HYDE-SMITH APPLAUDS SENATE PASSAGE OF BILL TO CRACK DOWN ON CONTRABAND CELLPHONES IN PRISONS

HYDE-SMITH APPLAUDS SENATE PASSAGE OF BILL TO CRACK DOWN ON CONTRABAND CELLPHONES IN PRISONS

Miss. Senator Cosponsored Bill to Toughen Penalties for Smuggling Cell Phones in Federal Prisons

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today applauded Senate passage of legislation she cosponsored to enhance safety and accountability in federal prisons by stemming the flow of contraband.

The Senate on Wednesday night passed the Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati Stopping Prison Contraband Act (S.736) by voice vote. The bipartisan legislation would enhance safety and accountability measures in federal prisons by upgrading the penalty for smuggling or possessing a contraband cellphone in federal prison from a misdemeanor to a felony.

"Contraband cellphones in federal prisons pose a risk to guards and other prison personnel, and in the worst cases to the victims of crime orchestrated using cellphones from within prison walls. Those supplying the phones are just as much to blame, and this bill ups the price they'll pay," Hyde-Smith said. "I'm pleased this bill has been passed now to give the House time to pass it and get it to the President."

While the penalty in Mississippi for introducing or possessing contraband cell phones in state prison is punishable by up to a 15-year prison term, existing federal law caps punishment for this same offense in federal prisons at no more than one year. S.736 would increase the penalty to up to five years in prison.

S.726, which was introduced by U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), is named in honor of Lt. Osvaldo Albarati, the Bureau of Prisons correctional officer who was murdered in 2013 after completing his shift at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. Five men who later pleaded guilty to the crime admitted they targeted Albarati as a direct result of continuous seizures of contraband, including cell phones. The inmate who placed the hit on Albarati did so using a contraband cell phone.

Hyde-Smith has also cosponsored the Cellphone Jamming Reform Act (S.1137), which would allow state and federal prisons to use cellphone jamming systems to prevent inmates from using contraband cellphones in prison facilities. It would authorize systems to disrupt, prevent, interfere with, or jam wireless communication into, from, or within a correctional facility.

Hyde-Smith cosponsored these bills as part of an ongoing legislative effort to fight the widespread use of contraband cellphones by prisoners in federal and state prison facilities to conduct illegal activities, including ordering hits on individuals outside of the prison walls, running illegal drug operations, conducting illegal business deals, facilitating sex trafficking, and organizing escapes that endanger correctional employees, other inmates, and members of the public.

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