technology, even in secure environments like prisons, relying on a decades-old law written before contraband cell phones became widespread, according to the attorneys general.

"Inmates are using contraband cell phones to direct violent crimes, and innocent Georgians are losing their lives," Carr said in a statement. 

He said his office has spent years pushing the federal government to address the issue and welcomed what he described as new cooperation from the White House.

Authorities say inmates routinely use smuggled cell phones to carry out serious crimes, including murder, child sexual exploitation, drug trafficking, kidnapping, fraud and identity theft. Carr's office cited several Georgia cases, including one in Tattnall County where an incarcerated gang leader used a contraband phone to order a hit that killed an 88-year-old veteran. In another case in Atlanta, two 13-year-old boys were killed in a drive-by shooting ordered by an incarcerated gang leader. In Macon, inmates used contraband phones to overwhelm and shut down a 911 center serving 13 counties by exploiting a weakness in the prison's wireless system.

According to the release, these activities threaten the safety of correctional staff, inmates, and the public. In 2024, the Georgia Department of Corrections seized and processed more than 15,500 cell phones and more than 150 drones.

The FCC proposal, filed Sept. 30, clarifies that while jamming authorized radio transmissions remains illegal, signals from illegal mobile devices smuggled into prisons are prohibited and could be blocked using FCC-approved technology.

Attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia also signed the letter.

Carr has pressed the issue repeatedly in recent years. In June 2024, he urged the FCC to allow states to use jamming devices, noting that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons had already permitted their use at several federal facilities, including at least one in Georgia. The Biden administration denied that request. Carr later filed a Freedom of Information Act request, met with President Trump's FCC in February 2025, and led a bipartisan coalition backing federal legislation to allow states to deploy jamming technology. In September 2025, he also voiced support for the FCC's proposed rulemaking on the issue.