Senate Commerce Committee Approves Prison Cell Bill

On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee approved the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009 (S. 251), a bill that would ban inmates in some prisons from using smuggled cellular phones. The bill would allow the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a governor or a governor's designee to petition the Federal Communications Commission for a wireless jamming device for a correctional facility. The bill includes safeguards to ensure that jamming does not impair the ability of public safety officials or legitimate commercial mobile radio services outside a prison's walls. The Committee also considered the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 (S. 30), which would make it unlawful for any person in the United States, in connection with any telecommunications service or Internet protocol (IP)-enabled voice service, to cause any caller identification (ID) service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information, unless such transmission is exempted in connection with: 1) authorized activities of law enforcement agencies; or 2) a court order specifically authorizing the use of caller ID manipulation.