The Cell Phone Contraband Act of 2010 was approved by the United States House of Representatives. The Act will prohibit the use of wireless devices by Federal prisoners.
The bill was sponsored by Senator Diane Feinstein (D-California). Feinstein has said that the use of cell phones by Federal prisoners can lead to a host of problems, including additional criminal elements both inside and outside of the prison.
The plan here is to define cell phones as contraband. They previously did not fall under such definitions and, as such, were eliminated from the laws governing contraband in United States Federal prisons.
The bill was originally introduced in October of 2009 and gained Senate approval in April of 2010. The bill has now passed through the House, as mentioned, and needs to be signed into law by the President.
After the bill is signed into law, some of the confusion over cell phones in Federal prisons will be eliminated. While cell phones were most assuredly “banned,” there were no laws to govern them as contraband and it was hard to punish prisoners smuggling mobile devices in due to the lack of clearly codified laws. With the laws in place now, prisoners can expect to be punished with at least one year in prison on top of their sentence.
There is little opposition to the bill, even from inside the cell phone community. It is believed that the notion of cell phones in prison constitutes enough of a danger to society as to consider them contraband. It’s as close to an open and shut case as you can get in Washington, these days, and the typical Republican obstructionism hasn’t tampered with the Act’s passage.
