WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ga. — Georgia Attorneys General Chris Carr is hoping the Federal Communications Commission can stop illegal prison phone calls. This isn't the first time Carr has made this request.
In January of 2023, Carr signed a letter urging Congress to solve the problem along with 21 other attorney generals.
Earlier this month, Carr said Georgia's prisons and jails need jamming technology, so inmates can't use contraband cell phones.
Brad King with the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office said this problem goes beyond the prison walls.
"It's a public safety issue without a doubt," King said.
Since 2023, more than 13,000 contraband cell phones have been confiscated inside Georgia's prisons. The jamming process would disrupt the radio frequency signal between a phone and a nearby cell tower making those devices useless.
Washington County Sheriff Joel Cochran said these cell phones give inmates power.
"Contacting witnesses or harassing victims or you know scheduling or working with drug traffickers to make transactions that way so I mean that's how serious a simple thing such as a phone can be," Cochran said.
King said inmates with phones are running scams to take money from people in the community without a trail of evidence.
"We can't track it because they are utilizing burner cell phones. It just makes it very difficult to work these cases," King said.
In the letter, Carr argues the technology would prevent inmates from having unauthorized access to anyone outside prison walls.
Cochran said the phones are at the center of the contraband problem.
"It's not just cell phones they're bringing. It's not just the food items they're bringing. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing weapons and things like that are being brought into the facilities," Cochran said.
They're working with the corrections department to intercept contraband drops at Washington State Prison.
Cochran said the bottom line is that it's all a public safety risk that includes prison staff and other inmates.
"Their homes are at these facilities. We want them to have a safe environment to reside in. We want the public safety staff members in these facilities to be able to go in do their jobs and do them safely," Cochran said.
King believes every agency should get on board with having jamming technology in jails and prisons.
"Guaranteed every county in the state has suffered from some form of crime that took place that was orchestrated via cell phone by an inmate," King said.
In the letter, the attorney asks for this problem to be addressed quickly because as long as inmates have cell phones, they're an active threat to public safety.