Governor Martin O’Malley issued this statement today following the passage of S. 251, the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009 by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, chaired by West Virginia Senator John Rockefeller. The bill is sponsored by the Ranking Member of the Committee, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and its co-sponsors include Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski.
“I want to thank the members of the Senate Commerce Committee for this important step towards implementing cell phone jamming technology in our prisons. This legislation would provide us the tools to use technology to block illegal inmate cell phone calls from within the walls of our prisons.
The use of cell phones by inmates constitutes a significant threat to public safety in Maryland’s neighborhoods, and I’d like to commend Senator Barbara Mikulski, co-sponsor of the Senate legislation, for her leadership on this important issue.”
The Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009 would give Governors and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons the ability to petition the Federal Communications Commission for authority to use wireless prison technology in the limited confines of a prison or jail, without compromising public safety or interfering with legitimate cell phone use. Passage of this bill would give states like Maryland access to this urgently-needed technology.