This week, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai called attention to the issue of cell phones in prisons in a statement about a North Carolina jury convicting a prison inmate of orchestrating the kidnapping of his prosecutor’s father by using a contraband phone.
Pai points out that a gang member “coordinated the abduction by sending more than 120 text messages and placing numerous phone calls to gang members from the Polk Correctional Institution in Butner, N.C.”
The prosecutor’s father was reportedly taken from his home in Wake Forest to an apartment in Atlanta.
“There, he was tied to a chair, imprisoned in a closet for four days, and beaten by his captors,” Pai says. “Luckily, law enforcement rescued him before the order to execute him could be carried out.”
Pai adds that he believes people are being victimized by prison inmates using contraband phones. “And it highlights the need for the FCC to take immediate action to combat this problem,” he says.
Filed Under: Industry regulations + certifications
